Quilts of Valor

I spent the summer months sewing quilt tops.Specifically for Quilts of Valor. There are certain guidelines that need to be followed, one being size. The quilt needs to fall within a size range and all of these are between 55" wide and 80" long. My goal was to use up the panels that I had accumulated. I not only sewed up the tops but in a couple of instances pieced the backings. All six quilts were quilted on my mid-arm quilting machine.

This first quilt was made with fabric I found at a thrift store. I cut it into blocks and added borders to bring it to size. It is 60"x80"

I had two of the same panels so I wanted to make the quilts a bit different to each other. You can see that I also had quite a bit of the same light fabric with the small stars on it so I used it in both quilts. Yes, that braid is pieced and not a pre-printed fabric. These two quilts measure 56x67"

This quilt uses quite a lot of the same fabric line from Stonehenge. It measures 55x67"

Here's another one that I used up the remaining fabric from the previous quilt.

 The center of this quilt was a fabric panel and some matching fabric that was given to me. The rest was pulled from my fabric stash. Lots of plaids in this one

Using The Setting Triangle

I have avoided putting quilts on point because of the chore of trying to figure out what size square to cut and then slice in an X. I bought this ruler many years ago and I haven't used it! Until now.

I am made a Quilt of Valor that I am simply calling Rails and Squares. I haven't used my Singer Featherweight in a while and I thought it was time to dust her off and make a quick quilt. 

So here are the specifics to make this quilt if you want to make it:
• Cut 42 squares at 6.5" x 6.5"
• Cut your rails at 2.5" wide by WOF (width of fabric). Since my quilt is entirely of scraps some of the strips were shorter. Don't use strips any shorter than 6.5"
• Sew the lighter strips to each side of the medium/dark strips, my middle strips are all reds.
• Cut the strips into 6.5" squares
• The layout is the tricky part. Notice how the rails alternate directions? Start with the longest diagonal row (I went from upper right to lower left) and lay out the blocks. Then continue building from there. Sew the blocks together in diagonal rows.
• For the setting triangles I used "The Setting Triangle" ruler. Using the ruler, I cut a strip at 5 1/8" wide and then placed The Setting Triangle on the strip with the 90° angle at the top and the line along the bottom of the edge of your strip and cut on both sides of the triangle. Then I rotated the triangle 180° and cut another triangle. The long edge of the setting triangle is on the straight grain.
Woohoo!

• For the corner triangles, I used the 7" line and cut two triangles. Then I cut the triangles in half from the 90 degree angle to the base. This puts the long edge of the corner triangle on the bias and the outside edges on the straight of grain. Don't worry, there are instructions online if you need them.
• The edges will need to be squared up.


You are going to be seeing a lot more of my quilts on point now.

First Finishes of 2016!

I have two finishes! The first ones of the new year.

This first quilt is a Quilt of Valor. Yes, I know, it isn't the Red/White/Blue color combo, but the size is right.

The diamond strips came out of the parts department. They were intended to be borders on another quilt, but it just didn't work. The backing is a black Kona cotton that I discharged dyed so it wouldn't be a solid and would therefore help to hide the quilting stitches.

This next one is a gift but I'm not telling who the recipient is just in case that person reads my blog.

This pattern is the first published BQ pattern. I love to use it when I have a large print fabric that would be lost in smaller blocks.

I did an all over quilting in the center, ditch stitched on each side of that narrow green border and then did a ribbon candy FMQ in the black border. I love this quilt and I hope the recipient does also.

Quilt of Valor: 3.5" squares

I've been using my Accuquilt cutter to make some donated fabrics a bit more manageable. One of the sizes of squares is 3.5" and is not a size I often use but I have some in red/white/blue so I came up with this simple design to fit within the QOV size guidelines.

I'll find out if my math is right when I start to sew.

Update: my math was right, but my counting seems to be wrong. After I got home from work, I 'built' the quilt in Electric Quilt 7 and there are only 152 square of each color. I best get to work.

Design Wall Monday - May 6, 2013

Apparently, I am not happy unless there are multiple projects going. This is how the studio looked when I closed the door yesterday. In fact, I stood in the doorway to take these photos.
 

In the lower left of this photo, the counter that doubles as a cutting surface is visible with the next border of the Baltimore Christmas BOM ready to stitch on it. Beyond that, is the old Singer treadle machine currently being used for string piecing. The foundation papers are sitting to the right of the machine and just on the back corner of the treadle cabinet is the growing stack of 'blocks'. As a string gets pulled from the basket, it will be sewn to the foundation paper, unless it is a longer red or blue one as evidenced from the growing pile on the floor of a future QOV string quilt.

Behind the treadle is the Bernina that is set up for the machine applique of the Baltimore Christmas BOM. I don't want to mess with the settings, that's why I'm using the treadle at the moment. And there is the pile of the purple knitted jacket waiting for the hand-stitching of the frog closures to complete it. On the back corner, is the box of fabrics used in the Baltimore Christmas BOM.

 

Progressing a bit further around the room, the hand quilting frame becomes visible. It is currently in use as a hanger for six (6!) basted quilts awaiting quilting. The oak rocking chair is blocking the view of a small side table that currently holds a hand piecing project and just go to this post for the design wall that is behind the rocking chair and hasn't changed in a while.

And there you have the state of my studio. Did you keep track of the projects? If you didn't, the number is 12.

Quilt Content --FINALLY!

I was actually able to get a couple of donation quilts finished over the weekend. This first one is a Quilt of Valor that I pieced and quilted by Lori C in NM and that I then bound.

It really was the wrong time of day (late afternoon) to shoot this photo but we are expecting snow and preceding the snow it is always windy, so I did a photo when the opportunity arose. Do you recognize the pattern? It is a Disappearing 9-Patch.

This next one is also destined to Quilt of Valor, it just is not in RWB fabrics. This is the Quick Strippie quilt pattern that is so generously offered by MaryQuilts.  I added borders to bring it up to a QOV size. That is a wonderful (but vintage) Bill Blass sunflower fabric.

Oh, and another thing about this quilt. It is the very first time I quilted on a long arm machine. I will let you LAers know right now, that you have nothing to fear from me. I'll let you all do it from now on.
Just saying.

Design Wall Monday - July 9, 2012

There's another quilt of valor on the design wall. I really should be quilting the 4 quilts that I have basted, but I felt like working on this instead. The majority of the blue squares for this disappearing 9-patch came from Jane. Thanks Jane! Since there were so many colors and values of blue I decided to lay them out by value.
There will be an inner border of white and an outer border of dark blue. The binding will be red, maybe.

I also have been over dying some alpaca yarn. It was a hideous pink that shaded into a less hideous pink with blobs of a dark pink so dark it looked red. I over dyed it using Black Cherry kool-aid using this method. I think I can use this yarn now since it isn't so bright.

To see more Design Wall, please visit Judy at Patchwork Times.

Quilts of Valor

I recently had three Quilts of Valor returned from the volunteer QOV longarmer. Wanna see? Next step is to get them to Alycia to add to her pile to distribute.

This pattern is from the Moda Bake Shop and is called American Glory. The photo after it is the back.

The next quilt is a fraternal twin to the first one. The photo after it is the back.

This last quilt was made in a Mystery Quilt Class at a local quilt shop. When I do mystery quilts, I find it advantageous to make them in red, white and blue. The pattern was called Crystals.

American Glory

Back in April I posted a Design Wall Monday and it featured a Quilt of Valor quilt. Here's the link. Are you back? Good. I directed you to that post because this post contains the fraternal twin of that other post.

I took fabric to the guild's yearly retreat to make ONE of these quilts. When I started to work on it I realized I had taken nothing to help in the making of the half square triangles. No EZ Angle Ruler, no Thangles, nothin'!

So I pulled out a my rotary ruler and pencil and commenced to marking. Needless to say, that was a major fail! Some HST ended up smaller than the others so I packed it away to work on at home.

At home, I realized that not only were the HST different sizes but that I had enough units to make 2 quilts.

To refresh your memory, here is the other quilt. Love this pattern. It can be found at the Moda Bake Shop as American Glory. 

Design Wall Monday - 04/16/2012

You might recall seeing the half-square triangles for this quilt in a previous post. I started this flimsy/top at my guild's quilt retreat at the end of March and had a major problem. Once I got home, I trimmed down ALL the pieces to a consistent size and it worked ever so much better.

As I was trimming, it dawned on me that there were enough HSTs to make another quilt! The blocks are made and stacked beside the sewing machine just waiting for me to have the time to start. 

I snagged this quilt pattern,  American Glory , from Moda Bake Shop. It was designed by Stephanie Roman of Little Lady Patchwork.

Visit JudyL at Patchwork Times for more Design Walls.

Fail Saved

For the yearly guild retreat, I took several quilt kits that I had pre-cut. One of them was this one from the Moda Bake Shop: American Glory. What I forgot to include in the kit was either the EZ Angle ruler (link goes to a tute) or some Thangles to make the half square triangles. What's a quilter to do? Out came the ruler and pencil and I drew lines on the light fabric. It would have worked too, but because of several measurement errors (moi? make a mistake?) some of the HST were the wrong size. The pieces and parts were repackaged to trim down at home.

I don't know about you, but I have a hard time keeping my ruler from slipping when I'm trimming down HST. Anyone else have this problem? Since there are a lot of HST, an easier method is required. Bloc-Loc to the rescue. Remember that old adage about the right tool for the job? THIS is the right tool for trimming HST.
Update: here's a link for the shopping website of this ruler: http://usaus.us/cart/quilting-rulers-c-12.html

Oh how I love this Bloc-Loc ruler! It is making cutting down these HST so much easier.  See that 'double line' down the diagonal? That is actually carved out on the back of the ruler so it snugs up to the seam.

Before you start, press your HST so that the seams are flat flat flat. No smiley lips like you see on this one.

Lay the Bloc-Loc ruler on the HST. I will be trimming this HST to 3"; see how the number 3 is both on the horizontal and vertical sides of the ruler? Make sure the diagonal of the ruler is on the seam and trim.

Here there are two sides of the block trimmed down. Now, turn the block 180°. If you try to fit the ruler up against the seam after turning the block, it won't work right.

You need to swivel the ruler 180° also. See? You can read the label on the ruler now. Okay, go ahead and trim the other two sides of the block.

Here are the piles of trimmed pieces. More of the HST need to be trimmed down.

I said it once and I'll say it again: I love my Bloc-Loc ruler. In fact, I am going to buy the set for the two different Flying Geese. Try the ruler, you'll like it. I have no affiliation to Bloc-Loc, I'm just a happy customer.

**Update: After I trimmed down all the pieces and parts, I realized I had enough HST to make another whole quilt! So I proceeded to cut more squares and rails.

Design Wall Monday 01-23-2012

Lots of things are happening at Casa del Quilter! The fabric storage in the sewing room is getting reorganized --  inspiration by Mrs. Goodneedle. No photos of the reorg, sorry. But. Progress is being made on the AAQI Priority Quilts. The Road Knight quilt is spray basted, layered and ready to quilt. Plus, I dug out an old orphan block and made it into another Priority Quilt. When I was rummaging around in the box, I found another little block (the Lemoyne star) that I'll make into another AAQI quilt. And then buried at the bottom of the box were 4 unused pieced borders. Using the black fabric to the left and those pieced borders, another Quilt of Valor quilt top will be pieced in 6 inch wide pieces. The two black/yellow/white sunflower fabrics will be another strip quilt. All this discovered while cleaning out the fabric closet.

I plan on covering the outside baseball cap with sequins for an upcoming quilt retreat whose theme is "Get Your Bling On!".

For more design walls, visit Judy at Patchwork Times.

Alycia Needs Quilts!

I recently went to a Mystery Quilt class at my local quilt shop. The quilt is currently on the design wall and just needs to be sewn together and then quilted. I was not sure what to do with this quilt once it was done but then I read Alycia's call for help. This quilt, which will finish at 55x82, falls within the guidelines of the Quilts of Valor requirements. It is a win-win solution for both my Mystery Quilt, which I will show when it is done, and for Alycia.

You know about the Quilts of Valor program, right? Do you read Alycia's blog? Alycia supports the Warriors in Transition Battalion at Fort Carson Mountain Post in Colorado. This unit houses 775 wounded soldiers and there are always soldiers in transition. Alycia's quilt pantry is OUT OF QUILTS! Say it ain't so!

So here is my request; please go to Alycia's blog and learn about the program and consider making a quilt. Alycia has a quilt pattern that she has designed and Mary Johnson has several on her site that work well for QOV quilts. If you do make and send a quilt to Alycia before December 31, go to JudyL's blog and leave a comment to be included in the drawing for the incentives. Judy will be giving away one of her quilts plus a $50.00 gift certificate to the Fat Quarter Shop. Vicki Welsh has also generously donated 2 yards of her fabulous hand dyed fabric.

There are certain guidelines and requirements for a Quilt of Valor:

1. Minimum size of 55x65 and a Maximum size of 72x90
2. 100% cotton materials and flannel is okay to use
3. Must be long arm quilted or domestic machine quilted; no tied quilts
4. Must have a pillowcase/presentation case (Alycia currently has a lot of these but check with her)
5. Quilt should be washed in cold water with unscented detergents and unscented dryer sheets.

Fabric Purchases

Do you remember this post about the three gift certificates I had? Well, two of them have been used. Yes, indeedy, I went shopping. Wanna know what I got? Well, fabric of course!

My friend, MagicLady, and I went on a Saturday afternoon to two different shops in two different towns. The first shop was a new one and I ran amuck. These fabrics came home with me.

Isn't that yummy? The top two are batiks. All but $6.00 of the gift card was used up. At the second shop, I found two portions of a panel by Moda (Red, White & Bold by Sandy Gervais) on the clearance table. I thought they would make good pillowcases/presentation cases for QOV.

These portions were actually the top and bottom sections of a panel like this one:

I need to double check on the required size of the cases. It would be nice if 2 cases could be made from these but if not, then there will be one really nice one with scraps. I did not have a gift card for these. *shrug*.

The next stop was online at Connecting Threads. By adding some money to the gift coupon this kit jumped into the virtual shopping cart.

I significantly added to the stash in the last several weeks. There is still one more certificate to go and that will get used next week when the shop is having their anniversary sale.

The Quilter Quilts

Several requests came through to show the quilting on the recent Quilts of Valor. I quilt on my home sewing machine which is an older Bernina 1080 QE. It has no stitch regulator like the newer models, but she and I understand each other.

Dwirling resembles a topographical map.

Loop-d-loop seems to be my 'go to' stitch.

A heart-shaped petaled flower fills the 5" square. To the right is the E stitch.

Disappearing 9 Patch Quilt of Valor

The last of the Quilts of Valor has been quilted. A veritable quilting marathon has been happening at Casa del Quilter.

This quilt was held for last because it needed quilting that was NOT allover. Each block was quilted individually with a flower whose petal's resembled hearts, the first sashing was quilted with 'E' and the white sashings were quilted in a wave. I am pleased with the result even if it took twice as long as the other two QOV.

All three QOV quilts were quilted on my domestic sewing machine.

Bound and labeled. Check and check.

Presentation case made and quilt washed. Check and check.

Simple Squares Quilt of Valor

Charm packs sometimes stifle me. I want to make something much more difficult out of them. This time I just used the 5-inch squares "as is". The back of this quilt is a kitchen sink backing -- everything but the kitchen sink is there.

Quilting is a free motion loop-d-loop. It is a good thing that I used a lightweight batting (Quilters Dream Request) as the quilting was fairly dense. This amount of quilting on a thicker bat would have resulted in a stiffer quilt.

Bound and labeled. Check and check.

Presentation case made. Check.

Washed. Check.

Strip Twist Quilt of Valor

This Quilt of Valor started with a Moda Jelly Roll in red, white, and blue. The pattern, Strip Twist, is from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville.com site and is much easier than it looks. The important thing, I found, is to be very aware of your values: light, medium, and dark.

After popping the Pajama Quilter DVD (Dawn Ramirez).into the player, I decided that "dwirling" was a good overall pattern to use on this quilt. Dwirling resembles a topographical map and complements all the straight lines of the piecing in this top.

Bound and labeled. Check and check.

Presentation case made. Check.

Washed. Check.

(Preliminary) Quilting

I wanted to see what Dwirling would look like on this Strip Twist pattern from Bonnie Hunter. This is one of three tops for Quilt of Valor that need to be quilted. I knew I needed to keep the quilting simple because the quilt top is so busy.

Here's the geeky girl way: I opened the photo in Adobe Photoshop Elements and added a layer above the quilt layer. With the smallest brush point and my old Wacom Graphire Tablet I started to draw my dwirling. I like it!

I found a deep enough scratch on the top of my tablet (how did that happen?) that might force me to buy a newer one since my pen keeps getting caught in the scratch. Do you know about the stuff that takes scratches out of the plastic headlamps on cars? I wonder if it would on my tablet? CarGuy has some... it might be time for a honey-do, doncha think?

I love it when a plan comes together.

Quilt of Valor

As a member of a small quilt group, The Material Girls, I coordinated an effort to make a quilt to contribute to the Quilt of Valor Foundation via Alycia. The members of the quilt group are, like most groups, of varying skills. A Disappearing 9-patch was the perfect solution. Or so I thought. I forgot about the hand piecers, and so those squares were re-enforced by machine. I ignored the various sizes of things when trimming the blocks in order to be able to get this done in time to hand off. One of our members does long arm quilting and volunteered to quilt it and used a star design on her Statler. I learned that explicit instructions must be given when working with neophytes.

All that said and done, it turned out well.