Friday, March 16, 2012

Quilts of Valor

Yesterday I attended our local chapter of Quilts of Valor and we had a great turn out. The weather was beautiful and the hosting church made us a wonderful lunch.  This week we met in the Knights of Columbus Hall in Old Monroe, MO. We move around each month to a different church or hall. There are  90-100+ ladies each month and they come from 4 or 5 surrounding counties.  We quilt all day with breaks for snacks and lunch.  It's really a lot of fun and for a great cause.  To date, our group has given out 801 handquilted quilts to our troops.   It's amazing to see so many hand quilters in one place-- just like the old-time quilting bees we've heard about.  We finish 6 to 12 quilts each time we meet, which is sometimes twice a month. Here are some shots of a couple finished ones and some we are working on.  All the tops are donated by members and their friends.

Some lucky soldier will be getting this beauty soon.

I don't know if you can see this, but the maker drew more grazing deer and quilted a scene in the large tan border.
It's hard to get a good perspective on the size of his room, but if you can imagine 15 or more large quilting frames set up with  6 or 8 chairs around each, then you can get an idea of the size needed to hold us all.


Sorry these are not better pics. I was trying to show how many quilt frames were set up, but there wasn't a place to stand to get a wide angle shot.  I think I need more practice and a better camera!

4 comments:

  1. I wish I could have been there quilting with you!! Congrats to all the ladies on passing the 800 mark!!

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  2. Dar, that is awesome! Must be quite moving to be part of such a large group accomplishing so much. I really like the RWB 9-patch on point quilt :)

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  3. That is fantastic!!! How much fun is that = with all those amazing people gathered together! Thank you for sharing!!!

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  4. I am also in a very active Quilts of Valor group. I'm the only hand quilter in our group. We meet to sew quilt tops, then, hand them off to the long arm quilters to quilt them. We work with the Returning Warrior Weekend groups, so, they need about 90 quilts every 3 months, along with all of the other quilts we hand out. There are LOTS of quilters in our area of Chicagoland. I wish we had the space that you have. We'd get lots more to attend the sew-ins if there was just more room. Love that top quilt the best.

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Thanks for taking time to stop by and visit. It makes my day to get mail - either online or in the old fashion mailbox! Some habits you never outgrow.