Milk Cow Quilt

Oh my goodness - this week has been crazy!!  I like Christmas or Winter break better. This week was a full week for the kids and for me!  I had all these big plans on Sunday night - and Bam! Woke up Monday and.... it all fell apart.... yep!

Oh well - There's another day to keep on trying.

I did - finally - get this quilt quilted.  I saw this fabric line at Sew Downtown in Greeley and just fell in love.  I used to have all sorts of Dairy Cow stuff. And then I married a rancher - and they like beef cows!  And roping steers, and well, Black and white dairy cows just aren't all that cute to them.  But this fabric made me happy!

It's pretty simple - I know - but it was a layer cake, and I just didn't want to cut those cute prints up....

So.... I didn't!

Here's a close up of the Bucking horse rider I put on it.  This is an attempt to prove to the rancher family - its okay to KEEP this quilt.

And i quilted Roped all over it - 

And I even put a longhorn.....

They have to let me keep it now right?

Linking to:

A Quilting Readers Garden

Fabric Frenzy

Confessions

Crazy Mom Quilts

2016 Quilts of Valor

Good Wednesday Morning to you!!!

Settle in here and get ready for some Awesome Quilts of Valor - a lot of them from the Eastern Plains  of CO!!!! Yay!! I am so glad you all wanted me to continue to do this! I really like having a photo trail of these quilts!

The first two quilts shown are from Marsha! Marsha has started a group of Quilters out east of me and boy are they rocking!!!  I love it!

The one below is from Elenna 

She quilts with Marsha too 

Another beauty from Marsha

 I like the use of the panels and blocks in this one

Also from Marsha

The one above

and the one below

Are the same quilt - front a back!! Cool eh

Also from Marsha

The two below

Were pieced by Kristi

and Quilted by Crystal

And the last quilt 

Pieced by Julie

Quilted by Alycia

Photo Challenges

Oh what a week!!!  My Ricky Tims class has these videos that you watch and learn from - from RICKY TIMS.  and you all.... I love his voice!  I am not sure exactly why - but best I can tell he reminds me of my Dad's Dog and Bird Raising partner - John Lester.  Boy I loved that man!! He knew everything, and was so patient with us kids - and for some reason Ricky's voice is just that patient slow talking way - like he is in no hurry to kick me out!!!

Okay - enough!!   Our first assignment was

Selective Focus!

Here is my Photo:

These are from my In-law side - they were my husbands Great grandpa, then grandpa, then his Mom had them for a while (not sure if she used them) then she passed them on to Him.  They hang on our Cowboys wall.  

For my Other Photo Assignment - it was Minimalism in Black & White

The cool thing was, they provided a lot of links to information on Minimalism, and ways to achieve it. I get it in Theory, but in real life - I like lots of stuff in my photos! Ha h!

Below 

This was my first try 

But upon studying Minimalism more, I think you were supposed to have the subject as Less of the photo..... Maybe??

I liked it though - My oldest son went and ran 9 miles - I took a photo!

About even right?

Not Finished Friday

or design wall Monday.... but!!!  I did finish something this week - really I did!  I finished cleaning up after all my kids went back to school, and helped dig out another hay stack, and .... this is the big one... I cooked!!   Ok.... I planned to cook, and then I made someone else do it!

BUT!!

Here is where I am on my Bonnie Mystery!   I really wanted to show you!!!!

I think that had I known what it would look like , I might have used a lighter grey.

Except - my goal is to use my stash - so I might not have, since I don't have a lighter grey in it!

I think I like it so far!!

You probably don't know this - but we had a blizzard way back last year (December 14th or so) and that snow has NOT left. It has turned rather icy, and is quite annoying to me right now.  And now we have more snow - at least it was coming down as I was writing....  

I always thought that winter time was supposed to be less ranch work - but in all the years I have been married to Wrangler Man - it has never happened.  So.... think of me.... in the cold.... with just a little bit of chocolate to sustain me.... Ha ha ha!!  

Don't forget - we are doing another Mystery Quilt 4 Military - the fabric requirements came out today - so it is not too late. And i am busy polishing up the clues!!  

Linking to:

Fort Worth Fabric Studio

Confessions of A Fabric Addict

Thanks Goodness its Friday

A quilting Readers Garden

And I decided to join in with the One Monthly Goal - with this quilt!!! Ackkkk Wish me luck!

2016 Quilts of Valor

I have been doing these Quilt of Valor shows for a whole long while now - I hope that you are not tired of them.  I thought about maybe paring down the amount of QOV's that I show you, but then I would have to choose which quilts made it and which didn't.  If you know me well - I sort of Suck a choosing!  And then I would be sad if I hurt someones feelings....

I hope you enjoy these shows too - Maybe get some inspirations for quilts you are working on, or realizing that the quilt you thought you would make as a Quilt of Valor - really will look great as a Quilt of Valor????

So - here were go:On to the Inspirations!!

These first five quilts were all Made by Linda.   On each label she included a dedication to a specific Veteran in her life - It was really cool!!!  She has relatives that were in WWII, Vietnam, Mom and Dad and Brothers!!

These Next 5 quilts were made by the Interfaith Quilters

It was so wonderful to have them support QOV in 2015 

( I hope they will do it in 2016 too)

One more reminder - I am moderating/Designing for the yahoo group called

Mystery Quilts 4 Military

we finished our last mystery , and are gearing up for our second mystery.

I will NOT be running these mysteries here on the blog - but through the group

the cool thing is - every clue can be downloaded as a pdf ( rather than having to print ablog post)

So come join in !! The fabric Requirements will be posted Friday!

SnowShoeing in the Back Pastures

We might still have a LOT of snow, and we might still have not seen a day over 30 degrees, and we MIGHT have really really wanted to go snowshoeing, but didn't want to drive forever..... So we MIGHT have convinced the family to don their snowshoes and head out from the house.

PS - I left dinner in the crockpot, and brownies on the counter to entice us to come back!

Want to see what we saw?

First we had to get through the horses. They thought it would be neat to ride along on the back of our snowshoes. Little did they know, that makes it hard to move forwards - or backwards for that matter.... one of us may have got up close and personal with the snow.

Ol' Rojo - he's a lover, and he just can't stand to see you with out trying to sit in your lap

Yep - he would even live inside with us if he could 

( but he sort of passes gas - so that might be toxic!)

The wind was blowing a bit - 

can you see it moving across the ground?

Going south was just fine, but when you turned north - that wind was a little biting!

This was my favorite! We came up that hill and look at those clouds!

Here's another - just cuz I know you liked it too!

This is one of the fences. The snow was pretty high, and you could see where some of the cattle tried to cross over, but they were deterred!  And we saw Coyote tracks - that is not a good thing for us, that means they are getting pretty hungry!

Little Bit really liked the way the fence line looked and wants to draw it

so I took a photo for him to remember it by.

And we got home, just a little frozen , and a lot cold, but there was hot crockpot lasagna and brownies - we were good!!! 

~The End~

Design Wall Monday

Oh Oh Oh.... it is coming together.... slowly but surely - and I LOVE it!!!

My word for the year is Adventure! And I actually started working on that earlier this year when I decided to join in on the Adventure that is a Bonnie Hunter Mystery.  You never know what is in the brain of that amazing quilter - and I always ALWAYS learn something when following along with her mystery!!  So I am glad I jumped in on that adventure this year -

I am not as far as I thought I would be, but I am alot farther along than I usually am - so Happy Medium - I'm good with it!!

This is where I was on New Years Eve.... I was stitching to beat the last clue - that I thought was going to come out Friday.  I took a little break to look at FB and BAM!!! The clue had already been posted!!!

So Of Course I had to stop and lay one block out

Oh My - I sort of Love it!!!!

And then the boys wanted food!  Seriously people!! Food !! At a time like this!

So we made our New Years eve fare ( a smorgasbord of stuff)

and I got back to stitching Clue 5

Here is what I have done as of 7 am this morning!!

I have lots of the blocks in thirds - so I am hoping after today's work

I will be golden and stitching to the finish!

I might have seen a Deer - or maybe he saw me

Either way - I took the photo of him!

linked up to:

Quiltville

Cooking up Quilts

PatchworkTimes

Love Laugh Quilt

Photo Challenge 2016

I sort of joined in a Challenge group for Photography as well. I knew we had tons of Quilty challenges. BOM's, Mystery's..... Who knew there was the same culture for photography???

I joined in, and wasn't going to start until the first challenge of 2016 - except - the last challenge of 2015 was really cool..... and I am never a very patient person.... so I jumped in

The first challenge was  Architecture: You were supposed to use a photo that you had taken earlier and re-edit it.    Well!!!  I had a photo of a building that I had never edited - and I thought - there you go.    Plus everyone else is SO good already - I was a little intimidated ;-)


Here is my Building:   It is the Ranchway Feeds Building in Ft Collins CO.  I love it!! It's an old building and its in sort of the old downtown part.... and we get a LOT of our grain (and horse cookies) there!!

Happy Sunday! Hope you all have a great rest of your day!

January 2016 Scrappy Block

You might all remember that I am the Coordinator for QOV in Colorado. The group I stitch with (ok,  ME!!) really wants to use up our scraps and get more quilts made. So Each month I will introduce a scrappy block.  If you want to join in with us and stitch away - I would love it!  

If you only want to make a few blocks and join in with us - we welcome that too!!  

here is January's Block:

January 2016  QOV Scrappy Block

Pull out your 2 ½ inch Strip Scraps – and let’s Dig in!

For this Block you will need 6 – 2 ½ x 6 ½ inch strips and 3 – 2 ½ x 12 ½ inch strips

Stitch the 2 ½ x 6 ½ inch strips into 2 sets of 3. Stitch the 2 ½ x 12 ½ inch strips into 1 set of 3

The two layouts are below – Choose which one you like. Stitch your 6 ½ inch units together – then stitch to the 12 ½ inch units!  And you have a 12 ½ inch x 12 ½ inch block~!

Layout 1 ^

Layout 2 v

And here is a link to a finished Quilt using this block:

http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2014/07/2-12-inch-strips-continued.html

Enjoy!!

Happy New Year - 2016!!!

Happy Happy New Year!!!!

I decided that I would choose a word of the year again.  Last Years was to Relax - and in many ways I did.  I sat back and enjoyed the process of most ( ya - only most) of the quilts I created.   I tried really hard to Consolidate my Quilts of Valor work, yet still make sure our Veterans are loved....

So..... I think it worked ;-)   ( I also had a phrase - Don't Stress - that one is still on my bathroom mirror!!)

This year the word is

ADVENTURE

I am ready to take a few new adventures!

One is into a Photo class.... WITH   Ricky Tims!!!  I am sort of excited about that one!!!  

Two is to explore more of this great state!  We have tried to visit parts we normally wouldn't along with our QOV presentations and trips.  And now - I want to make sure I get to hike more of it!

Three: I took over the Mystery Quilts 4 Military Group - and I hope to offer at least 4 mysteries that can be used for Veterans.  ( you are welcome to join in  - Do it!! Do it!!  Do it!!!)



What about you? Do you choose a word for the year?