A Drive By

I might have been the recipient of a Drive By Plaid-ing recently!

Lois and her girls sent this

AND!!!

Another bag - that I am coveting and will share later

And just in case you are worried

I am working on another plaid quilt

I think this might be Plaid #20

but I have lost count

which is okay 

I am learning that I don't like statistics

and sometimes I just don't care

I have that NEED to create - so I do ;-)

Enjoy !!!

PS - a lot of you are asking what pattern it is - Here you go
http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/quilting/home-decor/bulls-eye-log-cabin/42764

Quilts of Valor - a Presentation

Good Morning!!!

This weekend we were privileged to host a few Veterans Touched by War  for a Quilt of Valor Presentation.  And if I do say so myself - we showed a lot of Love!!

In my head - pictures are much better than words - so let's get to the Photos shall we?

I love the look on this Vet's face - 

Totally made my day ( above)

This Gentleman blew us away with his speech

They are not required to make a speech and most rarely do - but this guy

Wow 

He told us how he has so many medals and awards 

and absolutely none of them were as important as this Quilt was.

To be honored by the people he was honered to serve - wow!

(above)

This one was fun - the gal in Yellow is one of our Quilters

The Vet she is hugging is her brother - awesome moment

And she also nominated her brother in law (below)

I LOVE that she wanted to wrap them in their quilts too!

And this was our surprise

His Wife and Daughter stitch with us

and we surprised him with a Quilt!!!

We also had a Husband and Wife team

She was first women to teach Marksmanship Technical School

And her husband

It was SO cool to have them both there

So come back next week

I will show you the rest of them!!

Birds and The Golden Hour

I had two different photo challenges this week - and the both were so much fun, and sort of challenging to attempt.... as noticed by the number of photos I discarded!

The first was a "Domestic Bird" photo.  When I read the challenge I saw *birds in a cage*  and since there was no way I could cage Fred the Eagle....  I loaded up the kids and we headed to the zoo.

It was a great day - everyone else had school... so there were only about 300 people there. My kids had the day off due to ACT testing for the 11th grade. 

We had so much fun and really enjoyed the day.

My Bird that I decided to enter was this Cassowary. They are native to Australia and New Guinea.

The blurred spots are actually cage wires - so this was a fun challenge to learn - how to shoot through the fence. Now I want to go try it on a baseball game.!

This was our Runner up - the boys ( okay really it is me, but I am using them) think these birds look like they should be in a Jurassic Park Movie.

Then Next Challenge was "The Golden Hour"  
I caught my Man riding the fences as the sun was going down.  I think it turned out pretty cool and Phil the horse wasn't goofing off..... he is a big goof off  - that one!

And this was my runner up photo = the sun through the tree.  The sun helped was out the dirt spots where our grass hasn't grown - I liked that!

The end.

 

Hassayampa River Preserve - Arizona

On a part of our Spring Break we went to the Hassayampa River Preserve. That was a cool place!  My kids and I laughed and giggled - I was walking over a bridge and started ( and I might have screamed a little ) . I thought I saw a cow - but alas - it was a tangled tree of branches....


From then on out - they kept saying - Mom - Look a cow!  ( I have trained them well - right?)

When we walked in  there was this tree with a million hummingbirds! They were flitting from branch to branch - so glad I caught two of them!

As we walked to the entry - check out this feeder with all those little Hummingbirds!!

Then we started walking into the preserve!

Check out those trees!!!

And my Goof Offs!!

The Cactus were just starting to bloom

I loved getting close and checking out the blossoms

But not too close - 

these cactus might jump at me too!

I took the opportunity to re-try a technique that we had learned in my Photo Classes

It is called the Brenizer Method

You take a series of Photos in a certain way and then stitch them together - post processing

Little bit agreed to post and see what we could achieve

And a poppy!

That is my birthday flower

They were all over the hills where I grew up - so I was tickled to see another!

Don't worry - there are more Arizona Pics to share!!

Quilts of Valor - Flashback

Every once in a while I click on the wrong album when I am trying to find photos.... but then.... I really wanted to re-share these.

Quilts of Valor has been a part of our household for 11 years.  From teaching kids in the 2nd and 5th grades, to working with 4H'ers , to getting my kids to make a quilt every summer for QOV...

I am one who thinks if you want to stitch - I will show you how the machine works.... and if you make a mistake - you have two ways to deal with it...

1. Fix it   or   2. Do it again and make it a design element.

These are some of the first pictures I have of my kids with quilts.....

Little Bit had his quilt hang at the Rocky Mountain Quilt Museum - in the Quilts at the Hands of Men display.  Talk about an honor - on opening night all the makers of the other quilts were there. Oh man, were they so cool - they talked to all 3 of my boys and really encouraged them to keep quilting..... I LOVED it!!

Here is is in front of his quilt

The original pattern is called Weed Whacker - its from Bonnie Hunter

And then there's my Middle Bit

When he was in second grade he got his whole class involved in playing with blocks and writing letters to go to the soldiers that the quilts were going to

( we knew they were all soldiers at this time - we were going to the Army Post)

This is his quilt

If I remember it is Yellow Brick Road by Atkinson designs

Here is my oldest in the 5th grade ( he is the bottom right - grey shirt)

His class is what I call my downward spiral - Ha ha!  They all wanted to make a Quilt of Valor and ended up making 10 quilts as a class.  It was a Great and Fun project - and many classes afterwards wanted to participate.

The moral of the story?  

Teach them young and make it fun!

Thanks for walking through a memory or two:

Design wall update

Remember all the Pink Strips I was working on?

It is finally a top!!

I have decided that it is time to move the furniture out of my house....it keeps getting in the way of me taking pictures of my design wall.... and with a cell phone - you need a straight on shot!

Think the others will agree??   

The top measures 54 x 66 in

And this is still the pile of leftover strips..... anyone interested?   Seriously.... I'm ready for them to find a good home.... I bet there is a lot of a quilt left ( or maybe a whole one.....)   

First to speak with a return email - i'll send them your way ;-)   They are taken - thanks!

Little bit says you need to see Fluffy cat. Fluffy Cat looks like a huge monster of a cat, and when you pick her up, she is tiny and all Fluff..... she says hi

Linking to:

http://www.patchworktimes.com/2016/04/18/design-wall-april-18-2016/

http://www.cookingupquilts.com/mcm-16-new-fabric-crush/

http://lovelaughquilt.blogspot.com/2016/04/monday-making_17.html

http://quiltingismorefunthanhousework.blogspot.com/2016/04/oh-scrap-its-string-time.html

Environmental Portraits

This challenge was to photograph a Portrait in that persons job Environment.

The day we decided to go out and photograph - also happened to be the day that the wind started blowing. and the horses were missing.  We have Natural Gas wells on the back of our place ( and no we don't own the mineral rights - so no $ for us)  But the Gas companies use our roads.

There must have been a new driver, as he doesn't quite get that if a gate is closed LEAVE IT THAT WAY..... and our horses were 2 miles south on a neighbors ranch. Which means they were 3 miles south of the corrals I wanted them to be in......  

But I digress..... Here is my Submission for the week:

This was my second Choice:

he looked a little angry to me here 

But at least it wasn't me that left the gates open

( I haven't done that in 20 years... I might be due)

I would like more practice on people....  in lots of weather conditions.

The Betty Quilt.... The Finish

I am betting that you did not see all the Happy Dancin' going on around here - but you can take a moment - picture it - No!  I did not fall!   And are you ready to see why????

it is a little dark in the photo - but!I wanted to show all the texture.

I stitched in the ditch on each and every block - It really helped the quilt to lay perfectly flat - Made me happy.

And just in case  - check it out - it ! is ! bound!!!   and there is a label - sort of forgot a shot of that!

Here's another close up - just because

And a picture of the back

I found this on the clearance rack at  Quilters Stash, and I think I may have giggled. This is the exact wall paper that was in the dining room of the Birmingham House that Betty and Doug Lived it! How cool is that?   ( and remember I was pretty little, so it may be smaller than what she had - but its close enough)


There were a few comments on the Monday post about what the block was called - They called this quilt the Ducks' Walk - or the Duck in the Pond.

The original Quilt was made in 1870 by Donor Betty Quarton Hoard's grandmother, Mary E. Beardlsee Durkee, The original version of this quilt with fabrics from the family store. The quilt features madder brown, pink, and purple fabrics in the geometric and abstract prints popular in the 1860-1880 time period. Because the family did not use the quilt, its colors remain bright.



And now - I think I want to reproduce another of their quilts.... I might be hooked !


Linking up to:

Confessions - Whoop Whoop
Off the wall Friday

TGIFF
Ft Worth Fabric studio
WIPs be gone

AZ - The Cactus Ranch

There is the coolest place near my In Laws - called

The Cactus Ranch

Pretty cool right?   My MIL had purchased some trees from there, so she took us back!

We were all impressed - I think they had a cactus of EVERY variety there.

The lady who owns it was so much fun, she took us in their green houses, and really acted as a tour guide.  

There's my men 

All in Shorts in March!!

That is not common in our part of CO!

In the back of the ranch

We found this!

It's a water tank  - but wow -does it fit in well!

and this one (below)

That's the Jumping Cactus

They are called Cholla  ( the ll is a y sound)

And me and the boys

Just so you know

There are A LOT more photos from AZ

Some of them I am putting on my Photography blog

I sort of let it slide away

http://alyciaclicks.blogspot.com/

Linking to:

http://www.whimsandfancies.com/wandering-camera-april/

Quilts of Valor 2016 - April

Are you ready for another Quilt filled Show????

We have some of the best quilters I tell you!!

The quilt on the Left was made by Mary Beth from the Not So top secret pattern under free patterns tab - Quilted by Cheryl!

The quilt on the right was pieced and quilted by Crystal!

On the Left - Pieced by Kristi quilted by Crystal

on the right Pieced and quilted by Crystal

above

On the left Pieced and quilted by Paula D ( she blogs here: The Quilter )

On the right - Pat at Miracles pieced it and Beth  Quilted it

Ont he Left - Pieced by the Greeley Group from Block Drive Blocks - quilted by Beth

on the right - Pieced and quilted by Connie

On the left - made by V Marks quilted by Crystal

on the right - pieced by Kristi and quilted by Crystal

made by Liz Quilted by Kathy

Hope that gives you a little inspiration for the day??

Go Forth and Quilt!!!