Quilt of Valor Presentation Case Complete

I got the last button sewn on and the last seam tidied; my work here is done.

I had so little fabric left that the lining is from about 5 different leftover pieces.

These buttons were located at JoAnn's. I made sure the eagles were all standing up straight.

Gee, it fits in there like it was made for it or something. ;)

It's all ready to go, except the quilt still needs to be labeled. (Cheers to Dorthy for taking on that task. And a double Hoorah to Sheila for creating the accompanying scrapbook "journal".)

All three prizes are in the mail, winging their way to their destinations. I hope all three lovely ladies will let me know when they receive their gift; they were certainly prompt about getting me their snail mail addresses - I was very grateful for that!

Quilt of Valor Complete!!!

Virginia finished binding the Quilt of Valor in record time, and I think it looks absolutely terrific!
This quilt was a huge stretch for the Blanketeers to accomplish. In hindsight, we picked much too difficult a quilt to make. Our skill set really had to grow to encompass the challenge. I know there were times many of us wondered if it would ever get finished, but look at it now! My heartfelt thanks to everyone who worked on this quilt in any capacity; you can be very proud of the result. Happy times!

Quilt of Valor back from the Quilter

I sent the Quilt of Valor off to San Antonio to be quilted and it came back just lovely!
Debbie did a terrifc job on it. She stippled on all the white squares in white.

And put waves of multi-blue quilting in the sashing.

The Ohio Stars are going to really pop after it has been washed and dried.

It even looks really cool on the back!

Thanks, Debbie, for a job well done! Now I just have to trim the edges and sew the binding to the back so Virginia can hand sew it to the front. Virginia, you're a life-saver!

Yesterday was English Garden Sampler day, and I did make some progress, but I don't think it will show up much in a picture. Lots of border backstitching just doesn't give that same look of accomplishment that carving out new territory on a blank canvas does. Maybe next week I'll have more to show on it.

Quilt of Valor Top Complete.... Finally!

The Quilt of Valor top that the Blanketeers have been working on for more than a year is finally complete; meaning I FINALLY finished putting it together. Two weeks ago it looked like this:

With most of the quilt just in strips and with paper still on the one block that is standing up.

Now it is all together, borders and everything. I think it looks terrific! Thanks to all the women who made it possible. I don't think I've ever worked on anything so large; it ended up being 68" x 68".

Sheila (bless her heart!) agreed to iron it. I ironed it just enough to put it together, but it really needs a complete pressing before we send it off to a Quilt of Valor quilter, whom I still have to locate.
I also have to find some backing fabric, 4.25 yards of it, to be exact. We looked all over the Trinity Valley Quilt show for some yesterday, but no luck. The show was terrific, but I was told there were about 20 fewer vendors there than usual, and the variety of reds and patriotic fabrics was limited - so the hunt continues!

February Bee - Lots of Industry

I hosted the February Blanketeer Bee at my house again on Sunday. It was well attended and we got lots of stuff done. 8) Here are Brandy (l) and Jonquele (our newest member) sewing steadily. We were very cozy, I probably should have put the leaf in the table. It's so nice to finally get some use out of the dining room! It was by far the least used room in the house before the bees started up last year.

Here is Sheila hard at work and Virginia in the kitchen. I really like how everyone is getting to feel more at home here. Of course, I want everyone to feel comfortable, but it's also so much less work for me if everyone helps themselves to what they need. 8) That's my latest finish bundled up in front of the near sewing machine. You might recognize it, since it looks very much like my last finish. I'll be really glad when all six of my "First Steps" are quilted and bound!

We had a project day two weeks ago where Rhonda showed us how to make these cute little sailboat blocks, and wouldn't you know? My camera was dead as a doornail that day. Here are Rachel, Virginia and Jonquele holding up some of the blocks. I don't know if the yellow boat belongs to Jonquele or Rachel, but I know that Virginia made the red boat she's holding. Jessica, another new member, (Yeah!) dropped off the two blocks on the ends. Everyone "planned" to finish their blocks before the bee, but a number of blocks were actually finished at the bee. ;) But not by Sheila, she was on a binding tear! She bound not ONE,
not TWO,
but THREE darling little quilts. (And she did it in the time it took me to get 3/4 of one quilt bound one ONE side. I'm very slow!) Of course, Sheila was quick to point out that they were "all pinned already and just had to be sewn", but the rest of us thought it was pretty amazing. Sheila is definitely our "Little Engine that Could"!

I had thought (hoped) that we would get around to putting together the neglected Quilt of Valor. I had it all ready to go in the next room, but we got to sewing and gabbing, and, you know, time REALLY flies when we're sewing and gabbing, so there it sits for another day.

Virginia offered to come over and help decide how the blocks should placed. Thanks, Virginia! 8) I keep forgetting how pretty it is; I think it's going to be really lovely when it's all done.

The food was extra good (and plentiful) at this bee too. Virginia made the same scrumptious white chocolate chex mix that Sheila had brought to the project day. Jonquele surprised us with a delicious razzle-berry pie, and I splurged on a chocolate ganache cake. No one should ever go hungry at one of our bees. 8)

Blanketeer's - June Project Day

June 12th saw the Blanketeer's hard at work at the "Quilt in a Day" Project Day. Our goal is to complete 20 quilt tops for the USO reading program at DFW Airport before the July Blanketeer's meeting. Judging by the level of industry and enthusiasm, we shouldn't have any trouble meeting the goal. Brandy is in the foreground with Sheila hiding right behind her. (Thanks again to Brandy's church for letting us meet in this wonderful space!) There is Rachel hovering over her daughter, Veronica. Bea, Sheila's Mom, is sitting in front of Virginia P. (standing), Mary has her back to the camera and Virginia is facing her.

Here's Virginia hard at work on her block for the Peppers 'n Pinatas quilt effort that Brandy is chairing. We're so glad to have Virginia with us, since the last project day (fleece) Virginia had quadruple bypass surgery followed months later by an allergic reaction to an antibiotic that put her in the hospital almost the whole week I was in New York.

Look how pretty Virginia's block turned out too! (I need a better camera, my current one doesn't capture soft pastels very well at all.)

Here's Rachel and her daughter, Veronica, who joined us straight from driving up from school in College Station today to start her summer vacation. This was the first time most of us got to meet Veronica, and it was a great pleasure having her with us for the day.

Bea, Sheila's Mom, often makes it to our project days, and there is a very strong correlation between her being there and us getting lots accomplished! lol Bea is our most experienced quilter and is always happy to share her expertise. We almost got her to promise that she would teach us how to applique for our next Quilt of Valor project, if we promise not to paper-piece anymore stars. lol (Bea is a member of the Trinity Valley guild, and apparently their group projects have a heavy bias towards stars, so much so, that Bea is heartily sick of making stars, besides, she much prefers applique!)

Here's another picture of the back of Mary's head. Mary is new to quilting and made excellent progress on her "First Steps" quilt during the project day.

Here are Brandy (on the phone) and Sheila. I just noticed the TV behind Brandy. I never even saw it there before! We certainly didn't have cause to turn it on.

Here is Sheila with "Kissing Kitties", a "First Steps" inspired baby quilt. We were all admiring it as it was one of the first quilts completed, and the kitty-patterned fabric is adorable, when Sheila noted sadly that she didn't intend for the four patch "steps" to meet color-wise (aqua to aqua and purple to purple). I jokingly said, "Oh, that just makes it the Kissing Kitties Quilt", and a quilt was named forevermore. lol I think the colors are stunning. Sheila added the outermost border, which sets it off from every other "First Steps" quilt I've ever seen.

We were glad to have Karen join us at the end of the day, bringing the fruits of her machine quilting labors back to Sheila. (Karen very generously machine quilts any of the Blanketeer charity quilts for free - thanks, Karen!)

Here's what was in the bag. Check out the absolutely fabulous heart in a heart pattern quilted on the back of Sheila's panel quilts! Some happy little kids are going to be the lucky recipients of these beauties.

Virginia P. was soooo happy to finish her Quilts of Valor Ohio Star block. The last little bit gave her LOTS of trouble, but with some coaching she was able to easily finish it. What an accomplishment! And look how great her corners turned out. More paper-piecing, Virginia? lol

Here are Mother and Daughter holding up Bea's Dutch Girl quilt. Bea is hand quilting this for friends at church who are expecting a baby girl. We all oohed and aahed over it; it's really something special!

Here's a better picture of the Dutch Girl quilt. Isn't it lovely? I especially like the lace on the bonnets and the dresses. OK, Bea, you really need to teach us how to applique like that. Your skills are phenomenal!

Here's what Bea did on the project day. I think she called it Bales of Straw. It's a design of her own making and it looked just darling when it was done. I'm not sure how she's planning to quilt it. (I can see I forgot to ask lots of pertinent questions during my brief stint in photojournalism. lol Better not quit my day job!)

Here's Brandy's Delight (also named by yours truly, but sewn entirely by Brandy.) I just love the dimensionality of the design, the dark blocks seem to leap out at you in this picture. Brandy is a fellow stippler, and I can't wait to see the finished product.

Funniest thing heard at the Project Day: Rachel asking, "But, how do you get a stash (of fabric)?" Most of the rest of us just cracked up laughing, but Sheila I think it was, gave the best answer. She said, "You just buy the fabric that speaks to your heart, without any idea of how you're actually going to use it!" Perfect!

Ohio Star Paper Piecing Tutorial

OK, first things first. In paper piecing there is a pattern drawn in ink on one side of the paper. All the sewing takes place on the pattern side of the paper and all the fabric is placed on the blank side of the paper. This is the pattern side, as you can see, the fabric is pinned to the other side of the paper... ALWAYS [Note: The pattern pieces are labeled in the order in which they are be sewn, that is, first sew A1 and A2 together, then add A3. It's much faster and easier to work all seven pattern sections at a single time, so that is what I have done.]

Second: For the Ohio Star, start by pinning the WHITE squares right side up to the blank side of the paper. They should be positioned so they COMPLETELY cover the #1 pattern piece in their section labeled A1, B1, C1 etc WHITE. By "Completely" I mean that when held up to the light, the fabric should extend out over both the bold inner sewing line and the lighter outer cutting line on ALL sides of the #1 pattern piece. Remember, the first piece of fabric in any given section ALWAYS gets pinned to the fabric with its RIGHT side up.

Third, note the color specified for the #2 pattern piece and place the second piece of fabric so it sits right sides together with the already pinned white fabric. Now pay attention, this is the hard part: the second piece has to be placed such that when you sew on the line between A1 and A2, it completely covers the #2 pattern section, including all the seam allowances. This picture shows all the #1 and #2 fabric pieces pinned right sides together waiting to be sewn.

To get the placement correct, I eyeball the fabric on the pattern side with the future seam allowance folded over, to get a feel for how much leeway I'm going to have with the piece. If it's a tight squeeze, I'll have to be VERY careful when pinning down the fabric.

I switch over to the fabric side of the paper, with the future seam allowance still folded over, to determine exactly where the fabric needs to be after it is sewn in place. As it is shown, the red piece will flip over to fully cover the pattern on the other side after it is sewn into place.

To determine exact placement, place the fold along the seam line, and, while carefully holding the seam allowance in place, allow the rest of the fabric to flip back for sewing.


Place a pin where it won't interfere with sewing the seam. At this point the two fabrics will be pinned right sides together and ready to be sewn together.

It's easier to see what it looks like after it has been sewn. Here C1 and C2 have already been sewn together. You can see that the light shadow of the White C1 fabric completely covers its triangle. I have folded over the blue C2 fabric piece over its seam line to verify that it completely covers the C2 pattern triangle including seam allowances. It does. If it didn't, I would have to rip out the seam, position the fabric better, then sew it again.

Getting back to the sewing part, you want to sew paper side up, right through the line between the #1 and #2 pattern pieces. Do NOT sew through the seam allowances. I normally position the needle right on the line, take a few stitches, then run in reverse a few stitches, then do the whole seam, ending with a few reverse stitches to hold the seam in place. Here I am sewing the first seam.
Remember, sew along the bold seam lines only, do not sew into the seam allowance.

Now that you have sewn your seam, you have to trim the initial seam allowance to 1/4 inch. To do this you fold the paper back along the seam line. It folds very easily because of the seam.

Fold the paper onto itself so the seam allowance you just created is dangling free.

Using your rotary cutter and a ruler, line up the quarter inch marking on the ruler with the fold of the paper, then trim the seam allowance to 1/4 inch.

You should have a nice 1/4 inch seam allowance when you're done. Now it's time to iron.

Iron the fabric nice and flat along the seam. None of the sections have been trimmed yet, you can separate the pattern sections whenever you want, but don't trim the individual sections until all fabric has been sewn, trimmed and ironed.

If the section you're doing has more than two pieces, attach the third piece to the second piece exactly as you did the first two. Leave all the paper in place, trimming only the seam allowances. Make SURE the second piece is laying perfectly flat against the paper while the third piece is being attached. If the fabric is distorted at all the design will be messed up and the pattern will not fit together correctly. Each subsequent piece that gets attached goes through the same process:

1. Place and pin the fabric with right sides together on the blank side of the paper,
2. Sew along the seam line on the pattern side of the paper,
3. Fold the paper along the seam line away from the seam allowance,
4. Trim the seam allowance to 1/4 inch,
5. Iron the fabric flat so the right sides are facing outward.

When all the pieces of a section are completed and the final piece has been trimmed and ironed, then it's time to trim up the section. Line up the ruler along the outer light cutting line (NOT the SEAM LINE!!!) and trim off the excess paper and fabric both at the same time.

Trim all sides of the section, leaving the quarter inch seam allowance between the sewing line and the cutting line intact.

This is how it should look when you're done trimming:

You can see the pattern growing on the fabric side.

To assemble the star I had to line up the pieces using the pattern. This kept all the pieces right side up.

I flipped them over carefully and here is my Ohio Star, all ready to be carefully pinned and sewn together. More on that later.