I was searching for some fabric one day and came upon a number of blocks I had sewn but never put them together into a quilt. I knew I wouldn’t be doing it, either. So, I donated them to the quilt ladies at our church. I was tickled the receive photos of the quilts that were put together with my cast-offs:
Glad to see my blocks and projects used to make beautiful charity quilts for others to enjoy!
I definitely have the advantage of completing a block of the month quilt, since I have designed them. Sometimes, I follow along with making the blocks each month…just as my BOMquilts.com viewers do. But some of the time, I am way ahead of the curve and finish one of my BOM’s ahead of time…as I did for this year’s 2014 “He Loves Me, He Loves me Not” BOM.
This quilt was sponsored by AbbiMays.com and Aurifil threads.
Part of my reasoning for finishing this quilt ahead of time was because the fabrics just drew me in – they were SO much fun to work with! The other part of my reasoning for finishing this quilt is that I am donating it to our school’s one-act play (OAP) program. Both my older daughter and our middle daughter have been involved in this great program and it deserves more recognition. But, also, because of school budget cuts, the OAP company has had to forgo some very important festivals or workshops because there just wasn’t enough funding for it. (And don’t even get me started on how the funding for the sport’s programs are no problem but funding for one of the few fine arts offered at the school is not.)
Anyway, praying the OAP company will be allowed to raffle this quilt off early in the 2014-2015 school year so they can participate in the vital festivals and workshops that provide much needed critiques to help make their OAP performances perfected before they reach the competition phase of their program. And I am happy to be able to help in whatever way I can!
I was searching for some fabric on my overflowing fabric stash shelves and came across these two small samples I had made some time in the past. I believe it was when I first received my AccuQuilt studio cutter and I wanted to play with the shapes of the dyes.
I emailed the lady in charge of our quilt group at our church, attaching these two photos, and asked her if she had any use for them. I knew the ladies made larger quilts for their Lutheran World Relief projects as well as giving quilts to graduates…but wasn’t sure of who else they made quilts for and if they had any need for these 40 1/2″ squares.
Wouldn’t you know, she said absolutely – and anything else I came up with in my searching, regardless of whether it was the sizes of the above pieces or just single blocks. And then I hung my head in shame…knowing that now I would feel compelled to go through those shelves to find more.
But, I did it…at least as far as I could get it done as I couldn’t reach all of my shelves (oh yeah is the day that I am able to get into my quilt studio and be able to access whatever I needed, whenever I needed it)!
I came up with nearly a full paper sack of this-n-that to give to the quilters. And when I went to pick up the kids from Sunday school on Sunday morning, I saw the quilt-lady-in-charge carrying that bag to her car. Guess she wanted to see what I sent before sharing it with the rest of the ladies!
And as an added bonus, most of my shelves are now cleared of items I would not use again so when my studio is complete, I won’t have as much to cull as I would if I hadn’t found these first two samples!
There is the national organization, Quilts of Valor Foundation (QOV), a non-profit group that delivers beautiful quilts to our service men and women. It is a fabulous non-profit group that is from any quilted hearts.
But, with so many of our service members from the most current conflicts in the past 10 years, there are dwindling numbers of older Veteran’s who have yet to be recognized with a quilt. I do not see that there are any WWI Veteran’s still alive and the numbers of WWII Veteran’s are now dying off. The Veteran’s from the Korean and Vietnam wars/conflicts are now mostly senior citizens and, again, there are more deaths each day from those who served during the 1950’s and 1960’s.
And unfortunately, QOV can barely keep up with the most recent returning Veteran’s, either wounded or not. Which leaves our older Veteran’s perhaps recognized on a local level but rarely on a national level.
Enter in Military Veteran Quilts. I started this website and hopefully, with the help of volunteers, it will grow legs and race across the United States – to help recognize those older service men and women who have yet to be noticed by the QOV. Once the concept came to me, I wanted our first quilt to be made for someone local. Our county’s American Legion was our Girl Scout Service Unit sponsor so naturally (I was a Girl Scout leader here for three years), that was the first place I looked for a recipient. And then I recalled that the current Commander of our American Legion lived right here in the town that we lived in. I didn’t have to look any further. He was my chosen Veteran to receive the first Military Veteran Quilt.
Here is the Commander, reading the words written on the back of his quilt.
Here is the Commander holding his quilt.
The Commander was in the Vietnam War as a Marine. I machine appliqued these small round emblems onto the four corners of his quilt. “Once a Marine, Always a Marine”
This first Military Veteran Quilt‘s fabric was donated by AbbiMays.com, the designing and piecing by myself and the quilting donated by Meloney Funk (herself an Air Force Veteran for 27 years). To find out more about Military Veteran Quilts, please click on the link and visit our website. Please remember to honor the older Veteran’s, too, as they deserve it for their service to our country!
When I give my longarm quilter a quilt, I rarely ask for her to do a pattern. She is the expert and she quilts my quilts with love. I did ask for stars to be used when quilting this special Military Veteran’s quilt. But, Meloney went way further and quilted the quilt with both stars and a little bit of micro-quilting where I had placed raw edge applique. I am sure the recipient of this quilt will treasure it, in part because it is made especially for him and in part because of the beautiful quilting Meloney has done.
