Quilt of Valor #3

Spring and summer were busy months for us, and I simply haven't had the time to update the blog, I'm sorry to say. Now that I'm back, I'm restarting in the moment and will catch up here and there.

One of my goals this year was to complete six Quilts of Valor. I'm still hoping to reach that goal, but I may not, and that's fine. I plan to continue making them, so I'll keep going. The third one should have been completed by the end of June, and I'm still working on it. It's a pattern called Steve's Star from one of Judy Martin's books, Piece 'n Play Quilts. I think I used every star fabric I own in the quilt, lol, so I'm calling it Stars Over America. I drafted a paper piecing pattern for the stars in EQ, and it does take time to put these together, more time than I realized. The top half is all sewn together now, but I still have most of the star units for the bottom half to put together.

QOV #2 , finished at the end of April, is a duplicate of one I made several Christmases ago for a Marine veteran whose family was the recipient of gifts from my husband's team at work. At the time, I liked the quilt well enough to purchase fabric for two quilts, and this is the second one. Quick to put together, only the star blocks in the border are pieced--the center is a panel. Love this quilt. It is a design by Nancy Rink, and I named it American Valor. It might have been a free pattern from the Marcus Bros. website. Sorry for the corner of my sewing table in the corner of the photo--not much I can do about it.

I found a new pantograph for the quilting, one called Patriot from Jodi Beamish. With a variegated red, white and blue thread, I like the way it looks.

The most momentous event of the summer was the birth of my first grandchild, a granddaughter. After she was born, I stayed with my son and daughter-in-law for a week and a half, helping with the baby and things around the house. Loved all the grammie time!

She is two months old now and just beginning to smile at faces. Her mom and dad let her come up this weekend for a slumber party, and she was all tuckered out by the time we took her home on Sunday. Can't wait to see her again!