Another Quilt of Valor

Another Quilt of Valor award was made Tuesday night.  

This veteran served 2 tours in Viet Nam, and received the Distinguished Flying Cross for his service.  The quilt award was made at an evening gathering of family in his backyard. He lives in the same small town as my youngest daughter.  So I was able to combine a little family time along with the QOV award.  He was really tall which made wrapping him in the quilt a bit of a challenge for me since I'm height challenged.

I've continued to work on the Saturday Sampler applique.  The Dresden Plates are all stitched down with a blanket stitch.  My plan had been to do a simple outline stitch on the snowflakes but it doesn't really secure the edge very well, so I may do the blanket stitch on them after all in spite of how many corners and turns there are in each snowflake.

Moving along

More progress has been made on the Saturday Sampler applique, with one more of the larger Dresdens finished.  That section of the quilt also has a couple of large snowflakes.  Once I get that whole section stitched down I'll share another picture.

 I've also been working on the blocks I have cut out and arranged on the design boards when I need a break from applique.  A few RSC blocks in aqua have been made, and a few more RWB blocks too. Having the parts cut and laying on the design boards makes it easy.

There was a small stack of 6" Churn Dash blocks in RWB, just waiting to become something. The stack began with a couple of blocks in a box of goodies from Nann last fall.  I made a few more to go with them, thinking I might use them in placemats or maybe a doll quilt.  

But they also make very nice centers for star blocks or inside a bigger churn dash.  Only 2 have been used like this so far, but the rest are on a design board waiting for their turn. They will end up in a future QOV sampler quilt.  

The other task that is happening in between other things - sorting some fabric, and trying to improve the overall organization of fabric. I've been handed various bags of RWB scraps the past couple of months, and I'm determined to tame them - one bag at a time.  These block parts were cut from what was in one small bag - Gleam and Rail Fence parts. That little bag also had some large squares of some novelty prints that I put into the doll quilt pile.  

One more empty bag!!!  Yay!!!  And - I've started another box for a future rummage sale.  Our guild did really well on the April rummage sale, so we'll probably do it again next year.  My box is now labeled and even has a few quilt-related things in it already.

Applique progress & stash accountability

I've made some progress on the applique of the Dresdens for Saturday Sampler. These 2 quarter Dresdens were finished first, and sewn together with the 9-patch blocks.  This unit is ready to add to one of the big sections.

The color here is very washed out, but this one is also ready to attach to a different big section of the quilt.  Next up are the larger Dresdens, and the big snowflakes.  I'm using a blanket stitch on the Dresdens, but will do a simple top stitch on the snowflakes.  The thread is a grey that seems to be blending in with all of the colors.

Since the beginning of January I've been keeping track of the fabric I buy versus the fabric I'm using.  At the halfway point in the year I'm pleased to be able to show that the yardage OUT are slightly better than the yardage IN.  It's not a big number, but it is good to have used more than I've purchased.  I bought a lot of wide backs the past few months, but I've also finished quite a few projects.  Let's hope I can keep going and make that OUT number even bigger in the last half of the year.

Design Wall Monday - June 29

So . . . here it is midway through summer already and we haven't taken any kind of "vacation" at all this year.  Is retirement really just a Big Stay-cation?  I fear that would be my husband's choice.  There is a big shop hop starting this month.  That might have to count as my vacation this year.

We did spend the weekend enjoying some grandkid activities.  Youngest grandson Jack had a baseball tournament on Saturday about 100 miles away.  It was chilly, overcast, and windy most of the day - with an hour or so of bright sunshine mid-afternoon.  So there is some sunburn to report.  LOL  But they won their tournament, and we enjoyed supper at a great restaurant a couple of blocks from their house afterward.  A fun day!  On Sunday we left about 7 AM to attend the swim meet and watch Olivia.  She's aged up this year at she's 13, but still doing great and shaving time off various events.  

The main project I want to work on this week is to begin stitching down the applique for Saturday Sampler, starting with the Dresdens and then the snowflakes.  The Dresdens also need their center circles, which I haven't even cut yet. 

Some other goals for the week (and month) include:

 ** some cleaning/organizing in sewing room
** RSC blocks - new color for July is aqua
** add last row of string blocks to String Star 
** QOV - continue block making
** bind at least 2 placemats
** Next UFO on list - choose something!!

The first RSC blocks I want to make are the Honey Bees.  I have my 2 aqua fabrics selected, so it won't take long to make them both.  It's month 7 but I skipped the pastels for these last month because there were already 2 bee blocks that were pastel shades (pink and blue).  I want the quilt to have primarily bright blocks. 

I have dozens of RWB blocks all kitted up and layed out on design boards, ready to use as Leaders/Enders.  When we got home yesterday from the swim meet I did some cutting in the aqua scraps for RSC blocks, so there will be plenty to sew up quickly this week.

I'm linking up today with:

https://smallquiltsanddollquilts.blogspot.com/ 

https://songbirddesigns.blog 

RSC26 - Week #26

Yikes!  We've reached the halfway point in 2026, already.

Just a little pastel sewing for RSC happened this week, including these 2 reversed Buckeye blocks.  

Another Crackers and Jam block was made, although it wasn't all pastel.  These blocks are 6.5" unfinished, a paper pieced pattern from Bonnie Hunter.  There is no real plan in my head for these yet, but they're awfully cute.

The main pastel project this week has nothing to do with scraps.  But I wanted to share it anyway.  This is our 2026 Saturday Sampler, Anthologie.  That bottom section in the pattern is where we add various applique to showcase the "theme" we've chosen.  I'm doing snowflakes, but haven't attached those snowflakes yet.  This month we're doing the Dresden plate blocks for the upper section.  As I was laying it out on the floor to place those Dresdens, I had one of those lightbulb moments.  The snowflakes and Dresdens will be mixed in those 2 sections to distribute my them pieces better.  There are also some half sized snowflakes that will go elsewhere.    

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

https://superscrappy.blogspot.com/

Finished (or not) Friday

The mini quilt came together very quickly.

It's only 12" square so even with paper piecing it's a fast little project.  I did replace the border fabric with something from my own stash that I liked better than what was in the kit.  That left over kit fabric will be just fine in some upcoming QOV blocks instead so it won't go to waste.

I did get that last 60 degree runner fixed and bound. It's actually a match to one I made last year, so obviously I had purchased a lot of that border print at some point.  I'm thinking both of these will be donated to an upcoming fundraiser.

This week I've been gradually sorting and clearing out another bin full of RWB patriotic scraps that needed to be used.  The first time through was to make a red pile, a blue pile, and a neutral/light print pile.  Then each pile was sorted into little scraps, strips, and large pieces.  

  I used some 2.5" strips that I found to cut into parts for 2 placemats.  And the blue pile has been decreased a lot by cutting the pieces for more Gleam, Ticker Tape, Rail Fence, and Buckeye Beauty blocks for Quilts of Valor.  Those pieces have been added to the appropriate design boards.  

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

Dresden Plate blocks

My frantic sewing pace has definitely slowed down this week, with much less time spent in my sewing room.  I really didn't realize how many appointments I had scheduled all in a 2 week cluster.  And my new glasses might be ready for pick up today.  

Saturday Sampler this month has several Dresden Plate blocks.  Progress has been slow but moving forward.  The purple block was sewn last week, and the pink one is from this week.  It's much bigger than the purple one.

This teal/aqua Dresden will be the same size as the pink version.  None of the background squares for the bigger ones have been cut yet, and I'm still not sure exactly how I want to applique them onto the background. I'm going to finish the Dresdens and then I'll worry about backgrounds and applique stitches. 

There are some partial blocks left to make that are not even cut out yet. Maybe that will happen today.