If a collection of fabric can be counted as a UFO, then this is one of mine. I collected patriotic fabrics for many years when I lived in America. I thought they were really pretty and inspiring, and I dreamed that I would make tablecloths and napkins for 4th of July barbecues, and picnic quilts, and bed quilts and wall hangings and Memorial Day banners…..I don’t know. Wonderful things.
Well, I never did any of that. And isn’t it marvelous that fabric does not have a “best before end” date?! Carefully stored away from sunlight and dust, these fabrics are still good as new, even though some of them date from the early 1990’s. And now they are finally going to be used for something worthwhile.
Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I am going to help some members of the HeartStrings Quilt Project make pillowcases for the Quilts of Valor Foundation. (I think other members might be making pillowcases for other charities.) It’s my first time to help with a project like this, and I am really excited about it. The QOV makes quilts for military personnel wounded in the line of duty, and the pillowcases are part of the gift and hold the rolled-up quilts when they are presented to the recipients.
If you are interested in the work of the Quilts of Valor Foundation, here is a link to their website:
If you would like more information on the HeartStrings Quilt Project, here is their link:
http://heartstringsquiltproject.com/
And here are three links for excellent Pillowcase sewing instructions:
From Mary Johnson (who I always think is the “Heart” of HeartStrings):
http://maryquilts.com/pillowcase/
Quiltmaker magazine:
http://www.quiltmaker.com/webextras/patt270/
Bee Happy Pillowcase by Mary Lou Weidman at the Benartex site:
http://www.benartex.com/projects/p_pillow.php
I don’t think I can wait until Thanksgiving weekend to start working on these pillowcases. I want to start sewing right now. And I surely have enough fabric to start now and still be sewing next weekend!
Happy Thanksgiving! Happy Sewing!
What a great collection! I hope to get pictures of the “end-products” 😉
Finally I found you. I got no blog-URL with your comment. I´m quite new on this 😉
Cheers, Sara (ikketikketheo)
Hi, Sara, thank you! I’m sorry the link was bad, I must have done something wrong. This is new for me, too. Thank you for finding me. Best wishes! 🙂
[…] weekend Pillowcase Party. I’m going to use each of the three patterns listed in my previous post about this project. These two cases were made with the Bee Happy pattern by Mary Lou Weidman. […]
[…] enough fabric for 15 standard size pillowcases. Patriotic fabric was not a requirement for the Pillowcase Party, but I had a huge stash of red-white-and-blue and thought this would be a great use for it. I had […]
[…] Quilt top, using scraps left over from the Quilts of Valor pillowcases made during November’s Pillowcase Party. This is going to be posted to Alycia, who is working on a mighty QOV project to personally […]
Very nice. I like these.