Fly Like A Eagle

Here's my latest addition. At this time, I'm going to step away from my blog to celebrate the rest of the year with family and friends.

Here's one of the latest little people. Look at those cheeks. Believe you me, I pinched & kissed him until he cried enough!!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas, if you celebrate it, and a fantastic rest of December!! I'll see y'all in the new year!!

More Tangent

I made another soaring eagle using brown tones.

On to the next one. I love making the beaks & eyes. The little details are so important.

Hummmmm. It needs something more.

I like this much better. I'll need to add a tiny white dot in the eye later!!

Finished The Top

Sorry about the angles & the strange coloration. My error I'm sure. Anyway, I was on a roll this morning & just couldn't stop. This is a surprise for a veteran so I really need to finish it.

Now to get it quilted.

A Bit of Progress

 

I did a bit of sewing today but of course once things got to going life stepped in and it was time to cook dinner. Where does the time go? Hopefully I'll get back to this tomorrow. Wish me luck!!!!

Retreat, Then Home

This past weekend, my Wacky group went on retreat. We decided to only bring hand work. For two and a half days we stitched and laughed and ate. When I arrived home Mr. Cowboy asked to see what I'd accomplished. I showed him my progress. Needless to say, he was stunned at the small amount of done....hehehehehehehehe. I told him not to worry about it if he wanted his dinner...;-]

A girlfriend asked me to make her a small quilt for a veteran in her area. I'd been looking at this eagle for awhile so I dug in my stash for a background and got started.

This sky fabric is perfect.

All the inners were carefully cut out. This took quite a bit of time, by the way.

And here it is pressed onto the sky fabric.  More to come in a few days!!

Commission

A girlfriend saw some of the Veterans quilts I made last month & really wanted an eagle quilt for her daughter who teaches at one of our local schools. So I got to work. Sorry I don't have photos from this particular project. 

I'm quilting it on my Janome because it's not that big. I think she will like it.

Celebration At Last!

Bells are going off!

Confetti is floating in the air!

Hooray!!!! Post 1600 is finely here!!!!
I'm doing a happy dance right now and Mr. Cowboy is laughing his cowboy hat off watching me.
If you have stuck with me this long, you have definitely gone on a wild journey. Thanks for hanging around.
Now, let me give you an update on my venture into making quilts for the Veterans at my Senior Community Center. I have eight quilt tops made, four are already quilted so I've been on my knees getting the others sandwiched and ready to quilt.
My goal is to have them ready by November 1st. I can do it because these are small quilts. Just a token of my appreciation for the service of some wonderful men and women.

This particular quilt top I've had for many years with no real idea of what to do next but it's a great one to give to a Veteran. The photo is fuzzy for some reason....must be camera error!!!

This quilt I made last year and it's quilted as well. It's from my Fractured Star design. I added the white stars to give it a different look.

The winner of the final FQ is Joyce Carter whose favorite color is RED!!!!! Mr. Cowboy sends his congratulations because he was getting a bit worn out from pulling names from the old cowboy hat each week......LOL.  It's been so much fun doing these quilts for the Veterans and I thank each and everyone for participating and lending your suggestions.

I'll have photos in November of the festivities for the Veterans.

I hope everyone enjoys their weekend!!

Celebration Part 6

Warning, this post is photo heavy!!!

I've chosen a close up of an eagle.

 

I enlarged it & outlined the parts I want to really stand out. Next I'll choose some fabrics to make the magic happen.

These are just some of the fabrics that will be used in this endeavor.

The eyes are looking good.

I've gotten the beak in place & need to stitch around the parts before I can stitch everything together.

Here's a close-up of the eagle's face. I've used crayons & markers to highlite the feathers & will use threads to further add to the coloring when I quilt the piece.

Little Firecracker is all kicked back playing some sort of video game. I don't know how her parents got her to sit still for any period of time!

Oh, I nearly forgot about the winner of the fat quarter. It's Vicki H. Congratulations to you. Her favorite color is orange.

Please leave a comment to participate in the give-away. I do believe that the next post will be #1600. Oh boy I can't wait!!!

Celebration Part 4

So, after several nights sleep I decided Log Cabin blocks would be the perfect solution. Of course I made a few to see if my thoughts were on point. 

Yep! So off to the old stash I went to find more blues/reds/creams.

I feel really good about this one. I might sew on a border but maybe not! At the moment it measures "51 by 45."

Thoughts??

Now for the winner of the FQ this post. It's Needled Mom whose favorite color at the moment is YELLOW! Congratulations to you. I must tell you, Mr. Cowboy gets to pull the names from the hat and always comments about the blogger names. I just laugh and send him on his way. That reminded me of when me and my brother were children and dad had a CB in his truck. Some of you may remember those which were a way to communicate back in the 70s. Truckers had them in their big rigs and when regular drivers discovered that CBs were a great way to outwit the Highway Patrol.....well you see where this is going.....LOL!  Dad's handle was Rancher on the Road. David and I loved to hear him talking with everyone on our road trips to Galveston. Mom was not so happy with all the chatter.

Sorry, I got off topic for a moment.

Remember that if you've won a fat quarter you can still participate. Just leave a comment and mention your favorite color. I'm very close to the 1600 post mark!!!

 

I'm already planning the next quilt. This process has been very therapeutic and has made me very happy.

Celebrate Countdown Part 3

Slept on what to do with this eagle. I added a light brown border then found some patriotic fabric in my stash to dress up the block. So far so good!!

However, my mind has gone in yet another direction. So that eagle is tabled for the moment. 

Here's the eagle I'm working on now.

The star design is one that I've use many times and is perfect for what I have in mind. I've use several shades of greens and golds on my HST and tone-on-tones.

I really like this eagle with its beak open. I've used permanent markers and crayons to highlight feathers and the bold brow on the eagle.

Here's the finished top measuring 54 inches square.
Next......

Magpie's Mumblings is the winner of the second FQ!! Congratulations to you. Blue and purple are her colors for now, so I'll be sending out the color BLUE to her as soon as we talk via email. I don't have much purple in my stash, if you can believe that.

Remember to leave a comment and mention your favorite color to participate in the give away. If you've already won a FQ, you can still win again.

Here's another pic of the little firecracker!!

Have a great weekend everyone.

Celebrate - Change of Plans

Oh, don't worry. I'm still counting down to the big 1600 post.
I'm referring to my changing the eagle for the second Veterans quilt.

I finished highlighting the eagle, changed his brow & stood back for a look-see.

But when I auditioned it at the top of the quilt, I didn't like the proportions one bit. So back to the drawing board.

The quilt needs a narrower eagle. 

I came up with one in flight. Now on to my stash of fabric to pick just the right colors.

Much better, don't you think?
I needed wording and Mr. Cowboy came up with "Freedom Isn't Free"
I like the way that sounds.

I've auditioned it above the scrappy quilt & it looks good. Now to figure out how I want to attach it. Maybe a strip between the quilt and eagle.

Not a very good photo but another quilt top finished!! I might try to take a better pic this weekend.

Now, for the first winner of the FQ.

The Left-Handed Quilter/favorite color at the moment RED!!

BTW, if you don't here from me after you leave your comments, please know that sometimes I just can't get to everyone. But I do read all comments and am so appreciative of everyone's time.

Alrighty, leave a comment, mention your favorite color to win a fat quarter.

Veteran's Quilt Part 2

Sorry about the view of my toes....lol!!

I finished stitching down the eagle for the most part & decided to have a look at the other part of my project that spurred me to take this on in the first place. It's from a Bargello leftover. These days I don't throw anything away. After looking at the two together I knew it needed something. Mr. Cowboy strolled by & also noted that it needed something. So I decided to sleep on it. You know that things come to us quilters while we sleep.....hehehe!

After a couple of nights sleep I came up with the solution below.

I added a strip withe the words " Land of the Free" to divide the two. Mr. Cowboy was pleased & gave me two thumbs up.

All I need to do next is add a border. Stay tuned.

I saw this little funny on someone's blog & thought I'd re-share it.

Another Veteran's Quilt Started

I'm thinking of making eagle blocks to go on each quilt because many aren't going to be red, white & blue themed. So I want something patriotic on each.

I found a clip art image to work with, enlarged it & traced the parts that I wanted to use onto Heat n Bond & pressed those into my fabric choices.

So far......

Got the eagle in position & added feather markings.

I've started making HST to highlite the eagle.

More progress to come soon!

A Fun Saturday

Last Saturday I was invited to teach a mini class for some wonderful & funny ladies!!

You may remember this Texas with bluebonnet a & eagle I did months ago. I did another Texas & added a star & lettering to the latest one. I also decided to use shades of brown for the eagle.

The following are just a few minis that the ladies did:

I great time was had by all!!