Quilts of Valour

I'm in a wee bit of a panic this morning. I'm trying to anticipate my fabric needs over the next two weeks as I'm not sure how much access I'm going to have to everything. ACK - I can't find the basket of Oh Canada fabric and I can't seem to find the right colors to finish off a block. OK - calm down!!!

Plus I look at everything that's not in a box and OH MY GOD - this packing up business is going to be "fun". Thank god - someone else is doing it. I'm not sure I have the energy to pack much this morning. At last, I had a good sleep except for the time when I woke up because I was going to be arrested for murder. Now - how the heck did that come about? Too many murder mysteries before bed!

Matter of fact, my sleep was so deep that when I woke up, my back was a tad stiff and painful because I hadn't moved around. After I got up, I was fine! Yes - I have a silly cold, but nothing that a few good nights of sleep and lots of water won't cure. I must be sick as I've been craving ice cream for my throat and yesterday I got some. That's the first time, we've had ice cream in the house in years!

Yesterday was a pretty productive day. What I'm about to show you isn't big, but it is huge in terms of what it represents.

At last, I finished ONE MORE block in the Gingerbread quilt that was designed by Sue Garman. I was thrilled, to say the least. That was a lot of applique shapes and the block is DONE!!!

The appliqued block is done

And if that wasn't enough, I got another block completed. This one was totally appliqued, but the yellow for those flowers didn't have a lot of contrast against the background. So I did a small stem stitch in brown embroidery floss to help pop the flowers off the background. Except for tying in one thread end with a crochet hook which I'll do this morning, this block is also finished.

One more block - DONE

That leaves one block left. One applique block that is. I've traced all the shapes onto the freezer paper, but haven't got the fabrics cut yet. That's my job for next Monday. Then the task of stitching that block and then ALL the blocks will be done for this quilt. That means I can start putting it together. It's one of my UFOs for this year. It's taking me forever to get through it, but that's OK. That's the purpose of having lists and setting aside times to work on these huge projects. I'm not sure what's on the list after that last block is completed. I've got a lot more quilts with applique prep work to do and I'll pick one of those for the Monday sew day.

If you want a laugh - check out this blog post from 2014!!!  Lynn and I started to work on our Gingerbread quilts on Monday sew day. You can see Lynn's completed quilt in that post. So FIVE years later, I'm getting mine finished.

I would be lying if I didn't say that I brought home some fabric from Quilt Canada. I stopped by the Trendtex booth and I got a small sample of yellow fabric squares. I believe there are FOUR - 5" squares in this little package. So yes - I did bring home some fabric, but nothing that the stash couldn't handle.

A small bundle of squares from Trendtex

We were chatting about fabric stashes yesterday on Monday sew day. It's amazing how many of us who've been sewing for a while deeply regret the wild buying sprees that we went on in the past. Why did we deem it so important to own so much fabric? Or books or patterns? I've no idea what was in my head when I was buying it. I was going through a basket of fabric this morning and so many of them I've had for years and each time, I go through the basket, I keep bypassing those fabrics as they are just not what I need.

So if you are a NEW quilter - do NOT go crazy and buy lots. You will never use most of it and why not spend your money on a quilt class or something that you'll enjoy.

I have plans for that excess fabric and I'll slowly be working my way through it all.

As I surveyed Studio B this morning, I'm trying to rearrange everything in the "new" space. It's going to be even better than it was before because I've essentially acquired an ENTIRE room to put the excess. I know - there was a hidden storage room in the basement that's about 9 feet square? More or less. I'm getting rid of most of the stuff that was in that room and I'm going to line the walls with shelving and that will ensure that ALL the stuff will be easily accessible. I can't wait.

I think I"m going to tell the moving crew to just pack up all the stuff. And when they are done, I'm going to have them move it back in, but NONE of it will be unpacked. I'm going to go through everything box by box and deal with it instead of putting it back. Where would we put it?? I do NOT want that mess ever again in my studio. I don't mind if the studios get messy from working, but not from clutter.

And it's stuff like this that causes clutter. I collected all my gift bags and paper shopping bags and put them into two bags. I donated them to a quilt shop that was looking for bags. These were two very heavy and very full bags. But that cleared up some space in the house. I was happy and Suzanne was happy.

Paper bags and gift bags that were donated

Now I have a task for you. I was very emotionally moved by the Quilts of Valour booth at Quilt Canada. I have a couple of quilts that I need to get quilted for them and a pattern to write. But I want to throw a challenge to you all. I know that some of you may have participated in their call for log cabin blocks, but I'm going to make a plea that we should all make blocks. If you haven't made blocks, then make some. If you have, then perhaps you could make some more.

Here's a link to their pattern.  It's super easy to make.

I'm going to challenge my Monday sewing group to make blocks and I hope to get at least one quilt top done while we're on our sewing retreat. I'll quilt them, but not going to make the entire quilts by myself. If you want to make blocks, then make blocks and either send them to me or send them to the addresses on that link. I would so much prefer that we pass along finished quilts rather than tops or blocks. Both the unfinished items require that someone put those quilts together.

Here's the tally of items collected at Quilt Canada.

Quilts of Valour tally from Quilt Canada

That's incredible.  Each quilt takes 48 blocks so if we divide the number of blocks (3,056) by 48 - that equals almost 64 quilts. They are still thousands of quilts short of their goal!!!  So if you're a quilter and you have no need for more quilts at your house, but you still want to sew - why not start using your stash and your time to make quilts for a charity. Could be Quilts of Valour or your local hospital.

It's a win-win-win for you, your stash and your local organization. PLEASE be sure to read or ask what kind and sizes of quilts that they are looking for.

That's why I'm trying to find my basket of Oh Canada (by Northcott) fabric, so we can use it up at the retreat. Where or where is that basket?????  I've pulled some yellow for the log cabin center, I've got some neutrals for the light side, but where is the darn Oh Canada for the dark??? 

The next display of quilts (Quilts of Valour) will be at Quilts at the Creek at the end of July. Be sure to put that on your calendar and come out and see the quilts. I'll be there at some point over that weekend. I hope to be donating some quilts to Quilts of Valour. Could I dare say 10 quilts??  I have one already finished. Two to quilt - that just leaves 7 to make? Anyone willing to help out????

On that note, I'm back to the basement to try and find some fabric. I have ONE HOUR before the packers come! Help!

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!