Statue Of Liberty

My friend Julia sent me a bunch of wonderful patriotic panels. Debbie sent me some BIG 9 patch which I cut apart into disappearing 9 patch. The Church Dash blocks are from our exchange. The little corner blocks are from Vicky. The borders and binding are from fabric from Meg and Char. The putting it all together into a quilt for our military was ME.

What a wonderful joint project. This will go to Afghanistan.

For Our Military

A group of friends did a block exchange using the church dash. I decided I would incorporate them into a Quilt Of Valor. I had them sign the center of each block. I found this wonderful panel in my local quilt shop and bought several. I have enough for a couple of these quilts.

Here is a little closer look.

Camp Quilt Completed

I took a string quilt class on Sunday at camp. I picked all bright strips to use for this quilt. It was VERY easy and fun to make. This will be donated to our local hospital for the children. The blocks were 6 1/2. I am currently working on another with brights. These blocks will be 8 1/2 and put into a different setting. I use phone book pages for the foundation.

I love the binding fabric and bought it at my local quilt shop on sale.

MAQ Quilt Camp

We have an annual wonderful Quilt Camp in Emmitsburg Pa at a lovely college campus. They have fabulous teachers, fun activities and all the food is provided. This means no cooking or dishes.....that is something I could never get tired of. Besides learning quilt lessons I discovered some wonderful things I can do with scraps and strips. I have a pretty good sized stash and try very hard not to buy new fabric. The one exception is patriotic for all my Quilts Of Valor. I go through alot of that so I am always on the look out for different designs. I usually buy just one yard.

Another very good benefit is seeing all the different ways to do the class from the other students. They choose different fabrics, maybe tweak something or use a different setting. Also we are free to visit all the other classes to see what they are doing. It can be VERY inspiring. I went up with a local friend and we had another guild member in our dorm room. I met up with a dear friend who I usually see only there. This is another benefit of camp. We do stay in touch through Facebook which I love. This is a picture of a quilt that I made from a class from last year. All the quilts in the room were from camp projects from previous years. This will be a donation quilt to either Hospice or the Veterans Hospital.

Arizona Emblem

I visited several quilt shops while on my trip to Arizona. They sure have ALOT there. I wanted to make something to commemorate the wonderful time that I had there. I picked up this pattern at a lovely shop in Williams. I did micro quilting on my Janome to make the shapes puff out some. This is hanging in our living room for us to enjoy.

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.

Guild Challenge Quilts

We were given an orphan block at our guild a few months ago. We had to make something out of it. I was lucky enough to get a patriotic block. I had lots of blocks sent to me by my dear online friends. It was easy to put them into a sampler type quilt. I won second place-----there was a tie for first or I would have been third place. This one is also for our military in Afghanistan. I can fit 4 in a box and then mail them off. I buy the 14 x 14 boxes at Wal-Mart for under a dollar. This is much easier than search

ing all over for boxes.

Quilt From H*ll

I saw this pattern------cannot even remember the name and thought it was fabulous. I must have put it on the design wall a dozen times and ripped and resewed sections. I still think something was not right but figured it was good enough. I will NOT be making this pattern again. But I do love the center design. This will be off to Afghanistan. I FINALLY have my big Janome back and working great. It makes binding so much easier to put on. I had to send it to Alabama to the dealer I bought it from after the local dealer was unable to repair it.