Quilts of Valor

Here in Kansas, I have lots of friends who are in my life because we share a love of quilting.  Some of my favorite quilty friends also share my passion for supporting our military service members.  We are a loosely organized bunch of quilters who make Quilts of Valor.  We've been making quilts for soldiers and veterans for several years, now.

Last week, I was fortunate enough to participate in delivering and awarding around 600 Quilts of Valor to Ft. Riley.  548 of these went to the 4-4 Cavalry Division.  These men and women just returned from Afghanistan and had heavy casualties.  

An officer told me today that there were 600 who deployed to Afghanistan. Of those 600, 8 were killed. Quilts were taken today to be given to the families of the fallen soldiers. Also, 143 Purple Hearts were awarded. Many soldiers received more than one Purple Heart.

It was a heartwarming experience to be able to see the faces of the soldiers as they picked out their quilts.  I will never forget it.

The American Legion Riders escorted us.  

This is my friend Elaine & me loading up the last of the quilts.

If you'd like to become involved in making Quilts of Valor & want more information, visit http://www.qovf.org for more information.  If you are local, give me a shout.  You can join my merry band of quilters.

For Beth in the KC Scrappy Bee

, originally uploaded by nkiblueeyes.

Color Wheel Swap & A Swap of My Own

A couple months ago in a moment of weakness, I signed up for a layer cake swap hosted by Distant Pickles.  A RAINBOW layer cake swap.  This was really one of my very favorite swaps because I am a sucker for rainbows and for pre-cuts.  We were assigned two colors (I got green and blue-green).  Before I knew it, we got these beauties in the mail.

I played around with them some.  The top picture are the squares we got in the swap. 

I added & subtracted some and am almost happy with the layout.  The top right and bottom left corners look much better in real life.  I do want to tweak those sections, though.  I may add another green or two.  I'm pretty heavy on the yellows & blues.  I like it that way, but adding some greens might balance it out better.  It's still on my design wall, but I am certainly itching to get it together.

In other news, Wyatt decided to start branching out with his wardrobe choices.  Since mid summer, he has insisted on only wearing red.  I gave up arguing about it a long time ago, but with St. Patrick's day coming, we worked on changing his attitude by talking to him about how everyone would pinch him if he wore red.  Now I can put him in most any colored shirt without too much argument.  Next up- We will argue about pants vs. shorts.

I have a hard time keeping clothes on Owen.  He is my little free spirit, always shedding his clothes, even in mixed company.  I won't comment on which side of the family tree this particular trait came from.  (grin) 

I've decided to host my own little Flickr swap of 2.5 inch squares.  It's by invite only, so if you're interested, let me know soon.  No repeats (all different fabrics) in increments of 10 squares.  Deadline for getting me the fabric is May 15.

Today's Sewing

We have been out of town visiting family & got home late last night. I'm still having allergies, so I took it easy today & spent time sewing.

I decided to make my hexies into a cover for my seeing machine. I've not seen another one made quite like I'm envisioning. Hope I can pull it off!

I caught up on my bee blocks tonight. Made 3 for Andrea & enjoyed them! I don't know why I was putting them off.

Later tonight, I'm going to work on blocks for Beth.

There's been some chatter going on in my old vintage sheet bee (bee vintage) about starting a new round up. My vintage sheet stash is really out of control. Would love to use some of it up! I'm not sure what I want to ask of everyone, but I have a couple ideas floating around...

It's good to be back home. I'm hopeful that I can get back into the swing of things.

One more wip bites the dust

Years ago when my youngest son was new, my quilting friend, Mary Gall gave me a stack of fat quarters to make something for my boys. I'm ashamed that it took me this long to finish it. But this weekend I tacked the binding down on it. One more for the books. :)



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Quilts of Valor Sewing Day With My Friends

Myrna's

Shirley's

 Shirley's

Shirley, Myrna & Kaye's

 Della's

Janie's

From the Greater KC Guild

 Closeup of quilted eagles (quilted by Judy Masur)

Ray's 

Elaine's 

 Closeup of quilting by Jill Dawson

Back of quilt 

Elaine's 

Elaine's

Elaine's 

Mine

Pam's 

Ray's (she made 3 of these) 

Lynn's 

A productive day for such a great cause!

Back into the swing of things

This block was made out of vintage sheets for Jenny in Bee Vintage.  Our bee was over last summer, but so many people flaked out & she didn't get enough blocks for her quilt, so I made an extra.

Then I got out a project I started with my Free Spirit Solids 1/2 yard pack.  I had grand plans for these, but decided to turn them into mug rugs instead.  In about an hour, I had 3 nice ones finished.  One of these will be traded in a mug rug swap at KCMQG next week.  Can't wait!

WIP Completed

Once upon a time (at least 6 years ago), I went shopping in Derby, KS and found this beautiful collection of 3 Sisters Moda fabric.  Always a sucker for Moda, I bought a bundle of fq's and decided I'd make a quilt of flying geese.  Imagine.  A really big flying geese quilt.

Well... I chopped it all up (mistake) and made a bunch of flying geese.  Even sewed some together.

And it sat.  In a heap.  And when I looked at it, I felt guilt.  I knew it would never be finished...

So instead of perpetuating that guilt, I decided to re-purpose my project.

My Memaw recently asked me if I could make something to cover a little rolling island in her kitchen.  This fabric is JUST her style.  In a few hours, I had this baby pieced, sandwiched, quilted and bound!

 (forgive the bad hair/no makeup...)

I have fabric left over, but I still feel like I've accomplished something and plan to mark this off my to do list. :)