Design Wall Monday - the Mysteries

Ahh - what a week - I am all rejuvenated for stitching and quilting and .... THE Mysteries!!

There are Two Mysteries in my mind right now - the one that I am hosting in our Mystery Quilts 4 Military Yahoo group - we are finishing up step 3......

And the Bonnie Mystery!!!   ( ohhh maybe I will call my Mystery - the Alycia Mystery..... ohh I sound important that way - ha ha ha ha HA!)


First up - The Alycia Mystery:

Fun Little 9 patches....  There are more blocks than this so far - But I am not sure how she is going to arrange them ( ha ha - such a tease right?)

These are the fabrics that I am using for this go round .

And for the Bonnie Mystery!!!   Step 1 - Lots of half squares!!  We are to use a grey and a Neutral... so my Neutral is a bit on the plaid side.... I love me some plaids!!

progress being made.

and the light being turned on, as worked on into the night - alright - Truth time - it is dark here at 4pm - so it may not have been as late as I thought it was!

Ta-da!!! 294 ( or 296?)  half Squares.   I have NEVER been able to finish a Bonnie Clue in a day - so I call that a huge progress step - and probably setting myself up for disappointment later .... But right now - I am totally happy dancing!!

And just in case  you missed Fall 

Here is was - Fall in the Rockies

Linking to:
Quiltville
Patchwork Times
Cooking up Quilts
Love Laugh Quilt

Quilts of Valor 2015 - Happy Pre Thanksgiving Day

I needed my Quilty Fix for this week.... hope you have enjoyed all the outside photos ;-)

And now Onto the Quilts!!

The quilt above and the Quilt below were both made by the InterFaith Quilters of Longmont CO

The below one is a free pattern - under the free patterns tab here 

The Quilt of Valor below is made by The Golden Bees

Stunning!

The one below was pieced by Elsie

And Quilted By Lois Both in CO

This patriotic beauty ( below)

Was made by Sherry L

Its quite striking!

This pastel on was made by Deb

Quilted by Dawna

and bound by Diana 

(A triple Threat Ha!!)

The quilt below was pieced by Mary Beth

and Quilted by Connie

The next TWO quilts were pieced by Lynn

and Quilted by Mary

The next quilt was pieced by Ginny in Denver

I didn't write down who quilted it - maybe Ginny?

The next two quilts were both Quilted by Roxanna

But they traveled far

They started in colorado , then Roxanna moved to CA - and quilted them there

then they came back!!

This one - Pieced by Dee out of our Block Drive Blocks

This one Pieced by Donna L.H. in CO

The last Quilt of Valor for today was made by Liz M in Colorado

Hope you got a little Quilty Inspirations today!!

Do an extra walk today - for your Turkey Tomorrow 

Ha ha!!

PS - there was a little surprise going on in my town - 

I was supposed to be talking to kids about Quilts of Valor - 

but this happened instead:

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/7everyday-hero/quilts-of-comfort-for-veterans

Training for the Circus

Little Bit is my animal man....

He might have taken to training the cats for the circus....

This trick here?


Cat in a bucket:

This is Dancing Cat:

Sort of like the Dancing Bears in the circus -

BUT 

way less dangerous

Little bit is bigger that the cat!

And then Cat when back in the bucket

Apparently she likes that trick better!

Until she heard the food being poured

And that's only a part of my circus

outside of my quilting life ;-)

This is Calico ( pronounced Cal eeek ko)
She says - "I am above all training and perfect in every way"

Trains - oh and Frogs

Have many of you taken a photo to make into a quilt?   I am thinking I might like to do that some day.

And some day - these photos may be ones that I use.

Aren't these cool?

There just kind of Out there!

I am not sure if someone brought them in?

Or if a track used to exist ?

But I sure liked checking them out!!

And then!!

We found frogs!!

At first I thought they were statues

But they , after I got close

They hopped

and yes - I did scream!

You know, since I am away from my machine,

I think my quilting ideas are growing....

Wildlife this Week

Welcome to my Quilty blog.... with a  lot of wildlife pics  Ha ha ha!!

My boys are all home this week, and the 4 of us LOVE LOVE LOVE the out of doors ( so does wrangler man - but he is stuck working a few days this week - and us, being the loving family that we are.... left him Ha ha)

The boys can all out hike me, but I can out photograph them, and it is a great excuse for a break, which I need a lot of!!!

Oh and!!! I sort of have an eagle eye - when I want too ( that;s the disclaimer, in case I miss something.

To get you ready - do you see what I see?

Look really really hard.   We were actually driving here, and I yelled - Pull over - we did, and then about 40 other vehicles pulled over. They left in disgust. The boys were dying - the said Mom - you made us look bad.  I said hold on.... you'll see it too....

Here - I made you a little hint ( it;s in yellow)

So are you still waiting??

See... told you something was there.   And we waited for him to venture out.  I am betting all those other folks... they would be mad.... if only they knew...

So tell me,

Was that worth waiting for?

My family always gives me grief when I tell them to stop , or to look

But when we get home, they are always so amazed at what we saw ;-)

Cut and Shuffle Quilts

Oh I had such fun!!!  Jan O - who blogs over at http://thecolorfulfabriholic.blogspot.com/   is a very talented quilter and pattern designer!  When she asked me to take a look at her book - I responded immediately - YES!!!

And then I wanted to start a quilt!!

So!! So you can take a look at the book - here is the cover:

Ps - that is my photo - not hers - hers - definitely MORE professional 

I sat down immediately and started thumbing through it

Oh what color and great sample quilts!

They made me want to start something!!

I took it with me to my sew group

We all ohhed and ahhhed over Jan's creations

and then I set to cutting!

I decided on Labyrinth.

Alright - full disclosure time 

 I did not decided on Labyrinth - my boys told me that is the one I would make.

They are sort of bossy that way - 

I don't know where it comes from!

I started in cutting fabrics.

And I started stitching and cutting the way Jan showed us to in her book.

It was quite fun.

The descriptions of the How to's are very clear,

and there are photos for the more visual folks

And here is where I am at the moment on the Labyrinth Quilt.

Probably if our power hadn't gone out for 6 hours I would be further a long 

But Mother Nature was not helping me much!

She was blowing and storming - a perfect day to stay inside and stitch

( If one had power to do so)

I am going to send you over to Jan's blog to a post that has more photos

of the quilts you can create with this book. I think you will like what you see!

http://thecolorfulfabriholic.blogspot.com/2015/11/trunk-show.html

Enjoy!!!

Linked with:

http://fortworthfabricstudio.blogspot.com/2015/11/fabric-frenzy-friday-90.html

http://quiltshopgal.com/creativegoodness-linky-party-november-20th/

Wonky Star QOV Blocks Recap!!

Welcome to the Wonky Star Block Drive Recap...

These are the ones I picked up after the Blizzard ( that lasted about 4 hours - but closed school ) ( oh yes , that was a yay! at our house)

This photo has blocks from 

Judy V in CO  (5)

Teresa D in TX  (41)

and 

Maureen H n NY  (5)

For the next photo - 

I even got a packing slip!!!

 Blocks from

Allison P in WY ( who happens to be my second cousin!! Boy was I surprised!!)

Crystal F fro UT

Joy M from NC who blogs at  http://thejoyfulquilter.blogspot.com/

and Sally in VA who blogs at  http://theobjectsofdesign.blogspot.com/

Here are a few of the close ups

Great block isn't it?

Love it - Star in a star!!

These came from V Hall in UT

These ( below)

From Diane in NJ

She said she can't do wonky but she could do whacky - Ha ha ha!!!

 We even have a finished top from Julie in GA

who blogs at:

http://quiltsandcostumes.blogspot.com/

 SO!!! WE had a grand total of 843 blocks and one quilt top, and a few backs!!

We drew winners for our prizes
We have a Fabric Stash pack from Vicki Welsh in Ocean Currents:  To Judy F in SLO CA
     Boy thats kinda cool - Ocean currents for a Beach gal??

A Fabric Stash pack from Vicki Welsh in Citrus Grove :   To Gail A in Atlanta GA
and!
A Waterpik Showerhead from Waterpik:   The winner is Lisa T in Sylvia NC

Thank you ALL for playing along!! The prizes will be heading out in the mail on Wednesday

If you want more stitch along goodness - We have a mystery running - the fabric requirements and the first clue have been posted - you can find it here:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/mysteryquilts4military/info

Have a great day - and again - THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!

Quilts of Valor 2015

I am going to do a special QOV show!! Why? Well -(hanging head sheepishly) I haven't finished taking photos of all the star blocks yet!!

We had a blizzard Wednesday so I had to wait till later in the day to get to the Post office, after spending some time with our favorite heros.   and I sort of forgot - the Post office was closed!!!

Now I have all the bags, boxes and packages - and am going to enjoy my Saturday photographing them!

In the meantime - you can ohh and ahh over these yummy Quilts of Valor.

This first one comes from Deb and Dawna. We had a box of fabrics donated with lots of little pieces, UFO parts and more. And Deb dug through and this is what she came up with. Dawna quilted it.

QOV is spreading east as well - Ann from Yuma CO made these next two quilts. 

Aren't they great?   

This log cabin Quilt was made by Kathy in Loveland. She made this using the Eleanor Burns wonky log cabin ruler. It was quilted by Connie.

Check out this cool flag quilt! It was pieced by Tina A and quilted by Jeannie S of the Quaking Aspen Quilt guild. If I remember right - Jeannie is the president!

The quilt below was pieced by Patricia. I met Patricia at her quilt guild when I was speaking. We arranged to present a QOV to her husband as a surprise. And then she made this one in his honor.

It was quilted by Jean

The next quilt comes From Elaine.

She blogs at:

http://elaineadairpieces.blogspot.com/

The next three quilts come from the Interfaith Quilters in Longmont.

They invited me to their guild to speak - and WOW!

What a group 

There sure was a lot of them

They chose Quilts of Valor as one of their recipients of their quilting skills

I am pretty sure that they made about 30 Quilts!!

They made this one for a Korean War Veteran

WOW!Was he teared up!

Hope you got your Patriotic Fix !!

Come back tomorrow

I will have the rest of the blocks

AND!!

The winners of the Fabric Pack from Vicki Welsh Hand Dyes

as well as the

Shower Head from Waterpik