itsQOV Wednesday in Colorado

Welcome to another edition of our Quilts of Valor Wednesday!!  Are you ready to be inspired???


Well here we go!

Some of you may be new to my blog - Welcome!! Mostly Every Wednesday I show off quilts that myself and our groups have made for Quilts of Valor - sometimes Wednesday becomes Mystery clue days.... but the current QOV mystery is over. ( you can still find it in the header tho!)

I will give you as much info as I know about the quilts. If a pattern is not listed... its cuz I don't know it, but I do try to give credit to those designers that I can ;-)

Sit back and Enjoy!

This is one of our FLAGS FOR SUE Quilts.  These blocks were made by our readers and quilters - I set this one, and quilted it

These next two were made and Quilted by Linda R - man she does lovely work!!
( I think they are both Bonnie Hunter or Quiltville patterns)

This one was made by Kevin the Quilter and quilted by Me - here is the info on this one HERE

I have an awesome friend in Arizona - Meredith - and she is a very prolific quilter!!

The next SIX quilts were made by her, and quilted by Ron O in New Mexico!!

Aren't they just awesome!!! I love her work!!

And the last two in todays sho!
The one on the left was pieced by Connie and Kathy - out of blocks that they taught our whole group to do!

And the one on the right was made by Crystal - she pieced and quilted it!! and its AWESOME

Hope you enjoyed our show!!

Leadville - the Two Mile high City

For our Next trip - we loaded up and drove to Leadville, Colorado. 

I had heard of the Colorado and Southern Railroad - and their Fall Photography Trip - so I convinced the boys to check it out with me.... and again... there might have been the promise of Pizza!

We drove in - and went first to the train station - just to make sure I knew where it was before we went to explore the town

I am not going to lie - the views from this town were INCREDIBLE!!

And The colors on the trees were AMAZING!

We drove around and found a place to head out for a hike

You know that yellow drew me in right?

And check out those skies

We took jackets, sweatshirts, scarves and T shirts

We had no idea what the weather would be like

but those skies!

They made you think of snow.....

Not a bad batch of trees right?

After we checked out the surrounding area - we headed to the town... specifically to look for a pizza restaurant that the internet said existed ( it did, I am just drawn to old buildings... so you know.... that came first!)

This is the TABOR OPERA HOUSE - it was constructed in 1879 by Horace Tabor. One story says it cost $40,000 and another say $65,000 so I will guess it was between those numbers. Which sounds like a HUGE amount for those days.

Everything had to be brought in by wagon,  like a horse drawn wagon.  I don't think I would like that job.


Horace Tabor began placer mining in Leadville, and one of his claims ended up having a massive Silver Lode - which made him very rich, until President Cleveland repealed the Sherman Silver Purchase Act of 1890.... and he became poor again.

It is 3 stories and was built in 100 days. The solid brick walls are 16 Inches thick.

It is actually still operating today - it was owned privately and was purchased back by a historical society. You can help donate to its restoration too .... I think it is so cool to still be standing and used today

After tooling about town I finally told the boys we could go get pizza

But wait!!!

Check out that old building!!

I have no idea what it is = but I had to check it out!

Proof that I did let them eat - or at least sit there while their food was being prepared!  It was called High Mountain Pies ( cuz we were in the 2 mile high city!!)

and proof that you will read more about the train..... later....

So did you know that Leadville was almost the Capital City of Colorado?

and PS

did you know that the TABOR law in Colorado - was not named about Horace Tabor?

It has nothing to do with him!

See you next weekend for more about our Leadville Trip......

Log Cabin Loonies .. its a top

My Log Cabin Loonie is now a top!!

I am so happy - and so surprised as to how many leftovers  are left!

Here it is up on the design wall.....

And here it is all Topped

and draped over the Chair

and a close up

and Now!!!

There are still leftovers!

Can you believe it?

So here is the deal~

I am done with these ~

I had a blast ~

made a quilt~

and now they need to go in someone else's quilt..

There are probably enough to create a whole 'nother quilt.... mine was 60in x 75in...

So!!! If you want these leftovers... they are yours (within the US)
Just leave me a comment and in that comment say ME!

If there is more than one ME! I will choose a name on Tuesday and mail them to you!!

Linking to:
Can I get a Whoop Whoop
TGIF Friday at Summer Lee Quilts
Finished or Not Finished

Quilts of Valor in Colorado

Oh man - do I have a great batch of QOV's to show you today!!!

I hope you find some inspirations!

The two above were pieced by Barb of Barobs Book Blog

and Quilted by Crystal in Denver

These two below are tops

They were put together by Jean K

She is a Coloradoan by heart - but she now lives in Texas!

I sent her 2 sets of blocks from our Flags for Sue

and ta-da!

The quilt on the Left was pieced and quilted by Deb C - that pattern is a Mystery Pattern designed by Quiltygirl ( me!)  and can be found here:  Field of Stars

On the right - I apologize - this was given to me, and there was no documentation with it - and I don't recall who made it - but its pretty cool!

Another Anonymous Quilts

Above and below

There was no documentation with all three of these.

I try really hard to come right home and pin stuff to them - but I will say 

I messed up this time!

They are sure lovely quilts!!

See you soon......

Virtual Cookie Exchange

Its a Virtual Cookie Exchange! Welcome!!
This cookie exchange is hosted by Just Let Me Quilt


Each day visit the links below and get a new cookie/candy recipe - and!!! If you make them each day you will be totally ready for Christmas.... and probably suffering from Sugar Overload - ha!

My Recipe is for

  Chocolate Truffles

I make these and have to hide them, as everyone in the house digs in - and Poof - like that - they are gone!

So here we go!

Ingredients:
16 Oz Chocolate Chips ( I used 2 2/3 cup of Nestle Tollhouse)
1 cup Heavy Whipping Cream
1/2 cup Butter

2 cups white dipping chocolate or Dark Dipping Chocolate ( I used Ghiradellis)
2 crushes candy canes








Directions:

Melt Butter in a saucepan over medium heat. 

Add in Cream when butter is just about melted

Increase the heat slightly and using a whisk stir constantly, but gently
Heat until mix just barely comes to a boil.















Remove from heat and add in Chocolate Chips

Stir gently - mixing until smooth.

Place entire pan in the fridge for several hours until cooled










Go sew!!







When mix is solid ( mine took about 3 hours)
Scoop out small balls of the mix, shape into little balls and place on Wax or parchment paper on a cookie tray.

I scooped all of mine out, then rolled them - and I worked quick, as they will melt and get sticky.

Place them on the tray, in the freezer for at least an hour

And GO SEW!!

 I decided to dip half of mine in White Chocolate, and half in Dark Chocolate. and since White chocolate is easier for you to see - that is your photographed version.

I melted the white Chips in my small little crock pot 

 Then I lifted each truffle on a fork, rolled it in the chocolate and gently put in back on the tray. Quickly I sprinkled Crushed peppermints on them. If you don't do it right away - the chocolate coating hardens and they won't stick.

I put mine back on the tray and stuck them in the fridge while I worked on Tray 2
 

This is what the inside looks like - and its really really yummy

Each batch makes about 50 truffles and if you are quick enough you may get to eat one or two

Before they are gone!

But if you are really smart you will put some in a ziploc container, label it turkey gizzards,

stash it in the back of the fridge and save it for when you need a little quilting break!

Enjoy checking out the other recipes!!

*****************************************************************************

November 27

Kwilty Pleasures

Tu-Na Quilts, Travels, and Eats

Songbird Designs

Creative Latitude

Ms P Designs USA

Gray Barn Designs

Alycia Quilts

Happy Cottage Quilter

Sew Many Yarns

For The Love Of Geese

November 28

Creatin' in the Sticks

Vroomans Quilts

It’s A T-Sweet Day!

Domestic Felicity

That Fabric Feeling

Home Sewn By Us

Karrin’s Crazy World

Adventurous Applique and Quilting

Bumbleberry Style

Melva Loves Scraps

Beaquilter

November 29

MooseStashQuilting

Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life

Kathleen McMusing

DesertSky Quilting

Life in the Scrapatch

Ridge Top Quilt

Cynthia's Creating Ark

Bejeweled Quilts by Barb

Pumpkin Patch Patterns & Quilting

Operation Domestic Goddess

Just Let Me Quilt

Back to the Churn Dash

So I might have moved my Log Cabin Loonies off the design wall.... and put up the next project.

I sure thought I was a lot farther on it when I took it down, than I really am.... *sigh*

Oh well - I still like it!!!

You know what is funny tho?  I just went back to the original Layout post - and see if you can see what I did when Re-laying out the blocks

and just a reminder - I did post a little Tute about the sizes that the churns are
Churn Dash sizes and Tutorial


Since Thanksgiving is over - the family said it was okay to get my Christmas Quilts out. While doing that I updated my Quiltygirl Facebook Page header with a few of them. It made the house look cozy!

Hope you will come back Tuesday!! I am participating in the Virtual Cookie Exchange - and I HAVE A RECIPE to SHARE.... and it's Yummy!!!

Linking to:

Main Crush Monday

Monday Making

Moving it Forward

Design Wall Monday

The Rockies

I want to share some of the last of the photos of this hike...

I did take over 700 photos - thank goodness for digital. 

My goal in September and October was to  hike at least one day a week. We did pretty good at getting that done, and the places we went just exploded with color and variety!

These are the last I will show you of this particular hike :
Here are the other posts just in case:

http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2018/11/fall-in-colorado.html
http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/2018/11/the-hike-to-top.html

It is just amazing to me how much beauty there really is in the world - and if you try hard enough you surely can find it!

I liked seeing the small patches of color as they were changing, they add so much to the mountainside!

This was on our way back down, we hiked up enough to look at this lake and think it was the Size of a quarter - and then you get to it, and its not as small as you think!

This is just to prove that I do really use a camera - My sweet other half thought he was funny and said that no one would believe they were mine, and that I stole the photos from his iphone..... no dessert for him right????

we hiked up to that!!

And would I be me if I didn't leave you with a Black and White photo?

we drove down the mountain from our trail and decided it would be fun to swing around into estes park. Oh man the Elk were out - but these people!

They  schooch up and try to get so close to them

I am not sure they are being brilliant

But it was cool to see them hanging around - I took my photo from my Telephoto lens in the car. I didn't want to bother them .

Now I will start working on the photos from our next adventure.... It took us to the 2 mile high city.........