A Belated Thank you!

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night with something on your mind? I do this quite often... and it happened last night!
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The Journals... The journals that went with all of the Quilts of Valor. They were put together by two wonderful students and their Teacher. They collected letters from students, they added pictures, they did a bang up job!! Kayla and Jordan and Mrs W. Thank you SO much for your work!!. They made up approximately 550 journals.
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Ms D - She made the journals that went with the quilts that the 5th graders made. Thanks to you too Mrs D - they were wonderful!
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And Mr. and Mrs. R made up the rest of the journals for the quilts. They collected letters and pictures and quotes as well.
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So Thank you! you hard workers!! I sure appreciate it!!

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Now back to sewing ;-)

The Best Memorial Day

First off - the winner of the states game:
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Congrats to Liz A. The # 1 State for quilts was Colorado at 225
Second was Illinois at 93
Third was Washington at 62
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So Liz email me your addy and I will get a little something in the mail to you!! For some of the other states: TX was 18, MN was 9, NE was 9, OH was 14, AZ was 14, and WI was 41...Not too bad huh? You all amaze me - and I am so tickled to be able to get these quilts in the hands of the soldiers.....
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Which leads me to the Best Memorial day!
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Deployment Number 2 : 166 quilts were handed out! It was wet and rainy and yet they still showed up for Morning Formation. The first picture is them starting to break from formation...and head over to see me ;-)
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We kept the quilts inside the van, so they didn't get wet... it was just misty and a little rainy at times.
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Remember when I told you that sometimes one door closes but another is opened? Well this was the first door. And I am learning to follow where the doors lead. A lot of the soldiers have a hard time making it to a "formal" presentation, either because of injuries, or doctor appts, or other things going on. This delivery allowed us to come to the soldiers - it made it very easy on them and was way cool.
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The soldiers were very surprised. They had no clue anyone would want to do this for them, and they were so grateful for all of your hard work! There were some very serious smiles going on!
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I have pictures pinned on the pillowcases, of the quilts, and as the soldier took the quilt I was able to tell them where most of them came from. And sometimes a little bit about the quilter. They were really excited to learn who made the quilt for them.
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So again - let me thank you!! Thank you Thank you Thank you - there are 166 more happy soldiers in the world today. Soldiers that are feeling the love!! Ya'all have done a good thing!!

The Start of Memorial Weekend

Has been great so far!! We had a good day without computers. We played cards, and rode bikes, then went to Grandma and Grandpa's. Went hiking, ate all of their food, played more cards, sat in the jacuzi... it was roughing it I tell ya'!

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These first four quilts on the left are from Diane in Tennessee. She is the proud owner of http://www.pumpkincreekfabrics.com

A cute store!

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All the quilts came with Pillowcases that matched - they were very cute!! Thank Diane!!

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This quilt was made by Mary M in my colorado Guild, and quilted by Kim B at http://www.kimmyquilt.com . Mary is an awesome piecer - and she amazes me by what she can get done! It is hard to keep up with her. Thanks Mary and Kim.

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Do you ever look back at your blog and see what you were doing this day last year? http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2008/05/what-strange-day.html And I remember not liking tornados....

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http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2008/05/more-soldier-quilts.html And here is another link to what we had just done.

Annie in IA

Are you ever impressed at how those that are extremely busy just accomplish more? Well here is a prime Example of someone who is like that!
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And I thought she was two people. See - she volunteered to quilt some tops for me, and when she sent them back her name was the same. But then a month later she sends me 5 finished quilts and the label was signed Annie - so I assumed Annie was the piecer, and J was the quilter.... but Nope! She is one and the same!! How cool is that?
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Anyways - these quilts are just awesome. Annie - Thank you SO much!!

My kiddos and I had a good day yesterday, and when we were lounging around we watched Oprah. ( I always check first to be sure its okay for kids) It was about What you could live without, and what you could give up. One family had to give up all of its electronics, and TV's. We watched and were shocked - they had like 7 TV's - we have one. Well Two, but one doesn't turn on and we need to dispose of it. So at dinner we were talking about what we could give up to spend more time together as a family. First they said we should by more stuff cuz we do everything together and they would like a break some times... funny kids.

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Anyways - my challenge - should I chose to accept it ,was to give up my computer for 24 hours. I don't think this is a problem, except I do all my paperwork, blogging, picture downloading, EQ6 stuff on it. But I accepted. I have finished all the paperwork for the day, and this.... this will be my last blog post until..... well at least until Friday Nite - because I promised. I wonder what we will do with all this "family time"?

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I am told moving the 8 tons of dirt we had delivered, Putting up new fencing in the west pasture, and cleaning up the roping chutes does not count! Bummer - I had high hopes. Oh - but they did not mention cleaning corrals.... there ya go - Family togetherness!

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Have a great one!

Beth and the HunnyBees

I just love hearing about the names of peoples sewing groups - this group comes from Idaho, and is called the Hunny Bees. I love it!!! And I wonder how they got that name?

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They sent in 6 quilts!! Two of them are the Not So Top Secret quilt - I think it is so cool to see all the versions of this, and it makes my oldest son feel so good. He had quite a hand in pushing that quilt pattern along!!

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Thanks Beth and the HunnyBees! You all are awesome!!

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On another note.... Schools Out for Summer.... Yay!! Hands are clapping and kids are screaming!!! Yesterday was the last day till August and boy were my kids ready!
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And then it rained and lightening'ed last nite....

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So with that - the kids at school were able to graph the first 725 quilts that came in for our soldiers. They kept track of which state they came from. Take a guess and see if you know which state the most quilts came from, the second most and the third most. Make your guess by Monday the 25th at 7pm. I'll have a surprise gift for the person that gets the (or closest to) three states)

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And with that - we are off to play!!! See ya tomorrow.

More from the Pieceable Friends

The Pieceable Friends Quilt Guild is the Guild I belong to in Greeley. We had sew days, and binding days and these are some of the quilts that the ladies made.

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The first two are from Deb S. I love the star blocks! They were quilted by Ann Marie on her Statler. Thanks Ladies!!

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The String quilt is from Ethel. Ethel has great patience because those were some small strings - but the quilt is gorgeuos. And she quilted it herself! Thanks Ethel.

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Next is a quilt from Charolottes next door neighbor ( I forgot to get her name.) But she heard what Charolotte was up to ... she made tops and bound a thousande bazillion gatrillon, and the neighbor wanted to contribute this quilt. Each block has different Birds in it.

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This Not So Top Secret quilt was made by Pam. Pam is a dedicated Hawaiian Quilter and makes gorgeous hand appliqued Hawaiian quilts. But she put those aside for a bit and made this Quilt of Valor - I think it was a wise decision ( grin). Thanks Pam!!

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Last but not least we have two quilts from Judy W. I love the colors and the blend in these two. Judy cut fabric - for one quilt - and ended up having enough for Three. One has already been shown. And I can totally identify with that. Its kind of like I buy fabric... which might explain the overload of Hot Pink!


If we could just convince men that Hot Pink is a manly color.....

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Ladies - Thank you SO much for all your hard work on these quilts. They are wonderful!!

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Fridays Quilts

These Two Rail Fences came from North Carolina. Stacey sent them for the soldiers. Blogger put them upside down. But they are so cool. I love the Stars on the top.

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http://maryquilts.com/new-patriotic-rail-fence/

I am not sure if this the pattern that Stacey used, but it is very similar if you would like to make one. And give it to a soldier ( hint hint... there are a lot of soldiers that could use a quilt everywhere!)

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Then - awhile back - Julie over at http://barnquilter.blogspot.com/ said she had some quilt tops to donate but didn't want to inundate me. And dear Sweet Loretta stepped up and said to send them to her and she would quilt ( AND BIND) them. So Julie sent her three tops - 4 quilts came to me.

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The last one Loretta made and quilted. I love this!!

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And just to let you know, quite a few of you sent in tops and we have been quilting them up! I was blessed with some volunteers to quilt some, and I have been quilting some, and man this is awesome! So they are getting done, and when they are I take their pictures and am getting them in the Blogging que... who knew I would ever have a list of things to blog about.....

Wednesday's Quilts

Bari over at http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com made this Green Not So Top Secret Project for our Quilts of Valor delivery. And she used the extra blocks to make a little kiddo quilt. Isn't that cool? Her twins wrote some letters and drew some pictures - that makes me smile!!
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And here's a small world thing for you - Bari and I went to the same college - and we think we might have overlapped a few years in our time there. Although she is in MO, and I am not. Thanks Bari!!
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The Next two quilts are from Marcia in IL. She is part of the Northwest Surburban Quilt guild. Marcia - these are lovely! The star one is very carefully planned, but has such a random look about it. Thanks SO much Marcia!!'
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Here's how you know the weather is going to be windy - I have to do the chores! And I have a list of outside things to do. Needless to say - I have had a sand facial today and have sandblasted my teeth!
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I drug the kids out with me too - so now their faces are all fresh. We had a bunch of new trees to water, and dirt to move. Today we had 8 1/4 tons of topsoil delivered. I thought that sounded like a lot, but when I look at it, I am not sure it is enough to fill what we wanted to fill. We may need to add compost ( and you all know where that came from!)
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Quilts from San and Mary

San made these two quilts and Mary (http://maryquilts.blogspot.com/ ) quilted them. These two are in my heartstrings group. This group is so prolific - They just keep a quilting and sewing!!

Thanks San and Mary!!

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I got a call today! From a Sargeant. He wanted to thank us for bringing the quilts. He said that a soldier told him about getting the quilt, and that he didn't stay to talk to us. He got back and read his journal and was just loving the meaning of this quilt. Now I don't know what soldier it was - but that makes it all worth it!!

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Hope you all had a great Mother's day! Ours was great. Last night Wrangler Man decided to mow some of the grass growing awful tall around the house - and he ran over a rattlesnake!!! I was glad to not be there!

From Becky

Becky is in my Heartstrings group. A while ago our focus project was to make Chinese Coin Blocks in Patriotic colors. Every one made them and sent them to Becky. Her job was to assemble them. Can you believe what a great job she did?

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These are some Cool quilts!!

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You can check out her blog at http://beckyquiltobsession.blogspot.com and see all the beautiful work that she does.

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If you are interested in the heartstrings group you can go to

http://www.heartstringsquiltproject.com/

I can officially tell you that there are not enough hours in the day! And that it gets dark waaaay to early.

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See ya later gators!

Deployment One

Preparations for Deployment One of the Quilts of Valor Challenge Quilts.

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Quilts take up a lot of space!

And now the floor is lonely!

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The Van was provided by the Independent Stampede in Greeley- its the largest 4th of July Rodeo around ( http://www.greeleystampede.org/ ) . Ask me how I know that!!

They took all the seats out for us - and they vacuumed!!

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The trailer was provided by RC Auto Detail and Carpeting in Greeley. Nice nice people!

Judy in OKC and Rita in MA

Rita in MA got together with some friends and made these quilts! Rita made the first two.
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Diane made the third one.
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Peggy and Jane made the fourth one.
I totally love group efforts. It is so much fun!!
Thank you Ladies!! These quilts are wonderful. My guys especially like the wildlife prints in them... they found them quickly!

I just love the way that Dissappearing 9 Patches can look so different. And all the

combinations they can make. This one as made by Judy L in OK.

Thank you Judy!!!

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Now you will start to notice some changes over on the sidebar. I promise I won't keep you in the dark very long - but things are happenin' ..... be prepared.