Veteran's Quilt Project

Annie, our cyber CSQ member, donated this great quilt to our veterans in 2014 (one of many quilts she has sent from Vashon, WA). She also shared the pattern with us.

 

Annie saw an antique quilt made from this pattern and was inspired to draft it. She doesn't know the name of the pattern, so if someone does, please let us know, as we are calling it Annie's Star. We started the year off featuring this as our January Block of the Month, using leftover batiks from a raffle quilt we made for W.H.E.A.T.  - for the pattern and directions see the link here.

 

 

 

 

It's an easy pattern to cut and sew and offers all sorts of possible looks. Betsy made a veteran quilt in red and black, her trade-mark colors. You can see it by clicking on FLICKER at the lower right and scrolling through all the pictures.

 

The blocks each month are turned in, sewn together by a volunteer and the tops wait to take a turn on a volunteer's longarm. Vicki so generously quilted FORTY quilts last year, and this year we have another volunteer, Terry, who has jumped in to help, and I've lost track of how many she has done in a very short time. Thanks to both Vicki and Terry, for making our on-going project possible. The cost of batting and backing fabric is covered by donations to our club, as well as such things as the silent auction we had last month.

 

 

Guess which quilt had its turn on the longarm? If you guessed Annie's Star from our January blocks you would be correct. I saw Terry yesterday and she gave me this quilt, ready for a binding. The picture doesn't do it justice - see below for a close-up showing Terry's beautiful quilting!

 

 

 

All quilts are given to veterans receiving dialysis or out-patient chemo at  The V.A. McGuire Hospital in Richmond, VA. The need there is great and we welcome your quilts.

 

THANKS to EVERYONE for sewing and caring about our veterans!

 

I have some other very good news regarding our Veteran's Quilt Project, but I will save it for another post, in a few days.

 

Happy sewing on this much needed rainy day in Virginia.

 

 



Tuesday Sewing

REMINDER:  Tuesday, Sept 22 is a sewing day - 9 a.m. til 3 p.m.

Hanover County Parks & Rec has given us the use of the building on the 4th Tuesday of each month.
 
As always, bring your own project and supplies along with your lunch. (We have cutting mats, rulers, iron and ironing board, so you don't need to bring those.)

Please let me know if you are coming on Tuesday, by leaving a "comment" or emailing me - I don't want to be the only one there.

Enjoy this beautiful weather and happy sewing!

September meeting notes

We had a fun meeting last night. Carol gave us an excellent pressing lesson and then we had one of the most successful trash-to-treasure sales ever! We made a whopping $378.42!! Thanks to everyone who provided stuff to buy and to the buyers. All of the leftover fabric will go to Estelle for donation to her friend who knows all of the organizations around town who can use the fabric.

Other notes:

- Virginia Quilt Museum: Elsa is looking for volunteer docents for October 31. The exhibits are:

• Caryl Bryer Fallert Gentry's 30 Quilts for 30 Years
•  100 Years of Quilts: The Unger Family
•  Treasures of the Vault: Curator's Choice
•  Charlottesville Area Quilt Guilds

- The September block is the Shoo Fly block. You can make one or more to hand in or make them for yourself for a row quilt. For 1 row you would need 5 blocks with spaces to make the row 48" wide.

 

- Susan Ryan shared a letter that she received from McGuire VA Hospital thanking us for the quilts that we delivered earlier this year.

 

- Did you know that you can donate to your favorite charity every time you shop on Amazon? Just use the site http://smile.amazon.com/ . There you can select your charity and then shop as normal. Every time you shop a small percentage will be donated to your charity. Our two favorite charities are represented there: Virginia Quilt Museum and Western Hanover Emergency Action Team (WHEAT).

- Sewing Friday and Saturday is this weekend! Bring your machine and lunch and join us!

 

September Block of the Month

We have taken a summer break from making blocks, so it's time for us to get back to making blocks for our veteran quilts. I thought it would be nice to start off with a red/white/blue quilt, sure to please any veteran!

The block we will be making is an old favorite, Shoo Fly, #1645 in Block Base.

Cutting direction for 9" blocks - See diagram for color placement.

A - White - cut 3-7/8" squares, slice it on the diagonal*
A - Red - cut 3-7/8" squares, slice it on the diagonal*
B - White  - cut 3-1/2 squares
B - Blue -  cut 3-1/2" square

*Use any method you like for making Half Square Triangles.

FABRICS:  My white is probably not the same as your white - that's okay. Set together, they will all look fine.  A nice mix of reds and blues will give us the scrappy look we are going for. (prints and solids). 

NOTE: If anyone has extra blue and red fabric we could use it for the setting blocks.

Here is just one possibility of what we can make with our blocks:

September Meeting

Fall is fast approaching - where did Summer go? Now is a good time to tidy up your sewing room and get rid of things you don't want.

Our September 8 meeting will be one you won't want to miss!

TWO things on the agenda:

1.  Carol Clark will be giving a program on "Pressing" - showing us some pressing methods to help improve our sewing and make it easier. Carol is a very prolific quilter so I know she will have some good tips to share.

2. Annual Silent Auction (bids written on paper). This is always a big hit because one person's trash can be another person's treasure. All items are donated to CSQ and the $ goes to CSQ.  Please mark an opening bid on your item, and from there others will bid up on it. In the past some very nice items have changed hands. Remember, it can be sewing related or a jar of jelly - all donations are welcome.

Veterans quilts - great news!

Many of you met Terry Muller at the last meeting. She and I met at the Innova new owners training last month. I talked her into visiting our happy group. She did and had a great time and has offered to help me quilt the veterans quilts!

YAY!

 

 

So, you can now bring me any quilts that you have and, between us, we should be able to get them all quilted.

 

As a reminder, here are the rules:

 

• The must be pressed and ready to quilt, we do not press the quilt tops before quilting
• We only do veterans quilts and nothing larger than about 50 x 62
• We get them done as soon as we can but we both have other obligations. So they get done when they get done.
• We choose the backing, thread and pattern for quilting. It's, hopefully, a happy surprise for you!
• In return we ask that someone apply the binding on any quilts that we make. So far this year I think that's been a grand total of 1 quilt. :)

 

I think you will be thrilled with Terry's quilting - she has automation and a huge library of patterns. She'll be using the veterans quilts as a way to stitch out samples for her customers.

 

PS - She also quilts for a business!

 

The end is in sight for the quilt that I've been working on for the past 3 months so I'll get back to veterans quilts in the next few weeks.

Fiber Art Class at the Montpelier Center!

We know that the Montpelier Center has art classes but did you know that they are offering a fibert art class this fall?

Leaves and Flowers in Stitches    Instructor:  Anne McCahill - 4 week class starting Saturday Sept. 5th,  9am - 1pm in the Art Studio.  This class is for beginning students who would like to learn the art of needle painting through embroidery. Students will work on individual and class assigned projects.  A suggested supply list will be available upon registration.
$270 members/$300 guests.  Call The Center at 883-7378 to register.