Firehouse Quilt Show

In the early part of August there was a great Quilt Show in CastleRock put on by Firehouse Quilts . I was asked to be a celebrity judge, but alas my son had a swim meet, and I really needed to be there. ( as he thinks he is leaving me soon *sigh*)


So I asked my Dear Pat to take my place - and here is what she said...



The Firehouse Quilt Show is one of the most enjoyable local shows around and I love to attend.  I think it's so much fun to 'share' quilts and to see the quilts that others in the community have made.  They always have a huge variety of quilts, and this year was no exception.  There were beautiful longarm quilted quilts, both computer aided and free hand, as well as those quilted on a domestic machine.  The hand pieced/hand quilted category was just awesome, and the vintage quilts were just beautiful.  One vintage quilt from1840 had been so well cared for over the years and was in near perfect condition....the only thing you could see was a slight bit of fading between some of the red blocks, which is amazing because red will often fade badly from this era.  It was discovered in an attic, was made by Claire Ludlow Arnold's grandmother, Esther Sandford Rogers, and the grandmother had a hand written note accompanying the quilt when they discovered it in the attic.  These vintage quilts were beautiful!!





I'm so glad I didn't have to do this judging for real and could kind of toss out all the 'judging rules' and just pick those I liked.....judging this show, like most shows, would have been very difficult.  As celebrity judges, we had the freedom to just walk thru all the quilts and pick the ones we liked and that spoke to us.  One of the celebrity judges was the fire chief and he was having a heck of a time!  You could tell that he hadn't been around quilts much, but the volunteers from FHQ were right there to answer all his questions and get him going....the dazed look on his face kind of told the volunteers that he might need just a little direction!!





I walked thru all of the quilts and looked at each and every one.....so hard to choose!!  I wrote notes in my program on several quilts because I knew I wouldn't be able to remember what I had seen.  It was difficult to pick 2 quilts.....one from the over-all quilts that were hung, and one from the Colorado themed category.  I finally settled on an art quilt titled 'Twilight Dance' by Petronella Turpin.  This wall quilt featured dragonflies dancing among the foliage and light.  This was an original design and Petronella had hand dyed the fabrics used in the quilt....beautiful background fabric filled with color.  It was machine appliqued and machine quilted and she did such a nice job.





Trying to decide on the Colorado themed quilt of choice was equally as difficult, but I finally decided on Maroon Bells by Genevieve Thompson.  She designed this quilt and it really made you feel like you were right there in the Maroon Bells area.  This wall quilt was raw edge machine appliqued and machine quilted and featured the mountains, the lake, the forest, cabins in the area, and some wildlife......things you see when you visit this memorable area.





Congratulations to the Firehouse Quilts organization for another wonderful show, and the Douglas County Fairgrounds was a perfect venue!!  I'm happy to see they will be there again next year and I, for one, plan to attend again!


And here is the quilt she chose to give the QOV ribbons to...

I am sorry to have missed the show - but utterly tickled that Pat did such a wonderful job!!

Fire Benefit

Yesterday was a Fire Benefit up at Livermore CO. Livermore, Glacier View, and Red Feathers were the three Fire Departments hit rather hard by the High Park Fires... not only in loss of houses, but also in damage to the fire equipment. All three of these departments are Volunteer Departments, yet, don't get much federal support.... so we all supported them!!


The benefit was at the community center, and it was a blast. Firehouse Quilts  and Marilyn  provided over 60 Kid Comfort Quilts, and I was the lucky one to deliver them. The firefighters were ecstatic. 


Air Link  was also there, as were numerous bands, a BBQ joint, a silent auction - and ME... 

Air Link - and my oldest - he asked if Grandpa would buy the helicopter for his birthday. I can't quite remember the answer???

In this area - Air Link is one of the first ways to get injured people to the hospital - its pretty rugged terrian. The pilot of this chopper was a blackhawk pilot in Iraq. He . Was. Awesome!!

Dunk Tank

The food tables, and friends!! - the BBQ was amazing - and they had Quiche!! Many REAL men ate quiche yesterday!!! 

These two musicians were entertaining as you walked thru the silent auction. I sang with them for a while. We were asked to go on tour... they wanted me to start right now, but wanted the guys to stay and play awhile.

I took it personally.

Another little blue grass band entertaining by the booths.

Air Link Taking off. I only have 3 million and 42 batrillion shots of it. I think we all might be addicted to aircraft......  plus a little boy ( who I did not know) kept shouting at me - take that picture, and take that one... He was cute!

Air Link Nurse ( and Marine Corpsman- Iraq) Left - Jake the Pilots Wife - right ( Army - Iraq)

Fire chief G( aka My Dad)  and Eddie( aka the horse Doc) putting quilts into the Chiefs Vehicle for handing out to victims of the High Park Fire.

And EMT Sherry handing out a quilt to a little guy whose house was lost. Sweetest little guy in the Entire. World.  Although the had quite the grip on the quilt - and was defineatly claiming it!!

I hope a lot of money was raised, I hope a lot of hearts got happier, I hope that these wonderful people are able to put their lives back together.  

Firehouse Quilt Show

Every Summer FirehouseQuilts.org has a quilt show and it is awesome!!  It is one of their fundraisers that they do to keep making snuggle quilts for ambulances and fire trucks.


My dad is Fire Chief in the Livemore Fire District here in Northern Colorado. They have these little snuggle quilts stuffed in there ambulance, and they are so helpful. Many times there is an accident and there is not anything to keep a child warm during a snow storm, waiting for MediVac. And they are able to wrap a child in comfort. Not only does it keep them warm, it calms them down.


Back to the Quilt Show!! They are accepting entries for the show NOW!!!  You can find out all about it Here

There are Great prizes, and lots of great vendors too!! So if you can, mark your calendars and go!!  Here are some of the great quilts we saw last year......

Firehouse Quilt Show

Last week I got to be a celebrity judge at the Firehouse quilt Show in Highlands Ranch CO. It was a wonderful show - and a great venue - and there were too many quilts!! It was very very hard to choose a favorite, but after a few hours and a few brain cells being hurt - I did it!!

So - this is the quilt I chose , It was made by Don Bloom and quilted by Kris Neifield. I liked the secondary pattern that it made.

This one had a ribbon - I cut it out of the picture some how - but it was wonderful.

This one was made and quilted by Ellen - she is amazing!

Purple and Green - I LOVE those colors!!

It as an awesome show.

It is slated for July 13th and 14th , 2012

They have decided to have a theme - if you need some inspiration

*Create Colorado your own way*

So if you are interested in entering this quilt show info can be found at

http://www.firehousequilts.org/

Firehouse Quilt Show Judging

On Friday morning the boys and I loaded up and headed south to the Firehouse Quilt Show - http://www.firehousequilts.org to be a celebrity judge. I am still a little worried about the celebrity status tho - I have to say, it was nice to be among the first to look at the quilts.

As we arrived we ran into ( not literally - cuz we could have hurt her) none other that Vicki A of Machine Quilting Unlimited. (http://www.mqumag.com) - She was also a celebrity. But her celebrity status I can understand. **BTW she told me they are offering a huge sale for new customers - so if you do not subscribe to this magazine , you should go check it out***

Back to the show:
Here was my first problem .... there was more than ONE quilt!!! How in the world do the real judges EVER pick a favorite? Each quilt I saw I would say - Oh I like that one! Oh and that one... so much so that the boys told me to be quiet. I was ruining their thinking> 

And then there were lots of categories, and lots of quilts in those categories, and it took me forever just to look at the number of quilts there.... and then I saw they had fabrics for sale - Excuse me.... I did not see anything for sale right????

The Winner

We perservered, we looked quite a few times, and then we picked a winner. It was a smaller quilt made by a gentleman. I read his card after choosing his quilt, and saw the he had Macular degeneration, and had put a magnifing glass on his machine so he could sew. How awesome is that? On a side note, my grandfather in law, and a gal I went to High school with both have this macular disease.

I then bribed my children and took them to the Olive Garden. And Ms Vicki joined us. Good thing - she kept the boys in line for me, so I could concentrate on my food!! ( Gluten free of course!)

I loved this one too -the colors were just my style!

This was another favorite. My middle son was in charge of the photography.

Firehouse Quilt Show

This Friday and Saturday there is a QUILT SHOW put on by Firehouse Quilts.

Http://www.firehousequilts.org

And I will be there on Friday - I get to be a judge .. they are calling me a celebrity judge.I  don't know about the celebrity part - or the judge part. But I get to pick the quilt I like best.

So if you are in the area - COME AND SEE ME!!! I should have 3 boys following me around ( and probably embarrassing me behind my back!)

Fire Stations devastated from Hurricane Katrina

My Dad is a fire Chaplain (he is the one I made my first quilt for) and he is an international director of a fire fighter organization. I just got a newletter from him and in it was an article about a fire station that had been leveled by hurrican Katrina. I think I need to help - but don't know exactly how I need to do that. I also quilt for a charity called firehouse quilts. They provide little 45 x 45 quilts to fire trucks/EMT vehicles to use for children. Do you think this MS firehouse could use those? Here is an excerpt from the article.

"I find this situation astonishing as we are a year and a half post-Katrina. An 8 yr old boy died from an auto accident on I-10 a few weeks ago as it took 40 minutes to get a neighboring fire dept to bring a Jaws of Like to extricate him. The West Hancock, MS Fire Dept needs assistance. ........The West Hancock Fire Rescue, a 100% Volunteer Fire Dept, is the first responder to 18 miles if Interstate 10 and responsible for the emergency response to an industrial port - Port Bienville, in Mississippi - in addition to handling a wide range of emergency calls that come in to assist the residents of both Pearlington and West Hancock County. Pearlington was Ground Zero for the Hurricane Katrinas landfall. The town and its residents lost 100% of there homes. The neighboring cities in Hancock county were also virtually wiped out, so they cannot help remedy this situation. "

" as of February 10th they have about 3 weeks fuel supply left. They are in basic need of everything, unfortuneatly they don't have the funds to fix anything. They have lost more than 60% of there equipment. Every department member lost their own home and struggle to juggle there paying jobs, rebuilding there own home, and responding to the needs of a community that has lost so much. "

They have been offered a grant match support - if they can raise $11,000 they can get an additional $110,000 for funding. I know I will be helping send them support - but I am wondering (Aloud and to my quilty friends who also understand this quilty desire) if sending them some small quilts could help? I know its not something I could do overnight, but could over the next few months get some small quilts made. I even have a queen size quilt that just needs binding - do you think they would like that as well??

I guess living in my little sheltered area of Colorado I assumed that the hurricane was over - people had fixed things up, and life went on. I knew there was extreme devastation - but again assumed that was over a year ago - it should be fixed now. Boy do I feel like a dummy!

Okay - I'll send some money and keep pondering on the quilts - they do have a website - I could email them and know for sure - but....then I am committed LOL ( the website is http://www.westhancockfirerescue.org ) And by reading that I think the main need is money, but I always think in quilts...how about you?

Thanks for letting me take a lot of your time - this issue concerns me.... and talking to myself is not always the most intelligent conversation!!