Quilts of Valor Block Kits

This is what I have been doing this week instead of posting to my blog. The Blanketeers are meeting tomorrow and I said I would have block kits ready for people to take home and piece. I tried to keep them as simple as possible, since many of the Blanketeers have never paper-pieced before. I made up ten kits, with pieces already rough cut. Larry helped me keep all the various blues and reds nicely randomized.

I made up one block myself to proof the concept. It's still in large pieces, but it looks very pretty. Larry took pictures of each step of the process and I'm going to compile them into a blog tutorial over the weekend. It's going to take some time, since he took LOTS of pictures, but I think it will be a big help to the novices to see their exact pattern being paper-pieced. BTW I REALLY should have moisturized before Larry took the closeups of my hands. I'll never make a hand model with my rough fingernails and lizard skin!

BOW Challenge Complete - F1 Bigtop

Well, I checked. I'm now 10, 0,0, 146. It took me long enough, I last completed a BOW challenge on May 4, 2008, that's ten months ago. This one was really hard. Tricky paper piecing, followed by nasty old applique. And the fabric was so stiff with starch, it was like appliquing cardboard. But it's done now, and I'm not going to redo it. I'll just enjoy the accomplishment with 45 minutes to spare. lol

International Siggy Swap - Johanna "Joke" Faber

This lovely moose comes from Johanna Faber of Sweden. These siggies are very educational! I learned that Sweden calls itself Sverige, and that Söderhamn is on the Gulf of Bothnia, which is the gulf off of the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden, or should I say, between Suomi and Sverige. It looks lovely, if this site is any indication. Söderhamn is on the coast of southern Hälsingland, which is a province of Sweden. It would be lovely to visit there someday, but in June, not March!
























I was looking up Söderhamn , when I discovered that there are islands between Finland and Sweden (who knew?). They are tiny little Baltic bits called Åland (pronounced o-land) and have a very interesting history. They speak Swedish, but have been an autonomous part of Finland since 1921. The most interesting thing I read was this: "The islanders enjoyed safety at sea during WWII as their merchant fleet sailed for both the allied countries and the Germans. Consequently Åland shipping was not generally attacked as each side rarely knew what cargo was being carried for whom." Fascinating; and I didn't even know they were there.

Quilt of Valor Quilt Shop Hop

On Friday, members of the Bee Blanketeers met at The Berry Patch quilt shop in southwest Fort Worth to select red, white and blue fabrics for the Quilt of Valor we are making as a group. Here we all are with our selections: from left, me, Mary, Rachel, Sheila and Virginia.




















We found a gorgeous white fabric with a very subtle pattern, three lovely blue fabrics with a wonderfully soft hand, and a red fabric that was so pretty we decided to get it even if it didn't coordinate with the reds at our next stop. A special "thank you" goes to Stacy, a long-term employee at the Berry Patch, who gave us an unsolicited 10% discount after finding out this was a QOV quilt and who took this picture.

Our next stop was Cabbage Rose, where we found all the beautiful reds our hearts could desire. They all coordinated very well with the Berry Patch red, which I'm holding here. We ended up getting four more reds, for a total of 1 white, 3 blues and 5 reds. This should keep our Ohio Stars looking nice and random, with lots of possible red/blue combinations, while still presenting a very integrated design.





















We bought LOTS of extra fabric (I hope). Many of us are new to paper piecing, and you know how that goes! It was very encouraging to us new beesters that we were able to easily agree on fabric choices. I was a little concerned that we would have to fend off advocates of pinky-red, purply-blue and red-orange, but that situation never arose. We all had a surprisingly united vision of how we want the quilt to look. Thanks also go to the ladies at Cabbage Rose, who could not have been more helpful. Once again, they gave us an unsolicited 10% discount and took this picture for us so we could all be in the shot.

First Ever Blanketeer Bee

The first ever Blanketeer Bee was held yesterday afternoon at my house. It was lots of fun, though absolutely no stitching was accomplished and I forgot to take any pictures. We discussed making our first ever Quilt of Valor quilt using paper piecing techniques. The Electric Quilt 6 quilt that I had designed for this group effort was a bit too large, so I made the following changes: 1) The three striped outer borders were reduced in size and combined into one larger blue border, with a red 1/2" binding, and 2) The large blocks were reduced in size from 8" square down to 7" square. The cornerstones remain the same size (6" square).























The final dimensions of the quilt are 69"x69", which is well within the 72"x87" maximum allowed size. The Quilts of Valor website indicates that 54"x67" is their ideal size, and if we wanted to, we *could* lop off an entire row of large and small blocks, which would bring the quilt to about 56"x69". However, I LOVE square quilts; I think they look really nice. So, unless we get to the point where we would rather kill ourselves than piece one more Ohio Star block, I hope we decide to keep the quilt square.

On a happy EQ6 note, the 7"x7" block still takes two pages of foundation paper to print, but I learned how to drag and drop the sections so we won't have to tape any of the sections together.

Now I just need to know that everyone agrees to the changes I made before we go out and buy the fabric on Friday. Please leave a comment or send an email if you agree to the changes I made, or if you have any further alterations in mind. It's very easy to make changes at this point. The only thing I remember everyone agreed to was removing the white from the border because it would tend to quickly get dirty.

Also, be sure to check out Brandy's blog. She's already got the parameters for the silent auction quilt posted. I'm really hoping we go with pastels for that one!

International Siggy Swap - Reny Pattynama

This darling little siggy showed up in the mail two days ago. I love days like that! I haven't swapped a siggy in well over a month. I have about 20 of mine made up; I should get off my duff and send them out into the world. This one is from Reny Pattynama from a small town called Vaassen in The Netherlands. Reny's hobbies include quilting, knitting and birdwatching (as well as bird feeding). She doesn't think there are enough hours in the day. lol Reny, I hear you on that one!
























And isn't it just wonderful to look at a picture that ISN'T my country chain and knot quilt? I sure think so!

Country Chain and Knot Quilt - Top Complete!

Finally! I got the Country Chain and Knot quilt all done; all 879 pieces of it. Thank heavens! I *love* how it turned out too. To think I once called this the "Ugly Brown Quilt" lol.



















And, it will almost certainly look even better when it's all quilted and bound, because they *always* do! I'm SO glad this is all put together. I feel like I've been working on it for months, though really, it has only taken me a few weeks. Now I just have to make the quilt sandwich and stipple it up. Piece of cake. NOT!

Country Chain and Knot Quilt - Down to Four Rows

Well, the end is in sight. From 879 pieces, I've got it down to just four big ones! All I have left to do is press the four rows, pin them together, then stitch them up. I can't wait until it's all sandwiched up and ready to stipple. This will be by far the largest quilt I've ever tried to stipple on my Bernina; I hope it doesn't give me too much trouble.

















At least is looks like I got all the red chains going in the right direction, though I did have to undo the seam between two blocks because the sash and cornerstone were both 1/4 inch too wide. Now how on earth did that happen?

Larry's Leatherwork

After I saw the quilt that Joy Denise made for her friend's, Milton's, 20th year of sobriety, I had to show off my husband's leather working skill. Larry used the AA logo as a basis for the design of this leather book cover for his "Big Book". Larry is very active in AA; his sponsor has a whole posse of men that meet several times a week. His Big Book goes everywhere with him, and really takes a beating; fortunately he made the cover virtually indestructible.

He has made these book covers for several of his AA buddies, and his leather working skills keep improving. I think he'll always have the worst one - lol. He personalizes each back flap with the name, local AA group and AA birthday (as opposed to their BB or "belly button" birth date.) Larry's leather work is good, but his sobriety is FANTASTIC!!! As you can see, he has 4+ years of sobriety, one day at a time. 8)

Virginia's Hash Brown Quiche Recipe

This recipe is just yummy! Virginia has brought it to our last several project days and has never had to take home anything but an empty pan. I promised the Blanketeers that I would post it (though I think Virginia has already emailed the recipe to everyone who wanted it) so here it is:

Virginia's Hash Brown Quiche

Ingredients:
1 24-oz. package frozen hash browns (or 2 12-oz. packages)
1/2 cup Hot Pepper cheese
3/4 cup Gouda cheese
3/4 cup Swiss cheese
1 cup cooked ham, diced
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk or cream
1/3 cup melted butter
1/4 teaspoon Seasoned salt

Directions:
1. Thaw hash browns. Squeeze excess moisture between paper towels.
2. Grease 9” pie pan. Press and shape hash browns in pan. Brush with butter. Bake at 425 degrees for 25 minutes.
3. Fill with layers of ham and cheese. Mix eggs, milk, and salt. Pour over pie mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.

Notes:
I usually defrost the hash browns overnight. If the hash browns are still frozen, it is hard to mash them into shape in the pie pan. If you buy a 32-oz. bag of hash browns, be aware that you cannot just measure out 24-oz. – doesn’t work that way. Pour out the hash browns and split into 3 parts and use 2 parts.

A pastry brush really helps with the butter (but I have used a spoon to dribble it). The indentation should be noticeable, but will not be really deep. I use half and half for the milk/cream ingredient (because we usually have that on hand for Jim’s coffee).