Quilts of Valor

My friend J's son was wounded in action in Afghanistan. While in the hospital he was presented a beautiful Quilt of Valor. J recently sent me a blog showing some other Quilts of Valor.

WOW, I am no where near being able to make such beautiful quilts.

http://persimmonquilts.vox.com/

Quilter's Quest is Closing it's Doors

I have been taking my lessons and buying a lot of fabric at Quilter's Quest in Princeton, TX. However, the owner Angie is moving, so Angie, Pearl (her mother), and her girls are closing the doors.

This week Angie sent an email out saying that they are marking their last 1700 bolts of fabric down 60%. Previously the markdown had been 50%.

I am going up this morning to find some backing fabric for my aunt.

The doors close June 19th. The address is:

Quilters Quest LLC

106 E Princeton TX

Princeton TX, 75407

972-736-6212

Favorite Quilt Shop to Date

I haven't been to a lot of quilt shops yet. Most of my fabric has been bought at Quilter's Quest in Princeton, TX, but alas they are going out of business. In fact , starting today they have marked their fabric down 60%, minimum cut 1 yard.

When my aunt was here, we went to Suzy's Quilt Shop in Garland, TX., and Quilt Country in Lewisville, TX.

Suzy's is definitely my favorite now. I like how the store is laid out (see: www.suzysquilts.com), and I am really pleased with how helpful they are to their customers. I look forward to shopping there again soon.

Turtle Quilt #1

My youngest and I both love turtles. His turtles are live pets, and my turtles are a collection containing figurines, clocks, dishes, etc. that I have been collecting since elementary school.

My aunt from Tucson visited us recently and brought me a fat quarter with a turtle design that I loved. On a visit to a quilt shop we found a bolt of the same fabric. I bought a yard and another fabric that went with it plus fabric for sashing, still not sure what exactly I would be doing with the fabrics.

The next day we went to another quilt shop and I found the perfect border material and some fabric for setting squares.

When we came home we started thinking about what design we could use. We decided I should pick a pattern that would show off the fabric. I started going through my books and found one I thought would work. Then I had my son scan the fabrics into my EQ6 program and started designing the quilt. Once I had it designed we decided we did not like the setting squares and we went with smaller borders inside the bigger one. Here is the final design:

Here are the fabrics:

9 inch squares will be in these two patterns:





The sashing will be in the dark green:



The smaller borders will be in the dark green and the following two fabrics:





The outside border will be this fabric:

Second Quilt Top

After the beginner sampler class, I took a second class to learn how to make a "Blooming Nine Patch" quilt top.

Due to family obligations, I have been unable to finish the quilt top, I am exactly 1/2 the way through the king size top. I hope to finish it very soon so I can send it off for quilting.

I love the colors.

(Click on pictures to see enlarged pictures)

Colors for the Blooming Nine Patch

Top.
12 colors
Finished top will be king size.

Backing for Blooming Nine Patch Quilt

Quilting Has Been A Dream

I have wanted to learn to quilt for years and years, but never had the time.

Last October I decided to take the plunge and I signed up for a beginner's course to make a sampler. My friend joined up with me, and that meant I could not back out. (I have a hard time going into new situations.)

I finished piecing the sampler top and I am working on hand quilting it.

I really enjoyed making all the blocks except the "Flying Geese" and the "Eight-Pointed Star."

I also made one big discovery: Quilting makes me happy!