Manly Quilt From Panels

A wonderful friend from my guild donated lots of panels to me for my charity quilts. I am making some to bring to our annual retreat in North Carolina. these will return to Oklahoma for a Veterans Hospital there. Here is one all ready to go. I received the most wonderful donation of wide quilt backings yesterday. It is a ROLL of beautiful flag fabric. I no longer have to worry about purchasing backing. I have enough to donate to local people when they make a top for any military organization.

Swoon Centers and Strings Around

I fell in love with the pattern called Swoon. It is easy to purchase as you just use Pay Pal and buy it as a PDF. After making 3 of these I grew a little weary I decided to use them as a medallion in the center of a Quilt Of Valor. I made these strings using the trimmings off a backing--thanks Carla for the backing fabric---as a consistent center. I really like how that looks. I sewed them onto phone book paper---thanks JanetK. The good news is that I have 2 more centers to use. I think the fabric with words came from Char. This is my wonderful online friends who support this mission with fabric donations. Thanks Lizzies.

Label Love and a Turning Twenty Quilt

I have been very unhappy with making labels for all my quilts. No matter what I chose to write with-----it washed out quite a bit on the first washing. I have lusted after an embroidery machine for quite some time. They are quite expensive so I just had not made the purchase. I went to the Brother website to look again at what was offered. One the Homepage was a really cute machine for $300. It is sold only through Wal-Mart. I looked at all the features and decided it would be perfect for what I want to do....which is mainly labels. Returns would be easy if I did not like it. Just take it to the local Wal-Mart. It came in the mail and was very easy to learn. I had a little trouble accessing the saved patterns but once I figured that out---was a piece of cake. I could buy some software to download designs off the internet but really have enough in here for what I want to do. I think I will make a new guild name tag also. I also decided to make a Turning Twenty quilt and use up some of my Fat Quarters. Some of them were not quite big enough so I just added from stash. I am not totally thrilled with this quilt. I like a more complex looking one and not such big patches. I added an applique on one that I felt was just too plain. I doubt I will make another of this pattern. It went off to Afghanistan along with 3 others. Last week we had a hail storm for a short time. We seldom get these here in Maryland so I ran for my camera. There was also a rainbow across the street from this crazy 10 minute storm.