Spring Break Day 3

Day 3 found us heading to Arches National Park. I have SO many pictures from this park!!! This may be a 7 part post....  or not.. you might not like 7 whole posts!

That set of three rocks on the left - It is called the "Three Gossips"  - note it did not reference gender!

We could not believe the height of these rocks! They were crazy tall, and so big. The way they are eroding is so crazy. You can't quite figure out how the water does that.

 These were the rocks in the distance... and yes... we went there. No distance is too far for my boys.... apparently. And remember my rule ? 10 photos per mile Minimum?   I exceeded my minimum!

This land is just so cool. We were just amazed at the ecosystems here.

Looking towards to arches.

I don't know if you can make this picture bigger - but all those little colors.... they are people!

We have never been to this park. We drove by once,but totally missed all the beauty. You just can't see it from the highway. If you are ever in Moab.... Go here!!!

Little Bit got camera shy... I think he needed chocolate too ;-)  (that is him hiding at the left of the pic above)

 Aren't these canyons just crazy?  They go on and on and on ... kind of like a certain blogger you know!

And of course.... A Tree!!!  I think it might have been a weed,but it looked like a tree to me!

Hope you all are enjoying your day!!!

Spring Break day 2

We decided to do a little hiking and see what we could see....

6 miles later - we could see the WHOLE valley....

And I was starting to need chocolate.. I think I might have been hallucinating.... 

does this rock look like a dinosaur?

We were told that if we hiked far enough we could see a river.

I didn't see it - so I sent the boys to the top of the hill to tell me if we were close.

Look!!

I found a tree!!!

And while they were checking for a river - I looked off over the valley again - 

WOW

Just WOW was about all we could say.

And there they are - up at the top - and Nope.... the river was a whole 'nother range away!

Since we hadn't packed chocolate we decided to hike back to the other river and hit another trail.

Do you think that people lived in those caves?

( You know like millions of years ago, before houses were invented?)

Now we are at the second trail - we hiked to the car, stopped for a little lunch and headed back out. I kid you not - my boys have no off... until it comes to homework - THAT they can procrastinate about!

My boys! Holding up the world

and holding down the rocks?

We hiked out to a rock to sit and see the river valley.

One boy decided to hike a little bit further - and he saw what we were sitting on.

SHOCK!!!  It was a ledge!

We all had to have a picture on it ;-)

This hike was 6.7 miles. One of them has a GPS watch.

At the end of the trail there was a great hill.

One child challenged another to a race - and Dad had to show them all up.

I walked the bottom - so you all could get perspective.

I am nice that way ..

I like Vacation.

Spring Break

*WARNING* Not a lot of Quilty-ness in this post  *WARNING*

All three boys' Spring Breaks fell in the same week.... and we could actually see ourselves taking a vacation. 

This is a rarity - with all the sports and things going on... vacations have been a challenge.

Our first day found us at a make up meet in a blizzard.... these poor kids! They had snow everywhere. And when Coach had told them to pack as it may be cold.... I am not sure they were thinking snow!

 My boy is the one in the white tank...He was trying to outrun the snow... Check out the guy in the black below - you can't even see his face. The snow was REALLY coming down ;-)

Once the meet was over we headed west to our destination. We arrived through lots of snow, ice, rain, and cold. But once on the other side looking east - we could see the leftovers of the storm. It was just beautiful where we were!

Isn't this a cool little cabin? It was right where we stayed. The most beautiful place. There were pheasant and mountains and lots of grass - GREEN grass!! It was awesome!

This is looking east from the house. There were beautiful horses and mountains and clean crisp air!

Looking West - watching the sun go down.... *WITH NO SNOW*   it was heaven!

This was my view from the kitchen. And it was the ONE time I was in it working. The rest of the vacation... I just had to say --- I'm Hungry and voila - Wrangler Man made the food... BEST! VACATION! EVER!

Of course - this was only the first day. And please remember - for every mile my family makes me go - I take 400 batrillion Pictures.... so many they bought me a 64G Digital card!!!

Funky Feathers on Finished Friday

Look! I can Alliterate... Bwahh haa haa.....

I actually finished this before we headed out for a little Walk A bout... My children ( and myself) needed to get out and exercise!!

This is a batik Quilt - it was so much fun to quilt! My client - Janet - said ..... have fun! And so - I did!

It was a big quilt! My floor is at least Queen Size... Since I had a little fold - I think I need a bigger floor!

 A couple of close ups - don't you just LOVE those Fabrics??  I sure do ;-)

And here we are - all of us back together again - One Happy Mama!! I love having all my babies under one roof - even if two of them are REALLY taller than me... and one is not far behind!

A sun shot... just to prove we were outside!!

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict
http://devotedquilter.blogspot.com/2014/03/tgiff-and-sew-on.html
Link A finish Friday

Quilts of Valor 2014

Oh boy - do I have a show for you!!

First we start with this dear sweet soldier - She was so tickled to receive her Quilt of Valor! When I work with groups I try really hard to let them choose the quilt that speaks to them - and it is so fun to watch. There will be a few quilts out and I swear!!! Each one of them calls to a specific soldier - and this one called her name!  She was SO tickled!

 And that leads us to the most recently finished quilts - this one is from my Heartstrings group and quilted by Dawna in Colorado.

What you may not know is that Dawna designs pantos - so she used her Panto Sashay on this one - perfect!

You know how every quilt tells a story?  So!  My friend Linda is a Breast Cancer survivor. She wanted to make a quilt to give to another Breast Cancer patient. We worked on a quilt together. The recipient of the Quilt... turns out to be an AVID piecer. Putting blocks into tops was too difficult. She called me and asked if we could use her blocks.

OVER 600 6 inch blocks people!!!!   So - Deb took a huge stack of them - and these are the quilts that she made from them!  This one was quilted by Dawna too - and it is one of her pantos - but I forgot to ask the name....

Last Wednesday I took these quilts to show Betty - who made all the blocks. To say she was tickled was an understatement!!  Turns out her husband is a WWII Veteran - and received a Quilt of Valor after his Honor Flight.... and get this!!   FROM OUR GROUP.... too crazy right???

This next quilt was pieced and quilted by Sue S in Colorado. This was a shop hop quilt from a few years ago.... A bonus!! Her UFO is all finished - and a soldier ( or navy or marine or airforce) will adore it.

Which brings me to my next thought - if you have unfinished quilts - tops that range in size from 55 x 65 to 72 x 90.... and you want them finished??? There are many state coordinators who are needing some help right now fulfilling their requests.  You can find the coordinators for your state here:

http://www.qovf.org/content/regional-coordinator-overall-view.html   - Don't have a coordinator? Email me - I'll be glad to help!!

And next up we have a gorgeous quilt made by Kathy and quilted by Dawna! I have to tell you - i LOVE the color combo on this one!!

 Here is another awesome way to get involved with Quilts of Valor --- BLOCK DRIVES!!

Janet Lee of Machine Quilting Exposition is hosting a block drive - that will benefit Colorado too - it can be found here:

http://www.mqxshow.com/MQX/East/Classes/QOVBlockDrive/index.cfm

Quilts of Valor is hosting a 2014 Block drive - the patterns and info can be found here:
http://www.qovf.org/Pdf_Files/HearthHome_BlockPatternB.pdf  This will benefit all state coordinators.

and lastly - I know Kevin is doing a block drive... I just couldn't help myself ..the blocks just looked cool:
I know - he was wanting to make 3 quilts... but, um, I think he may be making more.... Check it out ;-)

Thank you ALL for your support... and for reading this far!!!

To thank you - leave a comment.... any comment - tell me what you are up too - tell me what you are involved in... tell me anything!!! And I will enter you in a drawing for a free Quilt Pattern -

It will be this one:  http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/cheery---os/86636?ext=craftlet-pattern 

Enjoy!!!

Sticks

I have named my Scrap a Palooza quilt -- Sticks!

Except  I haven't decided on the final Layout..
These are the two choices that we all liked:

Option 1:

And Option 2:

Opinions???

You can find the pattern over at http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/  under Scrap a Palooza

It kind of reminded me of this one:

The Quilt that had to grow   HmmmmWonder where this one is????

Quilts of Valor 2014

Good Wednesday Morning!  The wind has finally slowed down... and I am sure that just jinxed it - but goodness .. yesterday I almost lost a door, chased a dog kennel, and felt like I was blowing away.

I am ready for a mid week pick me up!  Ready for a great Quilt of Valor show today?

This first quilt ( above) was made by Melinda in CT

Melinda is a Blue star mom - and we LOVE her quilts!!

Snuggling in the LOVE!!

Here is a close up of the quilting - it was quilted by Liz Taylor Davis - she Totally Rocks!!

This one - all the blocks were made at our sew days, and then put into a top at another sew day... so it has at least 20 makers...  And it was Quilted by Liz

This one was pieced by Charlotte W in Greeley and Quilted by Liz.

This one was made by Donna H.L. in Colorado - and it was quilted by Liz. I really love the complex simplicity of this one ( how is that for descriptive?)  It is just a neat effect!!

This Quilt was pieced by Kathy in Colorado - Kathy made all of these anniversary blocks for the national block drive - but then pieced a whole quilt!! I Love it!!

This quilt was started by Nancy in Denver - she did all the top, and then Mary took it and added it all the borders. Total teamwork right?  And again  - Quilted by Liz!!  That woman in efficient!!

Another Anniversary Block Quilt by Kathy - and quilted by Liz.

Doesn't that smile just make your day?  It sure does mine!!

And Don't forget MQX is hosting a Block drive for Quilts of Valor - if you are attending MQX you have until April 11th to turn them in, if you are mailing them in they need to be there by April 1st...  here is the link:

MQX East Quilt of Valor Block Drive

Enjoy!!