Hay and Sunshine

It is that time again when we start hauling hay for the year. Earlier this summer we were asked to give some kiddos lessons on our horses. I said NO immediately cuz you all know how much I don't like kids right????

We have know these kids for a long time so we let them come ride, and in return do a little work. You see where this is going right? 

My kids did all the loading, and our friends kids did all the unloading. It was  beautiful!!! I got to supervise, watch everyone work, chit chat a little.... you couldn't ask for a better system could you?

Wrangler Man has been breaking another horse and had him all saddled up when the kiddos arrived. The youngest boy was impressed with this horse. Romeo the horse liked the boy too. ( thats them in the top picture)

On the Quilty Side: Rubydell and I are hosting a Quilt of Valor Sew Day this Sunday afternoon. I thought that maybe I would demonstrate a new block and have who ever wanted to make them, do so. This block in unfinished 9 inches in size. Probably I will set them 6 x 8 with a border. And sort of twist them like a rail fence setting? 

 What do you think?

Quilts from Illinois

First off - Thank you so much for the well wishes for my horse. And No - Rattlesnake bites do not ususally cause death, but there is always a chance that the venom will get to the heart and cause a heart attack. Usually after the first 24 hours the risk goes down, but you still watch for 5-6 days. And then there is always the chance that the venom could have damaged the heart and you notice in later years. Sadly - this is our 4th horse to be bit in the last 12 years. The little buggers are sneaky!!!

Mac is looking better - but he still looks like he got beat up!

I recieved a box in the mail - and have been a little slow in showing you the cool Quilts of Valor that came in it. These three quilts were made by Alberta G of Illinois and quilted by Joe F in IL. They are just beautiful.

Look at these colors!! Aren't the bright and peppy - definately for a female warrior!!

This one is made with some of the same fabrics but some others are in there are well. How do I know? *grin* I looked!!! I Love these colors!!

And this last one Alberta sent is totally for a baseball lover! The backing is even apple pie - I guess you could call this the All American Quilt!!





Alberta and Joe - Thank you for collaborating on these Quilts of Valor!! They are wonderful.

Quilters Accountability 9/15/10

This was me on 9/8/2010

Blocks made: Nine Blocks total are made, 3 are in various stages of completion, 56 blocks are needed. Plus the solid blocks in the holes you see on the design wall. But I am not ready to go there yet.


Goals for next week. Finish the three blocks and sew at least 15 minutes a day on the blocks.






This is me on 9/15/2010

Blocks made: 13 blocks, and a few in the almost finished stage.

DId I get the 15 minutes a day to sew? - Nope. And truly - I know better at this time of year, but I figure if I give myself a goal I will try to do it.... I'll just keep trying.

This morning as the horses came in - wrangler man noticed one of them not looking so hot. We had just been talking about the horses we have had bit by rattlesnakes, and that this was the time of year for it. We were reminding the boys that ALL outside activites now require boots because of the snakes. and lo and behold - one of our horses got bit.

Poor dude! He is one of the older, smarter, horses, so I really think this snake just struck at him and didn't rattle at all. When he came in his nose was just starting to swell, so of course, the vet gets called - and then we started icing his nose, and tubing him to make sure he could breathe.

This is him in the first part of the morning. Sadly enough it got worse through the day, and about 4 ish started to go down enough that he could eat. He even has a hard time drinking. I had to ice his nose about every 30 minutes to help keep the swelling from moving up his face. He just looked miserable. It made me feel so bad for him!

Alright, back to Quilty Stuff -


My goals for next week:


• Quilt 1 Quilt of Valor
• Make More Blocks on my Betty Quilt
• Cut out a Quilt of Valor Group Quilt for our Sew Day






That will be pretty good for me! I have to finish 2 other customer Quilts as well.
To see what everyone else is up to head over to Bari's at

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

Writer's Block or Quilter's Block?

Can you have both Writers block and Quilters Block at the same time? I think I do - I haven't had much time to quilt for myself, so I don't have much quilty stuff to write about - so my mind is blank... sort of.

Last week there was a horrible accident at our NorthWest corner of the property. And we were there to hear it, and see the aftermath. A car hood went flying up in the air to the fences. Traffic stopped for miles, and flight for life came in, then left without picking anyone up. Turns out that was a good sign, every one was stable.

Since we had to check those fences to make sure they didn't get damaged, we decided it was probably time to check them all. We all saddled up and headed out. Turns out that was a  good thing. Although we own our land, the Natural Gas and Oil companies own the mineral rights. Technically they are not supposed to leave things on the surface, but we have learned this to be an untruth. We found lots of loose wires.

 Or more exactly, Brownie Mare ( like that name?) walked into the wire while Wrangler Man was on her, and the rest of us watching - wondering what to do. Wrangler Man is pretty handy, I kept us all away and he untangled the mare.

Of course, there was more to do then, not only remove that wire, but make sure they hadn;t left any more around. Did you know you can spend a day or two just doing that? If you didn't know - now you do *grin* and So. Do. I.

There was a volleyball game to attend, swim practices to get to, and more horse riding to do. I quilted a quilt as well. I really liked this one. It was a very scrappy log cabin.

I have about 20 minutes before we leave again for  swim practice, so maybe I will go try to unblock my quilters block, and maybe stare at my fabrics. I truly  believe they laugh at me every time I walk by.... or maybe they are taunting me... and teasing me?

Have a great one!

Quilters Accountability 9/8

Okay - I will be the first to admit it - I am a dork. I just now sat down to write my QA thinking - wow, I am going to get it done before midnight - and wrangler man informed me.... its THURSDAY....Ackkkk!!

I think Labor day messed up my schedule!

So My Quilt in Progress is my Betty Quilt. And I think I may be getting on a roll. I asked about design walls on Monday (Hunh -  maybe that was Tuesday now that I know my days are off) and got some great responses. My favorite was from Pat over at Bell Creek Quilts
 http://bellcreekquilts.blogspot.com/2010/09/national-sewing-monthday-8.html   .

I thought - I think I have some extra batting. I KNOW I have binder clips, and so I made a temporary design wall. I made it over the sliding glass door in the front room, so you know it has to be very temporary, and now Wrangler Man has some ideas to make it better for me ( whoo hoo - put him on the job and it will be great!)

Progress made: Nine Blocks total are made, 3 are in various stages of completion, 56 blocks are needed. Plus the solid blocks in the holes you see on the design wall. But I am not ready to go there yet.

Goals for next week. Finish the three blocks and sew at least 15 minutes a day on them.

See - progress... there are some empty spots on the cutting board.

If you want to see what others are up to - and who reported on the Real Wednesday - go to Baris at:

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

Science

There are science projects going on in our house. This is actually kind of fun, but I am not a science know it all!

I guess I will learn along with the kiddos - first off we had to make a decomposition station. Little bit had to choose items that he thought would decompose, mold, wilt, and not decompose. Then he had to arrange them in a plastic bottle, and put some dirt in there. Funny thing - we live amoing acres of dirt, yet it took us about half an hour to choose the *right* dirt. Most of our dirt seems like sand or manure, and neither one of us wanted to play in that!

We are still in the process of watching this experiment - as it sits on my kitchen counter!

The next science experiment required jell-o. Every one was so excited as they thought they could eat it. But after they realized we put bleach, laundry soaps and windex in little holes in the jell-o.... it might not taste too good!

This is the start of the experiment. Middle Bit was in charge of it.

This is the end. The idea was to prove that enzymes break down protien. I *think* it worked - our answers matched the ones in the answer key ( success right?)

We just thought we would share all the other happenings that have been going on around here. Didn't want anyone to think I was slacking *grin*

Design Walls

So, as I am slowly working on my Reproduction Quilt - the one that will be finished in 2031, I want a design wall.

I have stipulations - 1. It has to be portable.

                              2. It has to be Put Awayable

                              3. It has to be easy to use (because I can NOT handle many more challenges at the moment)

                             4. It can not block the sunlight for too long ( I have LOTs of windows!)

So - what do you all use for a design wall?

Ault Quilt Festival

A few Weekends ago there was a Quilt Festival up in Ault - Ault is A Unique Little Town... ( get it - Its on their sign). 

Anyways the lady that coordinated the Quilt show was short a few quilts, so she called me a wondered if I might have any quilts that I could let her display. They are displayed VERY safely, up high, in a secure gym, with Security. I thought this might be a good exposure for Quilts of Valor - so I chose 4 Quilts for her to display.

Apparently I was right - this was a great way to get the word out there, because when I went to pick up my Quilts of Valor - I came home with 6 more!!!

Want to see them?

These Three Star Quilts were made by Wilma O in Colorado. I believe these are the Star Struck pattern from Atkinson designs. I LOVE it!!

These Three were made by Sonje J in Colorado - Aren't they just beautiful?

Thanks Quilters for making these Quilts of Valor.

A Quilt of Valor Presentation

There is an organization called Homes for our Troops ( http://www.homesforourtroops.org/ ) and they help provide new and adapative housing for returning vets in many areas. The latest house to be built in Colorado was for Lt Cpl Hinkhouse.

Apparently he had not recieved a Quilt of Valor while he was at Walter Reed. One of the Vets Wives working on this house really wanted to remedy this - so through a few connections - she met me. And I was able to provide a QOV because of all the wonderful quilters that have helped out in making Quilts of Valor.

So here is the video clip of him recieveing his house, and if you watch in the interview, his wife is sitting with the pillowcase with the quilt in it. She did not leave it unattended.

http://cbs4denver.com/video/?id=74155%40kcnc.dayport.com

There are also more pictures of the day to be found here:
http://wickedvixphotography.photoshelter.com/gallery/Key-Ceremony-for-LCpl-Hinkhouse-Homes-for-Our-Troops-build/G0000O10yAAWxGk8/

I hope the links work well - it was a great day, and many happy people were all around.
Thanks to Sandy for coordinating all of these events and for getting attention for Quilts of Valor.

Quilters Accountability 9/1

Truthfully speaking - I wish there was more time in a day - there is so much *stuff* that I would like to do. I have gotten a few more blocks on my reproduction quilt done, not as many as I would like. Imay move the estimation of finishing this quilt top up to 2031. 

I am trying to mix the colors a lot. In the original quilt there were a lot of shirtings, and they were all mixed up.

My Great Aunts family - her mothers family owned a dry goods store on a corner in the town in Michigan that she grew up in. Because of this, they had great access to a variety of fabrics.

The original quilt was made around 1890, and was approx 72 x 90.

In the rest of the Quilters accountability news - our sew day went great on Sunday. We worked on some blocks, binding three Quilts of Valor, and even got one whole top put together. Of course it took a whole pound of M&M;s to get it done!!

To see what others are up to check out:

http://crossroadsquilts.wordpress.com/

Maybe you can help inspire me to get working! Tell me what you are up to - and what quilty projects you are doing.... I need to get motivated!!!