How to Play Parcheesi

One of my family's favorite games is 

Parcheesi.

 It's a simple game of getting your four men out

of the starting place, rolling the dice, and
moving them around the 

board towards Home. 

There are two strategies,
move one man at a time or
have all 4 men out at once sharing the roll of the dice.

It's the same thing with making quilts,
it's either working on one at a time
or working on multiple quilts.

My strategy is, of course, the multiple approach and
what seems to happen
 is that there are

several finishes close together.

A few weeks ago quilt #1
moved into Home.

My Antique Sampler, 1851, was finished.
Click here to read the whole story. 

****
And then before I knew it
another man had made it home.

I had made a promise to piece a quilt top
for the continuing service project my DAR group
sponsors for the VA hospital in Cheyenne, WY.

The challenge was using this fabric.

After much thought and
the help of Pinterest
here's what eventually came together.

It didn't come out exactly as planned,
but I think once it's quilted it will be fine.

****
Then look what happened!

Man #3 slipped in
and allowed me to cross off another
UFO from my 17 in 2017 list!

Here is my
 free mystery quilt from
Thimble Creek Quilt Shop, 2016.

 " Summer Sampler"
 64" x 64"

It was pieced from the stash

using lights and brights

to sew the 6 inch blocks.

It was set together
with these alternating pieced blocks.

I had it machine quilted by my
friend, Kathy H.
and we choose a super cute overall owl design

to match the label.

All I had left to do
in order to cross it off my list
was to sew down the binding and
now
 Summer Sampler is finished.

3 quilts are safely tucked in at home.
That leaves one man still heading towards the finish.
You'll have to come back next week to see if
I win the game.

Until Next Time-

Kyle

Patriots

A few years ago my

daughter, who is a director of a museum 

in south Florida,

became interested in genealogy.

I've always had an interest too,

hoping to learn a little more 

of my family history.

With the previous work

from a cousin, and, of course, the internet, 

we discovered,

with much excitement, several direct

connections to Revolutionary War patriots.

This led me to do some

research into becoming a member 

of the DAR, Daughters of the American Revolution.

I saw this as a way to volunteer with a group

of women who were also interested in history, patriotism,

citizenship, genealogy, and contributing to service projects

in my community.  

Then came the hard part.

Finding the correct documentation

to link me to my patriot,

Simeon Wheelock of 

Uxbridge, Massachusetts,

my 5th Great Grandfather.

Simeon was a blacksmith and

had been a soldier in the French and Indian War

in 1760.

He married a young woman from
the same town, Deborah Thayer in 1763.

By the time the war started they had 5 children. 

 This is Simeon and Deborah's house

built circa 1765, which now serves as the

DAR headquarters for the 

Deborah Wheelock Chapter.

 Simeon along with his father,

Col. Silas Wheelock and his 4 brothers,

 answered the alarm of April 19, 1775

 and fought at the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Skipping ahead many generation to me

I now find myself a member of the

Friday's Council Tree Chapter of

the DAR, in Windsor, Colorado.
The chapter was named after Chief Friday

 of the northern Arapaho tribe who lived
in this area.

One of the activities that I quickly

became involved with 

was making quilts for the VA hospital

in Cheyenne, WY.

These quilts are called

Final Salute Quilts.

They are given to a vet who enters

 hospice to use on their bed

and are then used to cover the body

as the veteran is given a
 final salute by their fellow vets.
The family is given the quilt.

Here is one of the quilts that
we recently made.

 48" x 96"

It truly is a group effort.
Once it is quilted
it will respectfully be passed on to a soldier
to honor them for serving
 our country
and risking their lives to
protect our freedoms.

A big thank you to all our patriots.

Until Next Time-

Kyle