Look what 'WE' get to quilt...!

Just picked these up from those wonderfully talented Comfort Quilters of St. Joseph, Thanks Donna G!  Can hardly wait to start quilting these gorgeous Quilts of Valor beauties!

Is this QOV quilt top wonderful, or what?

QOV quilt top - includes pieced blocks w/wonderful patriotic panels, and even Uncle Sam!

This quilt top we've affectionately named "temporarily", Uncle Sam QOV ;-)  will be custom quilted to enhance ALL the creative piecing and the patriotic panels.  We'll probably save it 'til last so we can focus our quilting attention on it, once the 'others' have been quilted.

Speaking of 'others', how about this beauty - don't you love the Eagle?

Gorgeous Eagle/Star QOV

Some Stars and Wave quilting, possibly?  In Rainbows Patriotic?

This interesting QOV quilt top really didn't show it's 'true colors' until I photographed it - THEN I noticed the distinct and quite interesting quilt design...do you see it?

Distinctive 'water' quilt pattern in this QOV quilt top

Will probably take advantage of this QOV's quilt design and incorporate some water elements and matching thread to enhance an already neat quilt!

And our final QOV quilt top in this wonderful grouping:

ALL Over Stars QOV quilt top

And IF you noticed, the appliqued stars on this Quilt of Valor quilt top are ALL pieced!  They are NOT from a panel - even I did NOT notice the incredible piecing designs until I brought this beauty home and started photographing.

This final ALL Over Stars QOV quilt top will quilt out beautifully with Becker's Star panto with LAVA Diamond Head quilting thread, and possibly custom the outside blue star border...we'll see. Can hardly wait to get started!

Combined with ALL the QOV quilt tops I also picked up from our Doris on Thursday - we've got plenty to keep us occupied for quite awhile ;-)

Time to get to it...Miss Betty doesn't like being kept waiting...

Later,
~Deb

Veteran's Day Star Blocks Underway!

A Quilts of Valor Stars Facebook group that I belong to, has just launched a Patriotic Veteran's Day Star block drive, here's my very fist block:

Veteran's Star Block

This Patriotic Star block is also referred to as a Disappearing 9-patch, and here's why.  We first start by creating a 9-patch block:

9-patch block

Since I love to create quilts from strips, I generally try to find a way to modify ANY pattern to do just that!  And this block is NO exception ;-)

Sewed the fabric strips together first:

Gold/White strips sewn together, then cut into 3 patches

Blue/Red strips also sewn together and cut into 3-patches

Then, sewed the 3-patch strips together - being careful to get the Blue/Red strip centered between the Gold/White strips:

Sewing the Blue/Red and Gold/White 3-patches together

UPDATE 10/3/2016:  Oops - looks like I left out WHY the Disappearing 9-patch is aptly named...here goes:

Resulting 9-patch...right?

Cut in half - vertically & horizontally...carefully ;-)

On to sewing the squares to create the star points.

Just one teensy-weensy problem IF one fails to sew properly, and sews a FAT seam - at least in the quilting world, that's what my Great Aunt Kathleen, my Grandmother Genevieve's sister, used to call it...can you see it?

My FAT seam is just that - need to 'slim down' my seam line area and make sure to stitch
point-to-point.  Or even better - a thread or two 'inside' the seam line,
towards the outside corner works great!

When I flip it over to check - the corners don't line up, that's definitely 'a tell'

NOT a good sign, when those corners don't line-up perfectly!  Time to rippit, rippit ;-)

Now that the ripping is complete and the re-sewing is done, time to trim and press - doesn't our finished Patriotic Star Block look nice?

Disappearing 9-patch results in this gorgeous Patriotic Star block, the first of MANY - 
promised ten (10) to the Quilts Of Valor Stars Group
and will be adding several to our QOV Panel Challenge!

Want to join in creating the Veteran's Day Star blocks with the Quilts of Valor Stars Group?  

Just follow this direct web link to their Facebook page - Membership is OPEN to anyone interested in furthering the QOVF Mission through Quilts of Valor: https://www.facebook.com/groups/167045153475870/

UPDATE 10/19/2016 - the Patriotic Star Quilt Top is Finished!

And the Rockets Red Glare block getting embroidered

Patriotic Star Quilt Top w/embroideries - ready to quilt!

Time to get back to it!

Later,
~Deb