Quilts of Valor Block Drive

Well, today is the day when I can show what I've been working on that was under wraps for a couple weeks.

My friend Jan at The Colorful Fabriholic designed a block and offered it for a block drive for Quilts of Valor. I met her for coffee one day to discuss it and by that evening I had made half of the blocks needed for my top.  They are that easy.

Since you all know that Quilts of Valor is a cause close to my heart, I'm joining up with Alycia at Alycia Quilts and Jan to hold a block drive too for QOV-Eastern Missouri This will be the first time I've done a block drive from this side of things.  Usually I'm making blocks to send to other block drives, so I invite you to join in the fun and help make our veterans feel the appreciation and love they deserve for their service to us.  Thanks to Alycia and Jan for letting me share in this block drive for our veterans.

Here is the finished top that I made.
                                                

These blocks are very addictive and before you know it, you will have a large stack.  You can find the tutorial for making the blocks HERE or HERE.  The cutting instructions make two blocks at the same time. That's a bonus in my book.  Please use patriotic fabrics with neutrals and lights or darks as suggested.

There are many different settings possible with this block.  I played in EQ7 and came up with some other fun layouts too, a flying geese arrangement - horizontally and vertically, diamonds on point and more. Hope we get enough blocks to make them all.  We have a lot of veterans that still need to be covered with our love.

You can send any blocks for the QOV-Eastern Missouri group to me between now and the end of the year. I will post pictures of all the finished tops that are made.

QOV-Eastern MO BLOCK DRIVE 
2627 Bates Rd.
O'Fallon, MO 63368.  

Thank you for your help in getting these quilts made. I'll be thinking of some means to reward your efforts.

Design Wall - Aug. 29, 2016

This week found me busily putting together several quilt tops for our veterans and finishing up some quilting.  One top is a secret QOV quilt that I can't show until Wednesday.  Stop back then.

But I can show the other project that is on my design wall. It is an Honor Flight quilt.  Several times a year we have groups of 30-35 that leave from St. Louis on their way to visit the war memorials in Washington, DC. through the Honor Flight program.  One lady from our guild gets up at 1 a.m. in order to get to the airport at 4 a.m. to present each veteran with an honor flight quilt.  We have made more than 100 Honor Flight quilts.  She has gone a step further this time.  She embroidered the center design and gave them out to volunteers at the guild to make a quilt for the next group out of St. Louis.
If you can't read it, it says "Home of the Free because of the Brave".  There is a flag, boots and dog tags in black embroidery.  They are 36" - 40" square as requested by the sponsors of the program so they can take and use them on the plane and buses throughout the day. 

I also received a donation of a Quilts of Valor from another guild member at the same meeting.  It was pieced by Shirley H. with patriotic fat quarters that she won in a contest.

Isn't this pretty. This is such a simple design, but I love the layout she used. Some veteran will love receiving this. Thanks so much Shirley for your donation.

A couple more finishes this week too.  These were made by a friend to be used as table toppers or wall hangings during the Christmas holidays.

 She made both these from her scraps left over from other projects. What a great design using simple blocks--half square triangles and rail fence.  Easy peasy. This would be a great stashbuster made in a larger size.

This only has HST with an accent strip randomly placed.

I'm a little late linking up with Judy's DWM, but it's still Monday where I am.  lol

Design Wall - August 22, 2016

Here's what my design wall looks like today.  The leader/ender zig zag blocks are the result of my newest quilt top finish.  I can't show that yet, but I will tell you it involves our Quilts of Valor Chapter of Eastern MO.

Also this week I finished quilting another quilt that was donated to our local QoV by a gentleman from North Dakota who pieced this beautiful top. Thank you so much R.L. Your piecing was perfect and I love the design.  It was too big for our hand quilting frames, so they asked me to quilt it.  I'm happy with the results.

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday.

OTN and A Finish

I finally finished my first scrappy patchwork sock.  I really like all the bright colors and watching the designs appear with each new scrap.  I use 5 dpns to make my socks from the top down, but have been wanting to try some other methods. Maybe after this pair is finished, I will try using those cute little 9" circulars. Still want to try the toe up method too, but haven't taken the time yet to try that. Someone told me it's harder going that direction, especially if you learned the top down method first. Since I'm so slow as it is and I love being able to understand what I'm doing from the top/down, I might not rush into it.  No need to increase the time it takes me to make a pair of socks to one pair a year, right?  And I do have lots of yarn that is waiting to be knitted up.

Also spent some time quilting this small children's size quilt. This is called Bunny Tales and was meant to be a fabric book. Making it into a quilt will get a lot more use, I think and hopefully the little one will use it longer. She can still "read" the book if it's wrapped around her, right?

Time to get busy on loading another quilt, or piecing a QOV or one of my UFOs. But I'm going to check out what others have on their needles this week over at Patchwork Times first.  Why not meet me there.

OTN - August 5, 2016

I did a little more knitting on my scrappy sock this week, but most of my spare time was spent finishing up a couple quilts for others.  Here's where I am on my scrappy sock.

And here's one of the quilts that kept me from doing more knitting.  lol

Lady of the Lake (104" x 104")

Back of same quilt

Linking up with Judy's OTN.