Quilts of Valor Award Ceremony

 Last year I made two quilts of valor for special Marines I know. One is my husband, Major Charles "Will" Wilkins, USMC Retired, and one is a long-time friend of his, Major David Aday, USMC Retired.

I had hoped to have the quilts awarded to these men at the 2020 Veterans Day celebration but that event was canceled due to COVID. 

Quilts of Valor are awarded to the recipients, not just given to them, as they are not charity quilts but are a gift meant to wrap the veteran in a warm hug. As the Quilt of Valor website says: 

"A Quilt of Valor unequivocally says thank you for your service,  sacrifice., and valor in serving our nation."

Last month I learned the program for July for my guild was to be about Quilts of Valor. I asked the person doing the program if we could award the two Veterans their quilts as part of the program--without making this known in advance. She was happy to have this addition to her program and I was thrilled to finally have an official way to award the quilts. Time was passing quickly and if this hadn't happened I was just going to have to give the men their quilts privately. 

April Goss giving her presentation to the Heritage Quilters of Huntsville

I contacted David's wife and arranged for her to get him to the meeting as well as giving me dates and information I needed about his 25 years of service. When he started asking questions, she told him it was a secret, he was going to a quilt guild meeting at my request and it was a secret so NO more questions. 

My husband knew something was up when he was also told his appearance at the meeting was required.

April read the story of two ordinary men who have lived extraordinary lives. Both came from  humble beginnings and enlisted in the United States Marine Corps right out of high school in the mid-1960's. They quickly found themselves in Vietnam after boot camp. Each served several tours of combat duty there. After returning to the States, they re-enlisted. They were both selected for a program that would send them to college for four years while remaining on active duty. It was at Auburn University in the early 1970's they first met each other. Upon earning their undergraduate degrees, they were commissioned 2nd Lieutenants and served many more years as commissioned officers. Eventually they both retired and had successful civilian careers. 

Perhaps their most important accomplishment is they are both still married to their first wives. David and Sharon recently celebrated 52 years of marriage and Will and I celebrated 45 years in April. Both have raised good and decent sons and now enjoy life with wonderful grandchildren.

Will's Quilt, first on display for all to see:

Will being wrapped in his quilt as the award commendation was read to him:

David's Quilt:

David being awarded his quilt:

Lest we forget, families of military veterans also serve, whether through multiple moves or time away from their spouse or parent.  Here are April Goss along with David and Sharon Aday:

And my husband and I with April:

April has established an organization called the Liberty Piecemakers of Huntsville. The purpose is to make and award Quilts of Valor to local veterans. Several sew-ins are planned in the coming months to get quilts made so this can become a reality. April is a veteran herself, the daughter, wife and mother of veterans. She will do a great job with this wonderful effort. You can tell from her smile, she was excited to have these first two awards accomplished. 

I have written about these quilts before. For pattern information see this blog post: First Quilt of Valor

For more information on the Quilts of Valor Foundation, see their official website: Quilts of Valor. If you are local to Huntsville, AL consider joining April in her project to award as many local veterans as possible. Her organization would love to have your help. 

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Multiple Projects--All the Time

Recently, a friend wrote her blog and said it seemed very odd to her that she was working on FOUR projects, simultaneously. 

She is an art quilter and teacher of free-motion quilting, so our work is fairly different. I just smiled to myself, because I had no idea how many projects I am currently "working on", but I was pretty sure it was more than four. And "sheltering in place" or "quilters' quarantine" has nothing to do with this--I always have multiple projects going.

Finally got this top finished and I love it. I might not be able to part with it. That just means I have to make yet another Quilt of Valor, the 3rd this year, to be ready for Veteran's Day. The quilt is titled "Sail On" and was published in Easy Quilts Spring 2019. I added the Flying Geese border and outer red border:

77" square

Since I changed the pattern, to my regret, I had half square triangles left over. So, when I was still thinking I would be giving this away, I decided to make a small version, with 6" stars, instead of 9":

At first I thought I would just cut solid strips of the reds and blues instead of piecing them from squares but I really like the look of the squares and I can use up smaller pieces of fabric so I think it will be squares for the red and blue rows. I don't think I will add the flying geese--a simpler pieced border is in the planning stage. There is some interest in this as a class--if the patterns can be purchased, I will do that.

The Stay At Home Sampler from Temecula Quilt Company can be found on Instagram--easy 3"  blocks that use little fabric. I might incorporate a pieced center I made during our great Joyful Journey Retreat in March:

Here are five blocks cut out, waiting to be leaders/enders for other piecing:

Another Leader/Ender project uses the extra Double 9 Patch blocks I made to test the heavy starch method, so I could add that suggestion to one of my blogs about Afternoon Delight--the 2020 Block of the Month Quilt for The Quilt Show. Eventually, this will be a baby quilt and the rows will all be the same length:

At night, while the TV is on, I am handquilting this fat quarter of terrific fabric I bought in Texas last year on a teaching trip. It has wool batting and is a pleasure to quilt, just follow the lines:

Waiting for me in my cozy chair:

When that hand project is done, I will get back to Simple Gifts, a needle-turn hand applique project I started years ago with Mary Sorensen. The pattern and all the fabrics are safely stored in a box and when I dug it out 6 months ago, I knew it was time to get back to it, so I have added a couple leaves recently:

Another project that is floating in my head involves this block, an antique I saw on Pinterest. It is the most "pinned" of all my pins on Pinterest--every time someone pins it I think "I really need to do something with that block design". First, I drafted it--the 12" large block is too large--or maybe I've been working with such small pieces in recent years that it just looks huge to me. The smaller block finishes at 7.5" to keep the math somewhat simple. I like it better:

Every day I see them on the side of the design wall and think about what to do next--make an even smaller one? Change the color plan? Not sure, but this will become something later this year.

That brings me to some special sewing. This week I pre-washed these babies so I can get started. I don't often work with solids, not since my days of making Amish quilts, so these will be fun. More to come on this project later:

So there are 8 projects, just the ones it was easy to photograph and show you. There are at least 3 more on the back burner that will move up in line as these above get completed.

How many projects do YOU work on? Only one at a time, or several?

Let's quilt.

Barbara

Red, White and Blue--All Set

I decided. It was tough. There were several ideas for a red, white and blue quilt for another Quilt of Valor calling my name. A Trip Around the World. A Coins quilt. Something easy but interesting. What to do, too many choices???

My next Quilt of Valor is a variation of a pattern a friend sent me:

The pattern is Sail On, by Eileen Fowler. It was published in EASY QUILTS SPRING 2019:

Mine has just gotten started:

I thought if I changed the construction, I would have fewer seams. And that is true. The downside?  I now have partial seams to deal with. So the trade-off may not have been worth it. But once I started, I was committed. "In for a penny, in for a pound". 

The quilting will delineate the star blocks--essentially putting the "seams" back in visually. I hope to have it ready to quilt before April is over. But maybe not... There are a lot of flying geese in that border.

This weekend was "hang a quilt on your house" weekend so I did:

Gift of Love from the Sunday Sew and Sews

It's a good day to read on the porch swing

Antique Rose Star--one of my most favorite quilts

I hope you are handling the stress of "isewlation" and "QuiltersQuarantine" pretty well. There is so much available online to educate and amuse us. Take care and learn something new. Some classes are free, some are offering special deals. If you are not a member of The Quilt Show, NOW is the time--$19.95 for a 6 month membership gives you access to 13 YEARS of shows. And so much more. 

Let's quilt.

Barbara