Quilts of Valor 2014

Around Christmas, or before , Quilts of Valor was featured on the news. There was an impressive young soldier saluting while in his hospital bed. The follow-up created quite a lot of requests for Quilts of Valor.  However in some states we don't have coordinators, or the contacts needed to fulfill those requests.

In comes Barb.. She is our impressive Requests Coordinator. She takes care of us and helps us coordinate these.

There so happened to be a request in Kentucky that there was not a Quilt for... and so we stepped in ;-)

Remember the block drive that we did with the Scrappy Trips Blocks?

We mailed it off to Chris to present it to a wonderful VietNam Veteran.

Mr. John was just tickled. He has a Silver Star and a Distinguished Service Medal.

I am going to bet that He and his Wife will cherish this quilt!

Don't you just love it - inspecting the back ;-)

 Here they are reading the journal that goes with it. I bet he was surprised to know how many people had a hand in making this quilt for him!  Can't you just imagine how impressive that sounds - to know that so many wanted to Thank him in the form of this quilt?

So! Thank you all for pitching in and helping us to meet these needs. And if you are interested Quilts of Valor is looking for some coordinators, and some groups to step up to meet these needs... just go to QOVF.org and you can click on the COntact Us in the upper Right corner - ask what you can do... they will help ;-)

Next show.... Quilty Eye Candy - hope to see you back!
Alycia

How a presentation came to be:

I am sure you know by now that we meet Veterans in all sorts of locations, and find out their needs from friends, family etc.

One of our Quilt of Valor quilters Arlene, told me of such a person. She felt this person needed a quilt based on an experience that her Son in Law shared.  So I said - Let's do it!  

Liz - my wonderful side kick - who is also a Veteran, and is an amazing presentation coordinator took over! She got in contact with our recipient, and arranged a presentation.

From Liz: "Presenting this QOV to Bonnie was an amazing experience. I do believe that she was the most appreciative of all of the QOV we have presented. Reading the letter from Brad U was an exercise in composure -- so heart-warming and sincere! It is so obvious that Bonnie is loved and respected by all of the Staff at the VA Hospital."

I just love the look of happiness and really - surprise on her face. I am sure she knew what a Quilt was - but I am not sure she really *knew* about the Quilt of Valor...

This is Bonnie and her sister.

A little about Bonnie:

On October 23, 1983, 241 soldiers were killed in their sleep during the bombing of the Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. For almost 30 days, Lieutenant Bonnie T. was the Mass Casualty Officer at Rhein Main Air Base in Frankfurt, Germany, assigned to help identify and process the body parts. Day after day, she did her duty, while trying to detach from the horror of it all.


I really love how our system works. I love that people know people who need a little extra love, and a big tight hug. I can tell you - This quilt totally made her day!

Go forth and Quilt ;-)

Monday!

What a difference a day makes - Saturday... 70 degrees, outside all day, loving it....

Sunday morning ..Snow, wind and rain ( yep all of them)
Monday morning - 5 inches of snow on the ground....  can we say Spring?  ;-)

At least Sunday I got to work on my projects a little - and I didn't feel bad about staying indoors.

Here is my design wall. I finished the last three purple Churn Dash blocks. I am still undecided if it should go bigger or not. I kinda think yes. That way it would be easier to arrange the dark and the floral purples into a nice plan.

I also finished a few more of the framed 9 patch blocks (maryquilts.com)

And... are you ready?  are you sitting down?

I bound.... yep! I bound a Whole quilt!

Oh yes - and this weekend was shop hop. I arrived there bright and early friday morning - ready to peruse the aisles. What fun all that new fabric is!  I purchase some superhero cartoon fabrics. I must still be a kid at heart!

And.... Your nature photo of the day:  Snow on the mountains!!

I am linking up with
Patchworktimes  and Anything Goes Monday

Purple

This months Scrappy Saturday's  Color is Purple....

I have searched all of my scrap bags and I can not find any scraps of purple. I have yardage... so NO Worries there.... but I was trying to use my bits and scraps up first...

And then I remembered why  - I put all of my purple scraps into this quilt:

It is the Pineapple Blossom pattern at Quiltville.com





Not to worry -
I am making new purple scraps with this one:

Maybe next month will be yellow and I will be a step ahead?


Your complimentary Nature photo for the day:  ( surprise - a Tree!)

Flashing back

There are some days I am surprised at how fast time has flown:

Quilts of Valor 2014 - Lots of of Eye Candy

Warning ** Picture Laden Post**

We have finished so many Quilts of Valor recently - I am so proud of all of us. And I am so grateful for these beautiful quilts to bring love to our Veterans!

Are you ready????  Got your coffee? Hot Chocolate??  Bowl of Cereal?? Here we go...........

First off... showing a little love! Don't you just love seeing these quilts wrapped around their shoulders? I just love that they do this!!  Reminds me of when my boys would play Super- Hero ( yes it was just on Sunday!!)

Our first quilt today comes from Ann and was quilted by Paula. Ann and Paula took their quilt to "The Quilt Store" in Broomfield and they got it to Kathy- who got it to me! Thanks to "The Quilt Store" for being a drop-off location for us!!  PS - They have an AWESOME store... I took Kevin the Quilter to check it out!

Next we have a string quilt that was a block of the month at my Quilt Guild. We think that Joan Quilted it - but we aren't entirely sure - so Joan.... Your getting credit for it ;-)

This one was made by Nancy A in Colorado. Nancy won the strips from a giveaway on the blog, and she sent it back to us - it was a little shy of the size so Mary added borders, and then Sandy D in Eaton Quilted it. Isn't that cool - team effort!!

I hope someone can help me out here. The quilt above... I lost the name who made it.... I blame spring break! It was quilted by Jan S of Colorado. Both Sandy and Jan are in our local guild and are great machine quilters! I appreciate their help.

This stack n whack!!  We were sent the colored pieces all cut out, and I layed a block out on my design wall. Mary M said she would really like to put it together - so she dug through our fabric stash and found the complementary fabrics... She stitched it up and Liz T.D  took it to quilt!  LOVE it!

This Quilt is one of our Block Drive Quilts!!  Aren't they so fun to see get put together? I really think Karen put this one together - but I have been known to get a little overwhelmed at our sew days.  Oh! it was quilted Liz T.D.

And again - another a Block Drive quilt! Quilted by Liz TD as well!. It is just so fun to see how people put them together!!

The next two quilts were Pieced by Marty O of Ft Collins!  So! The guild that Marty belongs to invited me to come see the quilts that they had made for Quilts of Valor. They were awesome ( Pics will be coming - Promise!!)  And Marty asked if I might have a connection to a Machine Quilter. Liz ( Bless her!!) said - oh sure - I'll get them done....

And Voila - She did!! Both of them!!!

Thanks to all the quilters that help out! This joint effort is so cool!!

Can you handle one more photo??

Can you??

Oh my  - the happiness.... the love.... the feeling of being cherished.

Western Table Topper

I made one of these Table Toppers for our house. Of course, when cutting it - I had the brilliant idea to make two - one for us and one to sell. Of course, it always takes longer to finish the second one right?

In this case, lets not ask exactly how long -if you don't mind!

Anyways - it is now finished. And I still like it as much as the first one!

aren't those fun prints?   I will admit - I have a rather large collection of Western/Cowboy fabrics. AND! I have a hard time cutting into them. I really am glad I cut into them this time. My table topper in on my antique table that I inherited from my Grandmother. I think it adds to its antique'ness ;-)

I enjoyed quilting it - I used a lot of back and forth lines. I thought it would make it lay flat, and be easy to wash, without taking away from the fabrics.

The Table topper is in my Etsy store - the link is over at the right.

And now... for your lovely tree shot... you were really needing another one correct? ;-)

Gettin' it Done

We had such a refreshing time on Vacation. But we came back with tons of ideas, and planning, and wanting to dig into the *stuff* that we had just been struggling with.  Of course, that is wearing out now... Real life is taking over.

How does this apply to my quilting? I decided I better finish up a few projects. For some reason this year, I am just wanting to start a lot of new things! I must have been concentrating so much on actually finishing things - I caught "Quilt Startitis"

What did I get finished?  Well a whole lot more is finished in my head that in reality, but at least I am thinking about it right?

I finished my *Sticks* quilt top.  I went with layout one, it seemed to just pop more - and more of you voted for it - so I figured if we all liked it this way.... this way it must go.  The quilt pattern can be found here:

Quilting is more fun than Housework     (don't you just love that blog name?  I can relate!)

Someone had commented that they did not have strips long enough to make this block.... notice the bottom left string? Many of mine were pieced. I REALLY wanted to use up my scraps.  And sadly - like most scraps - I a sure they have multiplied . Again!

And then because Wrangler Man said I needed to go help him set a post that the wind had snapped, I decided that this quilt was extremely important - and HAD to be worked on RIGHT then.  I sent my boys.

I am not sure how large it will become, I know that I have 4 more blocks in process on the cutting table. That may be it. Or not... or .. well?  See I am just so indecisive. Of course, I don't have a lot of purple in my stash - so this just may be it!

Mary ( or Mollie) had posted about these blocks - and she wrote up a quick pattern. I was just intrigued, and of course I have a HUGE box of 2 1/2 inch strips. I may actually have 2 boxes - but you didn't ask correct?

Framed 9 Patch  Is the pattern ( and the link) . I am actually making the 9 patches with 2 1/2 inch squares, rather that the strip that Mollie uses. The only reason? My scraps strips are smaller in length than what she used.

For more design walls head over to http://www.patchworktimes.com
For Anything Goes head over to:  http://karensquiltscrowscardinals.blogspot.com/


And now - for your lovely Tree shot.  You all need more trees in your life correct?  So here is todays: