After the Storms - Making a Dinosaur Jacket

My Dino Jacket

I had to put my machine away, due to the storms that came through, both Helene and Milton. We didn't take a direct hit, but when a storm like those approaches, everything has to be packed away or tied down. I packed everything away for the first one, waited to be sure it was safe to bring everything back out again, then turned around and packed it all up again. I hope I wont be packing again this year.

Once unpacked again after the second storm, I finished the Birthday quilt and got it into the mail, and did some tweaking to the pants I made earlier (too long, reset buttons, fix a waistband) then started on this jacket. I was originally going to make it for someone else, but no one appeared interested (don't wear plush, don't like dinosaurs...) so I am making it for me! I used a pattern, for the sleeves and body size, to get them right. I changed the shoulders the bottom, the cuffs, the collar to get the bomber-style I wanted. I couldn't find a pattern to match, so I made it up as I went along.

Cutting it all out

Building a Jacket

Still a lot to do, but it's on it's way

Surprise! It glows in the dark!

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?

..

Sunrise - Quilt of Valor

Red sky in morning, Sailors take warning. But red sky's in the morning are beautiful to see, as I tried to display in this quilt, from the sun in the lower left, to the pink around the sun and the red of the clouds leading up to the blues of the changing night sky, sunrise is a beautiful time of day.

This, like several of the other quilts I made in the spring of 2024 (and indeed several before that) is a log cabin quilt block, set on point. This quilt, as many of the over 100 quilts I have made and gifted, is a Quilt of Valor, sent to a veteran of Vietnam.

Only half quilted, diagonally from the left.

To build the sandwich and stitch this

it has to be in pieces. I'll post again with finished photos!

 

Quilts of Valor for a Couple of Cousins

 This is the first quilt, the second will be very similar, just the colors switched from blue and red to red and blue! There are little videos (reels) on Facebook for a couple of the quilts I've been making, sort of the steps in the process, a how-to. I saw a quilt somewhere, that I liked and said, I can make that. I figured out the 'math', and started cutting out strips to make the blocks, and before you know it, it started coming together! These quilt led to three other quilts, as I always make more blocks than I need, in most cases, so that I have multiple options available. I didn't need the options here, but found myself designing more quilts in this block style, and if I do say so myself, they are beautiful!

Laying out gives me a chance to change things.

Bigger pieces than I usually use, shorter make time.

Reflected Lights on Water

They are different, just not much!