GLORIOUS CREATIONS: May 2013

Wednesday, May 29, 2013

INSPIRATION

The internet has been inspirational to me. Words shout to be used. This was the case in an email I received from a yahoo group I belong to. A fellow quilter, thrilled, working with her fabric,

wrote the group. She titled the email: Joy for the day.

She wrote: "Freshly pressed yardage puddling onto my freezing cold bare feet...JOY!!"

Her statement was immediately transformed into a Haiku in my mind.

"Joy"
Freshly pressed yardage,
Puddling on, freezing, bare feet,
A quilt's beginning.

I love playing with words and Thank her.

I hope reading this, you find inspiration each day. Look around you, even trash on a side walk can be inspirational if it challenges you.

Other blog sites by me:

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

blogs about the wildflowers on our farm

Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry

blogs, Seeds sprouting, insects, and garden pictures

Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission

Friday, May 10, 2013

QUILT OF VALOR

On the left is the Quilt of Valor Quilt I made. Every fabric in the quilt contains stars. These young men and women who receive these quilts are the stars in our country.

I have a stash overflowing. I could make a full size quilt a day for the rest of my life and never use it up. Years ago I collected fabrics which had stars on them. I was enamored with them. Two years ago I saw a quilt in the back ground of a photo our son sent us. I knew I hadn't made it and I asked him where he got it from and he said it was a Quilt of Valor Quilt. He had received it when he came back from Afghanistan. I have a friend in Illinois who is regional director for QOV. I knew the stars would be perfect for a Quilt of Valor Quilt.  I thought, I should send her a top. I finally followed through and made the quilt.

Our son has been stationed at Great lakes on two different occasions. It would be appropriate to send it to her.

I went to the QOV site:   http://www.qovf.org/ to read to see what the parameters for quilt donations were.  I discovered they have a free pattern section: http://www.qovf.org/patterns-list.html

On the site is a free pattern for log cabin quilt. I am very fond of the log cabin pattern and my stash contained the medallion center you see here.     I used the pattern as a guideline but when I reached the layout phase I realized I wanted to do something different.   I wanted the blocks to look like a star since I was using only star fabrics. I chose the layout you see above. When I got to the bordering phase I knew I wanted the inner border to be white, but when I auditioned the star fabric for the outer border I didn't like the look of the plain border. None of the fabrics worked.  The plain border wanted to be center stage, it didn't want to be a supporting actor. All you saw was the border.

My inner border finished at 3 inches. I still needed 5 inches to satisfy the parameters set up by the Site. I had a pile of 2 patch leaders and enders that were sitting next to the machine. They were made from the discarded ends for the logs. I started laying them next to the quilt top and arranging them in little 4 patches to see how they looked. I wasn't impressed. When I went to pick them up, a couple moved side ways as if they were joined end to end. They looked real nice. I proceeded to arrange 4 long matching lengths to use for the border. When I got one made up I basted it to another 3 inch white strip to see how it looked. It worked real well. Then came the math part. I needed to figure out how many squares on a side. On both sides it wasn't the un even number I hoped it would be. I knew I could never get them to match up in the middle of each side. (If I hadn't wanted the same color in the same location on each side I wouldn't have had the problem). The solution was to put a white spacer in each side. This border treatment is my own design.

When adding the borders it was evident I would need a corner square. I decided a 9 patch would fill the bill. I could have chose a star for the corners but when I looked at the quilt I wanted to continue the geometric look of the border.

I am sending the binding with the quilt (I wrap bindings on a paper towel roll to keep the pressed edge nice and crisp. It also keeps the binding from getting fold marks).

I wanted the star and Navy theme continued so I picked Navy Blue Star fabric.

I made a queen size pillow case for them to pack the quilt in when they finish it.

(I didn't have enough Navy Stars for the cuff).

I need to make a card to accompany the quilt to it's new owner.

I have enjoyed making this quilt top. The hours spent on it were filled with thoughts of our son.

He has been all around the world in his 27 years of Navy Service.

I can't thank our son or the recipient of this quilt enough for their protecting our way of life.

We are very proud of Our Son's choice of careers.

We have many family members who have served their country.

Father: Army reserve medic;

Uncle: retired Air force;

Uncle: retired Navy;

GR Uncle: WWII Army;

GR Grandfather: WWI Coast Guard;

GR Grandfather: Navy;

GR Uncle WWII: Air force;

GR uncle WWII: Army;
Our Son's Best friend is retired (20 yrs. service) Air force

I hope this blog has inspired you to look up your local chapter of Quilt of Valor and make a top for them. BTW.. Donations of blocks and fabric and help are greatly appreciated. I know the Illinois Region 6 has sew-ins at their local LQS.

I have met another quilter on the internet who supports our troops and is involved in QOV.

This is her blog (On this blog she shows off quilts her group completes.):

http://alyciaquilts.blogspot.com
No Soldier Forgotten

New Article on my blog:

http://gloriouscreations.blogspot.com/2013/07/a-mystery-in-making.html

"A MYSTERY IN THE MAKING"

A mystery quilt designed with the novice in mind

Other blog sites by me:

http://glosgarden.blogspot.com/

Where I have stories of my cats and other pets

a blog about my courtship with my husband,

and a blog about my most embarrassing moment.

A "Soap box" blog where I do air my opinions.

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/

blogs about the wildflowers on our farm

Organic methods we use, some cooking and some poetry,

blogs about Seed sprouting, insects, and garden pictures

Blog about an endangered beneficial beetle

New Blog:

http://organicinstlouis.blogspot.com/2013/08/blackberries-kitchen-aid.html

All recipes, pictures, and writings are my own.

I give credit for items which belong to other people in my blogs .

Please do not copy without permission

Wednesday, May 1, 2013

BLOCK OF THE MONTH: E is for EASY PARTIAL SEAM BLOCK

"E" IS FOR EASY PARTIAL SEAM BLOCK

"THROUGH THE ALPHABET"

A twenty-six month Journey

Dorothy Young, owner, of the yahoo group "A Pocketful of Mysteries"
is presenting her Block of the Month quilt series. It began in January 2013,
and will continue for the next two years. The yahoo site for this is:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/apocketfullofmysteries/
It is not too late to join in. This block and the other four are at the beginners level. I found the construction very simple. The seam is as easy as Dorothy states.

There is no trick to sewing the seam. You just do it step by step and it comes out perfect when finished. She suggested if we have a fussy cut fabric it would be nice here. Neither of the fabrics, which are my constants, were conducive for this. When I went looking for fabrics (the pattern also suggests each fabric be a different color), I saw the scraps left over from the previous block we did and decided to try them in the center of the block. This was a nice idea until I realized I didn't know the math to make four scraps into a square which was 5 1/2 inches. I began cutting out paper squares of different sizes and thought that 3 1/8 would do it. Nope had to rip and start over. it was to large. I found that cutting an nth over 3 inches and sewing a very full quarter inch solved the dilemma. The above block is the result (yes I didn't get the corner matched on one section...It aggravates me but I didn't want to rip it and replace it. I will probably make a replacement block.

The Block on the right is the swap block I have made for my partner in crime. I used previous scraps for her center too. I added one new fabric to the ones I have been using for her. As you can see in both blocks I opted for only two fabrics in the surround. On my block I kept it a two fabric block.

This is the sample Dorothy made for us.