I got an email from Maggie yesterday showing me the Quilt of Valor she made using the star machine embroidery Quilt as you Go. This is absolutely beautiful. The recipient of this quilt will be very honored to receive it. She also showed how she supported the weight of the quilt as she worked putting the rows together. This is truly a work of love and dedication.
Back of Quilt
Modified laundry basket for holding weight of quilt
Modified laundry basket holding weight of quilt
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While working on the Quilts of Valor that are just completed, I also took the opportunity to make a ‘leaders and enders’ quilt for my grandson. These are squares and triangles that I kept beside the machine and are made from scraps leftover from other projects that I cut using the Accuquilt 3-1/2 inch strip cutter and the 3 inch finished half square triangle. The centers of each star are novelty prints.
The attic windows design seemed nicer than a standard sashing. This was a lot of fun to make and very quick to quilt using continuous curves in the 9 patch blocks and a single curvy line in the window frames.
And last – but not least – is the quilt label that I stitched for the Quilts of Valor. The main reason I purchased an embroidery machine was to make quilt labels – and then they never seemed to work very well. Finally, using a border from Embroidery Library and my own lettering, this is a very nice label.
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This is a particularly special Memorial Day for me as we go into the last lap of the GO! for a Star Quilts of Valor Challenge. I have “met” and become aware of so many quilters who are dedicated to honoring the military service men and women who serve to protect us, our country and our way of life. The Quilts of Valor program is a wonderful way to give back to them.
And here are the quilts that I have been working on for the last few days. Every minute spent on them has been enjoyable. There is still time for any of you reading this to become a part of this Challenge and to make a single quilt block or several quilt blocks and get them in the mail to Richard and Tink Linhart by May 31. You can find more information here.
This is the quilt made with the Triangle in a Square Accuquilt die(55027). I had made 12 blocks as I worked with this die, so bordered them with the blue and did a wide sash (3 inches finished) so that the quilt would be large enough. This one still needs binding on it.
This is the split star quilt made with 12 inch blocks. It turned out beautifully and is even prettier in person.
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Susan in Kansas sent photos of the quilts that she has shipped to the Linharts for the QOV Challenge. These are beautiful quilts. I love that she added stars and blocks at the top of two different patterns.The first is a Jelly Roll Race quilt. I had heard of this quilt pattern, but didn’t realize how it was actually made until I watched the Youtube video. This is an incredible way to make a nice quilt in a small amount of time. I highly recommend you watch this video. Here’s Susan’s first quilt–doesn’t it look great with those blocks at the top?
Colleen over at Colleen’s Sew Inspired sent this photo along of a quilt top that she completed for the GO! for a Star QOV Challenge. What a wonderful tribute for someone who has served our country.
This is really beautiful with the rail fence blocks and that wonderful star print just makes it sparkle. And I love the striped border. Colleen has a good eye for putting fabrics together.
All it takes to enter this Challenge is a single 12-1/2″ block. Dick and Tink have a committed group of quilters who will put all the blocks together into quilts, and they have longarm quilters who will quilt and finish the quilts. Every effort is important. If you make Quilts of Valor for your local chapter, you probably have an orphan block or two lying around. The quilts that Dick and Tink receive are given to service members throughout the US. It is so easy to put a block into an envelope and send it to them. Include your name and email address and your city and state on a piece of paper along with the block.
Richard and Tink Linhart
333 West Brown Deer Road #130
Milwaukee, WI 53217
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Linda in Arizona sent me this photo yesterday. I’m in love with this quilt. It is so beautiful with the rail fence blocks and the bordered star blocks. Linda used four strips on her rail fence blocks and rotated them around the center for a design that has a lot of movement and really focuses her star blocks at the same time. She used the machine embroidery stars that I designed – this is an update – at first I thought she used them without the applique shapes, but here are photos – she used a light blue fabric and the closeups show the blocks and stitching better.
Linda also sent the EQ7 file. Each block is 16 inches square, including the borders. The rail fence blocks use 2 inch strips and you can see that part of what makes this quilt so interesting is that the outer borders on the star blocks are different widths than the borders on the rail fence blocks. If you would like to have the EQ7 file, just leave a comment and I’ll send it to you.
And, I haven’t forgotten that you want to see my progress. Will give you photos tomorrow.
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This Quilts of Valor GO! for a Star has made me try things I never thought I would do. This 8 pointed star is one I have admired for years. I even bought the Accuquilt die. But I’ve always been intimidated by triangles and even more intimidated by these triangles. Well, I tried it anyway—so here’s a quick photo essay on putting this block together. The finished size is 9 inches, so if you make blocks to send for a Quilts of Valor submission you can add sashing to the sides to make it come up to 12-1/2 inches. If you’re going to make a top or a quilt, you don’t need anything except the minimum quilt / top size of 55 x 65 inches.
Here’s the finished block:
These are the dies that I used for a 9 inch finished block:
This the number of pieces needed for each block:
This is how I constructed the star points:
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This quilt block was sent to me by Colleen over at http://colleens-sewinspired.blogspot.com/. Colleen is a new blogger, but has been a stitcher for many years. She asked for cutting instructions for making this in an 8 inch finished size, but I have also included cutting instructions for the 12 inch finished size. I am not going to include block construction because you can use the Split Star instructions for making this block. The only difference is the center unit – one is a flag and the other is a half square triangle.
Click on the image below to access the adobe pdf file with cutting instructions.
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Did I get the quilt from last week made over the weekend? No – another “best laid plan”. Hopefully one of you made one. I’m working on a t-shirt quilt for a customer which is a graduation gift. There are 25 t-shirts and this is a humongous quilt. I have been appliqueing the small printed parts of the t-shirt onto the larger blocks. It seems t-shirts are always printed with the date on the opposite side of the shirt as the main design. And if a t-shirt quilt is a ‘memory’ quilt, someday the owner of that quilt might want to recall the exact year and place those memories happened. So, I take the extra time to make sure the dates and places get appliqued somewhere on the main block.
Now, back to Quilts of Valor ideas:
One of the patterns I have never made, but have always dreamed of making, is the Split Star. There are several versions – and you can make your own using the star of your choice. The key is to split the star diagonally from corner to corner and then use light and dark backgrounds and/or star colors on either side of the split. Here is an example. The split star is alternated with a half square triangle made with light and dark. Both blocks are 12 inch blocks. The patches on the star block are made based on a 3″ patch with four patches across and four patches down. I’ll show you how to make this block using rotary cutting or the Accuquilt GO in my next post.
12 inch finished block
Quilt finished size is 60″ x 72″
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