Quilts of Valor

Yesterday, for Veteran's Day, I was able to attend 2 events to award Quilts of Valor.  I can't say often enough what an honor it is to be able to do this small thing for veterans.

The first event was a Veteran's Day program at a local small school.  Two of us went and one veteran was honored with a quilt in front of a very large crowd.  That school always has school on Nov. 11, and always has a program to honor our military.  The students are involved in program whether it was providing music or speaking, and the community is invited to attend.  Every student went through the line of veterans at the end, and shook the hand of every veteran.

Then 4 of us went to the annual community Veteran's Day luncheon put on by all of the local veteran groups.  They've invited us to be a part of their event for several years now, and they provide nominees to receive the quilts.  Three veterans were happy to be wrapped in their Quilts of Valor.  There were several hundred people at that luncheon, served by boy scouts in uniform and 4-H kids.  

Hopefully I won't have to wait too long to get pictures from the other school event that I wasn't able to attend.  And we have more QOV awards this weekend.  

Veteran's Day

Thank you to ALL who've put on a uniform to serve our country!!

I've shared this photo before - of my dad.  Along with all 5 of his brothers, my dad served in the military.  I've been doing some research on his unit, but have a lot of gaps to fill in.  I do know he was only 19 years old when he jumped from an airplane behind enemy lines into Germany late in World War II.  I've always had a hard time picturing my quiet father as a paratrooper.  He rarely talked about anything related to the war.

My living room floor has been the ideal spot to organize all of this week's Quilt of Valor quilts and paperwork. Labels and paperwork are all ready to go.

At 9:00 this morning, two of us will be at a high school to award a Quilt of Valor during their annual Veteran's Day program.  I think doing this at a school sponsored program will have a great impact on the kids attending.  And the wife of this veteran was one of my students over 20 years ago at this same high school, so it will be special for me.

When we finish at the high school we'll drive the 20 miles back to Mitchell to award 3 more quilts at the community Veteran's Day luncheon here.  We've been happy to be a part of that program here for 6 years.  Usually we have about 5 ladies there to help with the award.

One other QOV will be awarded at another high school that morning.  Two more at a college football game on Saturday.  And 3 more on Sunday afternoon at a small town Veteran's Day community luncheon.  And there are 2 more that we're close to finalizing award dates and places.

Then our group will need to focus on getting more of our QOV tops quilted and bound so we're ready for additional nominees in the near future.

One house made

I always know that pieces that are cut less than an inch, are going to try my patience when sewing them into a block.  And I wasn't wrong!

This week's Blockheads block is a delight for the eyes, but a pain to sew.  I chose to leave off the 32 Flying Geese border for the Christmas version.  The house section in the 18" block pattern came out at 12.5" without those borders.  That's the size I'm making all of the Christmas blocks. The hardest part was making the window units with 7/8" cuts and getting them to line up properly.  

So far we have 5 blocks, which I'm satisfied with.  I'm digging into the Christmas scraps as well as some fat quarters I've been hoarding.  

The Bright (Tula & Kaffe) version of the block is going to finish at 24", and I'll be doing those borders.  Picking my fabrics has been a challenge.  I think that Kaffe print at the top will be the roof of the house, with the actual house done in that purple.  There is a similar piece that has yellow, orange, purple that might be even better as the roof.  I've been looking at the Facebook group for inspiration as others post their finished blocks. 

Decisions, decisions . . .  

Design Wall Monday - November 9

This will be a crazy busy week, with Veteran's Day and various other things going on.  But I did some prepping over the weekend so that even small chunks of time can yield some productivity this week.

The Marigold Mystery is a BOM, and it might actually take me all month to finish the November instructions.  Last week I cut all the strips needed to turn the blocks from 2 months into spools.  I got the spool pieces sewn onto the 4 Dutchman's Puzzle blocks, and hope to get the 5 Sawtooth Stars finished up today.  The blocks were 8.5" before the spool parts.  Then there are a smaller sized set from a different month to turn into spools.  Note: the navy blue is the overall background of this quilt. 

Sunday cutting produced more of the novelty print Churn Dash parts.  Frogs and bugs should make cute blocks.  And there is a set with farm animals cut out too.  That green frog print might be close to 20 years old, and there was enough to actually get all 3 sizes.  I've been choosing prints with a "critter" theme for this one.

This may be a week where I fall behind on the weekly Blockheads blocks because I've spent too much time deciding on sizes and fabrics.  This is a really great block, but it has made some decision making a priority before cutting or sewing.  Because I'm making all of the Christmas ones in the 12" size, I've decided to leave off those tiny Flying Geese.  It will just be the house.  But for the Bright version I decided this is going to be one of the two 24" blocks, so the Flying Geese won't have to be quite so tiny.  I'm still waffling on color placement for the Bright one.  And on Wednesday the next block will be released.  I need to get busy!! 

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #45

This week had 2 non-sewing days, so I didn't get any more block sets assembled into tops.  But I did some block making to fill out sets that needed additional blocks.  

Because I've been making Windmill blocks again this fall, it was easy to just donate the 2 older Windmill quilt tops already hanging in the closet to be finished by someone else. Now the new blocks will continue to add up until I have enough of them.  Right now I have 34 blocks, sewn into 17 pairs.  I'll need a lot more, so these will continue into 2027. 

I've begun sewing the Tulip Swirl blocks (4" finished) into blocks of 4. So far there are 10 blocks, but there are tons more of the individual units in the basket.  I'm thinking about sashing these blocks but haven't decided on a color yet.  Any ideas are definitely welcome!!

And then there are the Churn Dash blocks - not following the RSC monthly colors, but definitely pulling from scraps left over from other quilts. 

After last week's comment about rectangular Churn Dash blocks, you know I just HAD to play with that idea this week.  Thanks Cherie - I've had fun with these!!  There are more in the works yet, and I haven't made much of a dent in the novelty print left overs. Based on how much of the print I had, I could make all 3 sizes or just 1 or 2 of them.  The big ones finish at 12" square, and the others are  6 x 12 and 6" square, so they all can be used together.  

Let's go check out more Rainbow fun . . .

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

This is a NOT finished kind of Friday, but I have moved forward a little on a couple of projects that are on my November goal list.

I can check off the Garden of Stars BOM for November.  We only need to make 1 paper-pieced star block each month, so this is pretty manageable.  There are also 13 alternating blocks, and I have 6 of those done so far.  

Another BOM that I'm doing is the Marigold Mystery (Meadow Mist Designs).  The November instructions were posted yesterday, and I have the parts all cut.  The sewing has begun, and maybe will continue today.  Each of the last 3 months we've made different pieced blocks.  This month we're turning them into spools.  My overall background will be that navy blue, and the spool tops are the pale blue.  I have 4 of the 8.5" blocks turned into 12.5" spools so far, with 5 remaining.  

Then there are some 6.5" blocks that will also become spools this month.  The cutting of the strips needed was definitely the most time consuming part of this task.

Another thing to check off my goal list for the month is donation quilt tops.  I have way too many flimsies hanging in the closet, waiting to be quilted.  So I've chosen 4 of them to donate to a good charity group that will finish them to distribute, and the box is now packed to mail.  These are all small to medium sizes.  The 2 Windmill tops are 45 x 54.  The Desert Horses (top left) is 40 x 46.  And the Woven Hearts top on the right is 60" square.   

For more finishes, please visit:  https://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com/

Loss of momentum

I'm going to blame this on endless days of rain.  I've been on a roll lately and have lots of productivity to show for it.  But yesterday I think I hit a wall - and never even stepped foot in my sewing room.  The day wasn't a total loss however.

The local DAR group (that I belong to) nominates and hosts a Quilt of Valor award at the November meeting.  This navy veteran is a retired teacher from the technical college here, and also a busy volunteer at the Carnegie Resource Center where we meet.  As always it was an honor to be a part of this wonderful program.

And when I got home yesterday afternoon - I sewed the labels onto 4 more Quilts of Valor that will be awarded on Veteran's Day by our QOV group.  There are 3 more quilts in the pile in my dining room that still need their labels.  Maybe that will happen today.