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Posts Tagged ‘Quilts of Valor’

Patriotic blocks on the Design Wall

Posted in Design Wall Monday, Quilts of Valor, tagged , , , , , , on July 19, 2010| 8 Comments »

This week I’ve been sewing Patriotic fabric string blocks.  I couldn’t decide whether I liked the Bright Red centres or the Dark Red centres better, so I’m making both.  The blocks look a bit wonky right now because they haven’t been trimmed down to their proper size of 9.5 inches yet.

Bright Red:

Dark Red:

My red-white-and-blue string bin is overflowing with scraps left over from the pillowcases and my first Patriotic string quilt, so I’m sure I have plenty of fabric for two quilts!  Or more.   😉  I keep thinking this fabric is nearly used up, but it just seems to multiply overnight.   I guess it’s deceptive how much yardage is really there when it’s cut into narrow strips.

These are HeartStrings quilts, and when completed, they will go to Alycia in Colorado for the No Soldier Forgotten Quilts of Valor project.

To see what other quilters have on their Design Walls today, please visit Judy’s blog for a list of links.

Happy Quilting!

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Week 1 Stash Report

Posted in Stash Reports 2010, tagged , , , , , , , on January 3, 2010| 13 Comments »

We are three days into the New Year, and I am already in the negative column in my Stash Report!  😉

But I haven’t thrown caution to the winds  — I am planning ahead with my purchases.

The red polka dot is going into a Soldier quilt for Alycia’s No Soldier Forgotten project, which will be one of my HeartStrings projects this year.

The turquoise is for my older daughter’s birthday quilt, and the plum, violet and green are all for UFOs that I plan to finish this year.

I have also mail-ordered some other fabrics, but they haven’t arrived yet — the white muslin for the turquoise quilt, and a few other things that I already have specific plans for.   I hope that is “smart buying.”  🙂

My total fabric bought is 2.5 metres, which translates to about 2.75 yards.  I haven’t done any real sewing this week, but I am hoping to make a start on something this afternoon!  Got that design wall to think about for tomorrow!

Week 1 Stash Report

  • Bought Year-to-Date:  2.75 yards
  • Used Year-to-Date:  0

To read about other quilters’ Stash Reports, please visit Judy’s blog.

Happy Quilting!

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How to make the Harvest Festival Quilt

Posted in Quilts of Valor, tagged , , , , , , , on September 7, 2009| 3 Comments »

Several people have written to me with kind words and interest in the “Harvest Festival” quilt top that I made and donated to Quilts of Valor-UK, so I thought I would explain the history of that top and provide some links for similar patterns.

QOV-UK1

I actually started this top about seven or eight years ago.  When the QOV-UK lady said she was coming to my area sooner than expected, I had to get something ready for her very quickly, so I pulled this quilt top out of my UFO cupboard.

Most of the focus fabric came from a Benartex charm pack from many years ago and included country-style prints of apples and some plaids in various colourways.  I also used some stash fabric that complemented the mix — some orange to represent pumpkins, purple for aubergines (eggplants), and a variety of greens.

The blocks were paper-pieced, and they came from the original version of the Foundation Factory software.  The pattern is “Corn and Beans No. 3,” and the blocks were 4 inches square.  I needed a block that only used a small quantity of focus fabric because the charms were only 5 inches square.  That’s why this is such a brilliant pattern for using up scraps.  The background fabric is an assortment of cream-on-cream scraps from stash.

When I had lots of blocks made up, I just moved them around until I found a pleasing arrangement.  The borders are plain strips, and the colours are supposed to represent green cornfields and “amber waves of  grain.”

I have found some patterns on the Internet to share with you:

Dawn Duperault has a similar paper-pieced block called Hen and Chickens that you can print out.

Marcia Hohn at The Quilter’s Cache has a nice pattern for a larger Corn and Beans block, and the outer corner elements are the same as the block I used.  Her pattern is done by traditional piecing with some nifty cutting shortcuts, and her instructions and illustrations are clear and easy to follow.

Easy Quilting has a lovely pattern here which uses traditional templates, and Sally Schneider has a similar pattern called “Mary’s Triangles” that she teaches in classes.

I miss that quilt now that it’s gone.  Maybe it’s time to make another one!

Happy Sewing!  🙂

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Featherweight Holiday (and Stash Report)

Posted in Quilts of Valor, Sewing machines, tagged , , , , , , , , on August 30, 2009| 6 Comments »

We had a lovely summer holiday visiting my husband’s family near London.   I took my Singer 221K (Featherweight) with me to sew in the evenings while the others were watching TV, and I got a good start on a blue and white Log Cabin quilt to donate to Alycia for the Quilts of Valor project.

My beautiful Featherweight was manufactured in 1956 at the Kilbowie Factory in Clydebank, Scotland.  She is called “Rosalie,” after my great-grandmother.   I bought her several years ago from my local sewing machine repairman, and she sews a perfect stitch!

Rosalie Featherweight

Now that I’m sewing again, I’d like to start keeping track of my Stash Report  again…if my group hasn’t kicked me out, that is!  😉  I haven’t  bought any new fabric, but I have used a lot of blue strings from my scrap bins!

Happy Sewing!

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Works in Progress (Stash Report #10)

Posted in Quilting, tagged , , , , , , , , , on March 8, 2009| 5 Comments »

I have many irons in the fire this week.

Quilt as You Go blocks for Jan’s Australian Bush Fire quilt project:

qayg1

qayg2

Jan has a two-part tutorial on how to make these blocks with strings and scrap pieces of batting: (more…)

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Quilts of Valor-UK: Delivered!

Posted in Quilts of Valor, Sewing, tagged , , , , , , on March 2, 2009| 3 Comments »

Today I met with the coordinator of the Quilts of Valor-UK project and delivered the two quilt tops described in my blog on Sunday.  The coordinator, Jean Morris, was very pleased with the quilts, and I felt so happy to help with such an important mission.  We had a nice cup of coffee and a good long chat.  It was lots of fun to meet another (more…)

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Quilts of Valor donations ready (Stash Report #9)

Posted in Quilts of Valor, Sewing, Stash Reports 2009, tagged , , , , on March 1, 2009| 23 Comments »

I have four Quilts of Valor tops ready for donation on Monday.

These two are going to the QOV-UK group.

qov-uk1

qov-uk21

The UK coordinator lives hundreds of miles away in another part of the United Kingdom, but she is going to be in my area tomorrow visiting relatives so we have arranged to meet for coffee and (more…)

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A Mixed Bag (Stash Report #6)

Posted in Nigel the quilting dog, Stash Reports 2009, tagged , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2009| 3 Comments »

What a week! A little bit of sewing, a little bit of baking, and a whole lot of snow.

My sewing things are still unorganised from last week’s room shifting, so this week I sewed on projects that I could find easily and didn’t have lots of small pieces that had to be laid out.  I found a quilt top that was nearly finished and just needed another border.  This will be a donation quilt for QOV-UK.   I hope it doesn’t look too ’70s with that Harvest Gold and Avocado!  I didn’t notice that until I saw the photograph.  I’ve always called this quilt “Harvest Festival,” and  I was really thinking of golden Amber grain and cornfields when I chose the fabrics.

harvest-qov

I also put the binding on a purple wall hanging that I started several years ago with the scraps from a quilt that I made for my niece.  I couldn’t find any more of the background fabric to make the binding, so I used a coordinating purple from my stash.  I just need to make the hanging tabs and hand-sew the binding down, and it will be finished.  This is one of the UFOs for my Stashbuster UFO Challenge.

purple-wallhanging

We had so much snow this week that we couldn’t get the cars out, and school was even cancelled one day.  My husband and little girl had a great time sledging in the snow.

sledge1

Here’s my little Nigel dog in the back garden.

nigel

I stayed inside where it was warm and did baking.  I made three loaves of white bread, two loaves of wholemeal seedy bread, two pans of yeast rolls, and a batch of Snicker Doodle cookies.

baked-goods

The other days when school was open again, we just put on our boots and walked.  It’s only about a mile.  It sure is different from walking to school in the old days in Southeast Texas!  😉

I also had plenty of time to do Web Surfing.  Here are two sites I found that are new to me and have lots of lovely quilt patterns with clear instructions:

San Fernando Valley Quilting Association

Andover Fabrics Quilt Designs

Here are my totals for Stash Report Week 6:

  • Bought    0
  • Used        1/2 yd for binding and hanging tabs
  • YTD Bought    6 yds
  • YTD Used         29 yds

Happy Sewing!

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All Change Now (Stash Report #5)

Posted in Quilts of Valor, Sewing, tagged , , , , , , on February 1, 2009| 4 Comments »

Our older daughter had to move back in with us this week, so we’ve been busy rearranging furniture and setting up a bedroom for her.  I didn’t get to sew as much as I had hoped, but I did make 43 blocks for my Quilts of Valor-UK quilt.  It won’t take long to finish now.

With all the house cleaning and moving things around, I made some happy discoveries.  I was pleased to find two more nice UFOs, like old friends I was happy to see again.  🙂  I also found these cute 1/2 yard cuts of Michael Miller fabric that I misplaced some time ago.   The design is called Giddy Dot.  I love that name!  It makes me feel happy to look at this fabric.

giddy-dot

My Stash Report totals for Week 5 are the same as last week, I’m afraid.  Fingers crossed for better progress next week!

  • Total bought this week:  0
  • Total used this week:  0
  • Year-to-Date Bought:  6 yds
  • Year-to-Date Used:  28.5 yds

Happy Sewing!

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HeartStrings Quilt Top (QOV) & Stash Buster Report #3

Posted in Sewing, Stash Reports 2009, tagged , , , , , , , on January 18, 2009| 2 Comments »

This morning I finished my first HeartStrings 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 deliver 400 quilts to the project in May 2009.   She will finish it into a proper quilt with batting, backing and binding.

heartstrings-qov

We went outside to take advantage of the lovely January sunshine, and my husband and teenage daughter held the quilt up for me to photograph.

I used 6 yards of fabric for this quilt top.  The centre lattice strips are blue Kona cotton purchased on our last trip to America a few years ago, and all the strips are pieced onto muslin squares.

patriotic-strings

When you make a scrap quilt, do you ever have a favourite block?  This is my favourite from this project.  It just looked so “right” to me that I had to take a picture!  😉

favourite-string-block

Stash Buster Report for Week 3:

  • Fabric purchased:  0
  • Fabric used:  6 yards.
  • Year-to-date purchased:  0
  • Year-to-date used:  6.75 yards.

Now I can’t wait to get started on something new!

Happy Sewing!

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