Quilts of Valor blocks

A grey, cold, rainy morning is ideal for sewing and that happened yesterday.  I pulled out 6 of the fabrics from a patriotic fat quarter bundle to use for Quilts of Valor blocks.  There are still 4 more fabrics left in the bundle, but a couple have stripes and I'm not sure they will work well.  UPDATE: The fabric line is called American Valor by Wilmington Prints. I love it.

First up were 2 star blocks from the Block Drive pattern on the Quilts of Valor Foundation website. It is a really simple star block to make.  Check it out. https://www.qovf.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Block-drive-2019-revised.pdf 

From the scraps left over, I made 2 each of the Ritzy Cracker blocks to add to our guild blocks.  And there are still some small scraps leftover that are back in the drawer with the patriotic fabrics.  I figured out when I cut the next group that if I cut those fat quarters from the other direction, then I could get more Ritzy Cracker sections.  

Four more fat quarters are cut and ready to make 1 each of the star blocks and 3 each of the Ritzy Crackers.  See the note saying "short side"?  I found that I could cut 4 of the 4.5" squares from a strip, but the last one would be 1/8" short.  However, the white star points are over-sized so as long as I line those up with a bit of "hang over" on that short side, then they will still work perfectly.  Notice in the finished blocks in the first photo how those points overlap. 

I still need to cut all of the white pieces for these blocks, but these might be good to take along with me to the open classroom day at The Pin Cushion on Friday.  They open their classroom up to anyone wanting to come in and have a "social" sew day instead of sitting home alone sewing.  I'm hoping a few ladies wanting to work on Quilts of Valor will join me on Friday this week to sew. 

Again - the light is terrible in my sewing room, and you can also see how bad my ironing board cover is looking.  It has a big scorch mark in the middle, but also has become very discolored all over. It isn't really dirty - just showing it's age.  Maybe I should give in and buy a new cover.  

Quilt of Valor #1

 

The first of three quilt tops is done.  Ladies from our guild had this one put together in two halves on Saturday. This morning I sewed the halves together. And there was enough of the navy blue sashing so I added one final outer border all the way around.

 

This one is ready for a backing and quilting.

Working on Quilts of Valor

Our guild had a short work session before our meeting to work on the tops for our Quilts of Valor.  We got a LOT accomplished in about 2.5 hours. 

The panel was donated by one member (Ellen) and the 12" blocks and navy yardage were donated by another member, Mary.  These are going together for one quilt.  Just a couple more seams and this one will be a finished top. I took this photo before the navy sashing was added.

We put 70 Garlic Knot blocks together for another top, and have 30 more stitched into rows for a third quilt top.  Sylvia, Peggy, Ellen, and Gwen all sewed up a storm while Ruby and I pressed, cut sashing, and rearranged blocks.  And we do have more blocks to finish that third quilt but ran out of sewing time.  We were hoping for 2 Quilts of Valor, so 3 is really a lovely surprise development.

And during the meeting another member (Nancy) donated a large gorgeous piece of blue yardage for a backing.  We have some terrific people in our guild.