Red, White & Blue to Honor our Service Men, Service Women and their families

Memorial Day, May 30th

All last week, I've been cutting 4 1/2" HST in red, white, and blue fabrics, to make a Friendship Star Quilt.
The blocks will finish at 12" square for a total of 30 blocks (5 across & 6 down).  I sewed the rows together this afternoon.  Since this is not a QOV, I will be machine quilting the top with my walking foot.

This will be a patriotic quilt, which I plan to give to a U.S. Army Veteran's wife.  Her husband passed away in early 2015.  My friend, Roanne, whom I have known since 7th grade told me about their friends; Raymond and his wife.  Raymond had helped counsel Roanne's son, who suffered from PTSD.

Friendship Stars - May 30, 2016

The center squares in the (4) stars in each corner have "Dept. of the Army-United States of America" printed on the fabric.  I had enough fabric left for a couple of pieces in two other squares.

See what other quilters have been doing this past week by checking out Patchwork Times.com

Design Wall Monday

Even though I haven't posted since May 9th, I have been busy.  I've been attacking all of my many piles of scraps scattered all over my sewing room.  My goal has been to choose a pile and cut the fabrics into squares of different sizes depending on the size of the scrap.  It's a long, slow process but the goal is to finish by the end of May.
Yesterday, I decided to cut some of my red, white, and blue fabrics for a Friendship Star Quilt.  So far, I have one block complete, just 29 to go......

Friendship Star

I have a difficult time using the patterned lights for the white blocks.  I'm not really sure of the reason but I do know that I also have a hard time making scrappy quilts and now with an overwhelming amount of scraps, this is something I need to get over.

Venture over to  Patchwork Times.com  to see what others have created..........

Design Wall Monday

Greetings--

Finally, I have begun making my Fabric Journal that I've been wanting to make for quite some time.

I finished the front and back covers yesterday and began working on the interior pages.  My plan is to

have 12 pages for embellishments, odds & ends, photo transfers that came out well and ones that may have had issues.  This Journal will be a "sampling" of different ideas, techniques, items and problems to watch out for in the future.  When our new hospital was built in our town, they sent out postcards which showed two images.  One image showed the land as it was before they built the hospital and the 2nd image was a picture of the newly built hospital.  I never knew the name of the technology that was used to produce the two images.  It's called "Lenticular printing" in which lenticular lenses are used to produce printed images with an illusion of depth, or the ability to change or move as the image is viewed from different angles.

The "saver" in me knew that one day I would incorporate that postcard into some type of art work.  That someday has finally arrived.

Design Wall Monday

The top left block is the front cover and the top right block is the back cover.  It was going to be the other way around but I discovered I needed the blank spots on the ends for my grommets, otherwise the grommets would be punched through my houses.

The middle block on the left is full of clothing labels that I've saved for over 25 years.

The middle block on the right is a 9-patch made from 1930's fabric.  It had been a left-over block that hadn't worked out and was a little wonky, so I cut all the squares down to 3" and resewed the block, which I plan to applique to the base block.

The block on the bottom left is the lenticular lens postcard.  If you use the ribbon loop at the bottom,

you can lift the ultra suede block up and discover a piece of fabric showing lots of smiling children.

I have 9 more blocks to make, so I'd been get going.  The next block I plan to make will include several photo transfers that were not used in photo transfer quilts that I've made through the years. 

A big thank-you to Bonnie, who recently asked about my Fabric Journal and wanting to see it when it's complete.  Sometimes, that's all I need to get in gear and finish something.  Other times, it's a deadline for a gift to be given.

See what other quilters have been working on this week at:  Patchwork Times.com

Design Wall Monday

Just now finished my "Simple, Easy Project"--  If you saw the picture in the catalog, you would know that it does not look anything like it.  However, one of the ladies in our Sewing Group donated one hundred sandwich containers full of "Die Cut" appliques.  I chose to use the stars and the cowboy hat &  boots.  It was fun to add the spurs to the boots and fancy stitching around the hat.  All the fabrics were cut 8.5" long and however wide the fabric scrap was.  This will be going to Project Linus, so I tried to use many different fabrics--lots of fun characters and animals to find in the fabrics.  Hopefully, it will bring a smile to a special child.

DWM 05022016

 Link up with   Patchwork Times.com  to see what other quilters have created this week.

Quilty 365 Circles

Hooray!! I'm caught up through April 30th.  I chose to sew my little blocks together; 12 across and 15 rows down.  Yes, that will only get me through June 30th.  I haven't decided whether I will have a 2-sided quilt or 2 quilts.  I love the idea of writing a few words of what I did each day and noting the month and day.  What a wonderful way to write a journal.  I started out using a different fabric for every circle but found several circles with the same fabric. Not all the HST have circles.  There's a rabbit, a boot with spurs, a mini Publix shopping bag, a beanie for baldie fleece hat, a pocket for a Bag of Love,  and lots of circles sewn on one square to represent the day I made 20 circles to get caught up.  Hopefully, I will not do that again.

What I have so far is 120 little blocks, from Jan. 1st through Apr. 29th.   April 30th is complete, but I'll wait until the next row is ready to be sewn before I add it.

365 Quilty Project  (120 days)

Thank you Audrey for creating this challenge.
I absolutely adore this project!!!
Link up here to see everyone's--   Quilty 365 Circles