Finished QOV top

I hope everyone had a great weekend and a blessed Easter for those who celebrate.  Our weekend was fantastic. We had great weather and our daughter was home. It was very relaxing and we all had a lovely time together.

On Friday, I showed the blocks I was making for Kevin the Quilter's Quilts of Valor block drive. I managed to make 31 blocks from the fabric I had. This felt really good, because it takes 30 blocks to make a top. Since I had them, why not put the blocks together? Here's what it ended up looking like:

Hmmm. It looks a little wonky and odd in the picture, but I swear that it is square and lovely in person. I wanted to take a picture outside, but of course it's raining, so I pinned it to the wall near a window. Note to self: find a better place to take pictures. I will be packing this up and sending it off by the end of the week so it can be quilted up and given to a deserving veteran. Last time I looked he had gotten enough blocks and tops for 98 quilts, so I think this week he will definitely go over 100.

This was a super-easy pattern that made for a quick and easy top. Can't you see making it for other charity uses in other fabrics? Maybe some large florals with solid inserts for a women's shelter, or sized down to 6 inch blocks in bright prints for Project Linus? I think I have some ideas for later!

On another happy note, these appeared in the garden this weekend:

Spring is finally coming! Happy, happy!

Quilt of Valor blocks

It's Good Friday today, and that means there will be no sewing for fun for me today. Instead, I'm making blocks to donate to the Quilts of Valor block drive being hosted by Kevin the Quilter.  So far he's gotten enough blocks for 78 Pathway of Valor quilts! If you'd like to join the drive and make some blocks, all of the instructions and rules are right there on his blog.

The blocks for this block drive are so simple.  Start with a pile of red, white, blue, and gold fabrics.

These are Kona cotton solids from my stash.

Cut one 11 inch by 12 1/2 inch piece of one color, and a 2 1/2 by 12 1/2 strip of a different color.

Easy peasy.

Then make a straight cut randomly along the 11 inch edge of the larger piece of fabric.

You can make this cut anywhere along the fabric edge.  No need to measure.  It looks better when the blocks are put together if the stripes are staggered, so this is the one case where not measuring is better than measuring.

Then it's just a matter of sewing two quick straight seams to insert the stripe between the two first color pieces. I pressed the seams away from the stripe, but it doesn't matter which way they're pressed because there will be no matching when the quilts are assembled. Here's the final block:

And, literally half an hour later, here's a happy pile of multi-colored blocks:

They're going to look great together! Here's a little tip, though--don't make too many of the same color all in a row, or else you can mix up the side pieces and end up with weird sized blocks that have to be ripped out and resewn. Ask me how I know this.

I'm planning to make as many as I can from this pile of fabric as my donation to the cause. These take almost no time at all and turn out looking really dynamic in a quilt.

Everyone have a blessed day and a very happy Easter!