Quilt of Valor - What's on the binding?

 As you know, each of the bindings on the Quilts of Valor (and other quilts I make) have text in the binding. As my machine gets older, some of the text isn't as easy to read, it makes up letters as it goes in some places. But what's in the text?

- Quilt Name

- Receiver's name (when I have it, I don't always have it, unfortunately)

- The what and the why - Quilt of Valor and Thanks for your service

- Quilt Care - Never pull strings, put in a bag to wash (even a pillow case, to protect those seams) lay flat to dry

- The fact that it's homemade, and has flaws, making it even more unique 

and more...

Quilt of Valor - Purple Mountains Majesty

This is the next quilt of Valor - number 45, I think, in a series of 55. I should be finished in about a year. Each one takes, you will remember, about 100 hours to make. Lots and lots of work involved.

I've driven through area's where the mountains feel like layers upon layers stretching to the horizon...

 

Part of the sky and mountain tops

More Mountains

Purple Mountains Majesty

And Yet More Quilts of Valor - Here's What I Will Be Working On Next

There's always something next! Always! Maybe not immediately, but still next. The quilts of valor that I make run between 90-125 hours each. That's a lot of time. 4.5-5 yards of fabric in each - the top, the batting and the bottom. That's a lot a fabric. especially in the top, as it's multitudes of smaller pieces built up to that 5 yards of designed top. And thread, and binding, and thinking, designing, changing and re-designing. And driving, shopping, shipping. There's a lot involved in every single quilt. And I can only hope that they each serve their purpose. I get to choose the patterns, and I like most of the patterns I have made, some more than others. Most that I've made this year I really like!

I began this one at the end of June, and finished it sometime in July, with all the regular things that also take up time in our everyday lives.

Matching the triangle sets

Preparing to Trim

Rectangle is the base piece

Hold onto the scraps

This is NOT how they go together

This is correct

Laying out the 2-pieces for colors

Assembing as laid out

Assembling, assembling...

From chaos comes beauty

Pinning the sandwich

Pinning didn't go so well...

The back of the quilt

The top after quilted

Binding is such fun! Ha ha!

Bound with words

Book Shelf Quilt of Valor

 Quilt Name: Leave the Past Behind. This one is a special request from a friend for a friend. Took a long time to create, as I 'built it' on the backing fabric. The recipient of this quilt has just retired from the Army, after 30 years. The quilt is named 'Leave The Past Behind'. The books with titles included are all books that look forward, suggesting research, learning, hobbies, and fun. The yellow is representative of the area of the Army that he served, and also the a wall covering with Bee's buzzing, bee's are all about pollinating new ideas in places where they didn't perhaps exist before. 

The globe with the blue jay is a reminder of his college, as are some of the books in the bookcase. There are plenty of books available without titles that could have titles embroidered on, should someone decide to do so. It's slightly smaller than many of the Quilts of Valor I have made, which are the largest size allowed. This is the mid-size or 'recommended size' of QOV's. 

I made the books as blocks, and then added the shelves. I spent a lot of time ripping out ad starting over. Building out from the actual book shelf, I finished it with an Army fabric. Of course, his name, the quilt name and all the information I include on the quilt is on the binding. The back is not as smooth as I like, because of the way the quilt was built on it.

Making Book Strips to create Quilt Blocks

Quilt of Valor - Splashes of Blue and Red

Is this seven of seven, seven of nine or seven of eleven this year? It's seven of eleven Quilts of Valor made this year. Anyway, it's nearing it's finish, and then on to the next one. I made two at the same time, in this pattern and these colors. They were to be gifted to two cousins, and so I needed them to be similar. Of the cousins, one is still serving, the other has served and moved on to other things. 

The color was changed, by that I mean, on the second quilt, where you see red here, you would see blue there. These use the traditional log cabin block, set it on point and using just two color palettes, create an intriguing design, don't you think?

..

Six of Seven Quilts Bound, One More To Go!

All caught up in the continuing saga of my Viking Sewing machine, I finally got it back after nine weeks, (originally told two, then they called me into their location three weeks later to pick it up, but it wasn't to be found, and wasn't actually there. The least honest folks I've found in a while, so very, very disappointing!!) These are finally ready to go into the mail! Hooray!!!!

Most of these are log cabin quilts, set on point, for a different effect. I started with 'Reflections on Water' and it's twin, but as I was making it, grabbed a more aqua colored fabric, and conceived 'Aurora Borealis' and could hardly wait to finish the first to make it, just to see if it would match my expectations once made. Thankfully, it did.

I had a handful of blocks left, so I created a few more, and came up with more sky-themed quilts with 'Patriotic Sunset' and 'Dawn's Early Light'. The other's here, I actually created first. I had seen somewhere (usually how my quilts are born) the (what I call) hiccough design, with the one set of set of blocks continuing into the border fabric, and loved it! So, I figured out what size I needed to start cutting out triangles and eh, voila!

Aurora Borealis

Dawn's Early Light

Almost all my quilts have information

A Turn in the Path

Reflections on Water

Square Ripples in the Pond

Examples of the text

Patriotic Sunset

 

Shadows - Quilt of Valor

May 12th, just beginning! It's always messy in the beginning, as I am choosing fabrics to include. I always make more than I need, to be sure that I have options to select as I am building the quilt.

Cutting out 6" blocks, 1.5 and 2" strips

I try to have as few 'duplicates' of fabric as I can, that means having a lot of fabric available and cut out ready to go. It makes it more fun for everyone, I think, maker, user and folks who happen to see the finished product. 

Half way !

The borders, if there are any (and there usually are) are as important to the design of the quilt as any other fabric included (and they are all important), but they border can really pull the whole quilt together! I call this one 'Disappearing Shadows'.

Finished!

 

Quilt of Valor For My Cousin Don (January 2024)

Don is a Vietnam Vet, and this went out to him in January! It's an Irish Chain pattern, with very small (stamp) sized squares. If you zoom in and look close, you will find that there are few duplicates. There are 49 small squares in the big blocks of colored squares. There are duplicates, but not all that many. I made 'literally' hundreds and hundreds of the small squares, and more than 100 of the small square blocks. I hadn't touched the sewing machine in more than a year, when I sat down to make this for him in December. 

Don is a long lost cousin, and found me or I found him, and we connected. He served in the Air Force in Vietnam. His is a very interesting story! In the 40's, when he was a small boy, he and one of his brothers were given up to an orphans home, due to divorce. Not all his brothers, just these two. After decades of searching, he found his older siblings, and recently found the rest of us. My Great Great Grandfather is his Great Grandfather. 

This is his quilt. The next quilt I made is for his Grandson, Cory, who obviously is also a lost cousin, and is currently serving. He's spent a lot of time in the middle east war zones.