QOV Quilting Toss-up! w/Updates

Time to change up the quilting a bit.  Taking a page out of Miss Katy's quilting playbook, over at katyquilts.net, specifically this blog link: https://katyquilts.net/2016/01/21/quilts-of-valor-5/ where she utilizes more than one quilting technique w/panto in different sections of a quilt...neat!

So here we go w/latest Quilt of Valor created by our Doris and I - we make a pretty good QOV Team, don't you think? ;-)

Another of Doris's 'Row Quilt' QOVs coming off the frame

While choosing the border quilting design first - since Miss Betty & I LOVE quilting borders, we decided to treat ALL three borders as one, which would allow us to quilt them w/larger panto.  I chose this one:

Starstruck panto chosen for the 3 Red/White/Blue borders

It was a great choice and quilted out perfectly, with just enough room for echoing...what FUN!

Starstruck panto w/echo quilting

For the interior, we chose Becker's Shooting Star from urbanelementz.com, which also was a wonderful choice, along with one of our long-time thread favs - Rainbows Patriotic:

Starstruck and Becker's Shooting Star pantos combined in one Quilt of Valor!

We enjoyed quilting out Becker's Shooting Star panto so much, we're giving serious consideration to also quilting out this QOV with it:

Alycia's Stars A-Waving Quilt of Valor ALL loaded and ready to quilt!

Loaded this most recent Quilt of Valor onto Miss Betty right before the latest round of thunderstorms hit.  Once they pass, we'll be ALL ready to start quilting again!

UPDATE later that same day:  managed to squeeze in a little panto quilting in between storms - isn't this star quilting turning out neat?!

Close-up of star quilting

UPDATE 4/29/2016 - look what just came off the Miss Betty quilting frame prior to the NEXT thunderstorm hitting:

Alycia's Stars A Wavin' coming off the frame!

This wonderful Stars A Wavin Quilt of Valor Alycia designed for us ALL to enjoy creating and ultimately awarding to a very deserving Service Member or Veteran, will be on display at our local library in Marshall throughout the month of May beginning May 3, 2016, along with additional QOVs. East Central IL QOV has been invited to create a display sharing the Good News about the Quilts of Valor Foundation, and how EVERYONE may join in helping to create and award beautiful Quilts of Valor for those touched by war.

Another storm is moving through...time for binding!

Later,
~Deb

It's Time for some Quilting! w/Updates

Miss Betty & I have spent considerable time apart of late, while yours truly readied several/many quilt tops, including quite a few Quilts of Valor, for quilting.  Now has come the time to start quilting them!

First in the quilting line-up, a quilt top created by 'our Doris', bordered out and ready for quilting. Once we got our thread options chosen - one of our long-time favorites, you'll remember this one:

Superior's Rainbows Patriotic machine quilting thread - one of our favs!

...along with one of our favorite bobbin thread choices:

Maxi-lock for bobbin thread and Revive for press-F R E E/wrinkle F R E E backings...
what a perfect quilting combo!  (Additional info here:  www.melaleuca.com/deblindley)

When we got the quilt sandwich loaded, time to attach the side tensioners for stress-F R E E quilting:

Side Tensioner

Here's a close-up:

Customized 'Betty Boop' side tensioners - got this neat idea from
Professional Quilt Artist/Instructor, Sharon Schamber...works great!

ALL the links to the Sharon Schamber tutorial videos may be found under our Favorite Tutorials page here:  http://donebybettyboop.blogspot.com/p/favorite-tutorials.html

After the quilt top/backing/batting is loaded, bobbins are wound, machine threaded, side tensioners attached, favorite House episode of Season #3 picked out and ready to watch/listen to, time to start quilting! That is until a storm blew in and the power went out...UGH!

Alrighty then - 2 hours later, after the storm passed and the power returned, it was NOW time to quilt, and quilt we did!

This was FUN!!

Quilting the Stars and Swirls panto

This is also one of our tried and true pantos, you should remember this one, too ;-)

Dave Hudson's Random Stars panto

We haven't quite quilted 100 Quilts of Valor with this favorite panto but, we're getting close!

And no QOV of ours would be considered complete without a little McTavishing, and here we go:

McTavishing the top border w/LOTS of swirls to mimic a waving flag

This side border came out really nice, we think:

McTavished side border w/Rainbows Patriotic...neat!

As soon as ALL the panto quilting and our version of McTavishing is complete, we'll go back and add the continuous firecracker swirls we're so fond of in the white picture frame perimeter borders, and this very special Quilt of Valor will be ready for binding and labeling.  We'll update this post w/pics as we progress.

IF we hadn't lost our power for those 2 hours, might've been able to finish!  Oh well, there's ALWAYS tomorrow, tomorrow...

It's Tomorrow!  UPDATE 4/07/2016: just finished quilting and coming off the frame:

Doris's QOV coming off the frame

Some close-ups:

Star panto quilting w/Firecracker swirls and McTavishing quilting in the borders

The back shows the quilting a little better ;-)

ALL quilted and ready for binding and labeling!

Time to make some binding!

UPDATE 4/21/2016:  ALL finished and ready to be awarded to Doris's Vietnam Vet.  You may read ALL about it by following this direct weblink to our East Central IL QOV blog posting: http://eastcentralilqov.blogspot.com/2016/04/korean-veteranmcdonalds-employee.html

Later,
~Deb