Hubby and I attended a Community Meeting last night and were lucky to speak with our County Sheriff, Sheriff Jesse Banes!  He is a long time friend and has always been active in our community and he has been re-elected several times based on his outstanding record in our County.  I've had an idea milling around in my head for over a year now and took the opportunity to mention it to him last night. 

As a non-profit in a close-knit community, we are frequently offered fabric donations.  Many times these donations are a combination of cotton quilting fabrics as well as other types of fabrics.  Some is suitable for warrior quilts but some has been passed to other non-profits for other uses.  My idea would allow us to make quilts for children or young women in our County (either children being removed from their homes and in need of comfort or young women who have been abused).  I presented my plan to the Sheriff last night and he seemed interested.  We are expecting to hear from him soon giving us contact information and discuss what he envisions. 

Wish us well in reaching out to comfort women and children in our community.

AmericanQuilting: New Kits Available

Love the flag quilt kit!  What a wonderful blog too!

AmericanQuilting: New Kits Available: Liberty 41" x 58" This kit comes with pre-cut and pre-stacked squares to make this scrappy flag come together quickly. You could e...

Quilting in July was pretty busy!

 

Working on a Lonestar!  Such a happy quilt, don't you think?  This is another quilt using

Gyleen Fitzgeralds' Poly2 Ruler. 

Such a quick quilt....with my quilter, Gloria Perkins at Glory Bee's. 

Can't wait to get it back and see Gloria's magic. 

Spent the first weekend in August in Carlisle, PA with

hubby, youngest son and his beautiful children. 

Poppy took first place with his Mercedes Unimog 1300! 

He is very proud and can you think of something more fun for a 7 year old grandson? 

His very own Army truck!  :) 

 Tons of fun and don't, for a minute, think I didn't take quilting with me.

 

 

Gloria finished the amazing quilting on this one and I spent the weekend hemming.  Such a beautiful warrior quilt thanks again to Gyleen for her ruler and for her design work on this one.

Look for it in her new book along with instructions.

 

Found this fun quilt video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNoZXjt_Ay0 - 40 minute scrap quilt with Valerie Nesbitt.  It inspired me to make 6 strip sets and at our 29 Jul meeting

we had a contest to make red, white and blue warrior quilt tops in one evening!

Three tops were finished that evening and three more since then.

Ours are larger than Valerie made...to meet or exceed our 55"X65" minimum size requirement so

they took a little longer than Valerie's 40 minutes, but I think they are beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 



 And, not to make a long story longer, but back in my High School days,

and I definitely don't want to date myself but it was back at the very end of

Vietnam and way back then, you could order a bracelet with the name and info for

a Vietnam POW as a way to remember and honor them.

Well, I ordered one and for years I wore a bracelet with the name

SP4 James Michael Ray (http://www.pownetwork.org/bios/r/r048.htm).

He turned up missing in 1968 and I continued to wear his bracelet and watch for him for years.

But, eventually I lost my bracelet.  I carried him in my heart and never forgot him.

Then, years later, after the Vietnam War Memorial Wall was built in Washington, DC

I visited the wall while chaperoning a group of Boy Scouts.

After going to the Wall and finding SP4 Ray's name; I wondered over to some vendors

along the sidewalk and discovered that the vendors were selling

bracelets of the POWs still listed as missing.

When I approached the table, I reached for a bracelet, and (I get cold chills every time I tell this)

I reached for a bracelet .... and it was for SP4 James Michael Ray!

Needless to say, I bought it to replace my lost bracelet and wore it.  Eventually I also found the original and have them both.  I am convinced that God intended me to remember

SP4 James Michael Ray.

Welllll, this morning I discovered that his father passed-away in 2011 but, at least at that time

his mother is still alive.   So, I want to verify that she is indeed still alive and I

plan to make a quilt for her, to remember her son.

I will fill you in and let you know what happens, but I only wish

they would find him and still - bring him and all the other POWs home!

I pray God will watch over, not only our POWs but all our warriors!

Well, it  has been a busy summer.  I must have about 10 quilts in process...maybe more. 
I've been working on a couple of Gyleen Fitzgerald's challenge quilts, finished a  braid quilt, finished a warrior quilt, working on a hexagon baby quilt, STILL hand quilting the double wedding ring and I'm starting the most delicious kids around the world English  paper piecing project.  Hubby has a few LONG truck shows coming up with his Mercedes  1300 Series Unimog and my paper piecing will be going with me.  Last year he bought me my very own Honda generator so I could take my Featherweight with me so I could sew in our EZ-up tent while he shows the truck but I think this year  (if this 100+ degree weather continues) I may leave the Featherweight home in favor of the portable AC unit he bought since I hate summer weather.  I am a January baby and I'm told that explains why I love cold weather and snow though I love almost all weather....storms, rain, etc....just not hot summer weather.

So, I am now workin on a quilt to be auctioned to help the Chesapeake Heritage Conservancy earn money to replace the mast of the Martha Lewis in Havre de Grace, MD.  This is the Martha Lewis at Tydings Park in Havre de Grace.





And....blocks for her quilt.

And this is the work in progress on the quilt for Paul and Tanya's baby.

 

 

 

And this quilt is at the quilters now and will hopefully be in Gyleen's next book.

 

 

 Anyway, HAPPY QUILTING! 

 

Well, I haven't written in awhile but that doesn't mean we haven't been busy.  We've added three new quilters lately:  Sue, Patrice and Paulette.  Sue and Patrice have quilted before and are working on some beautiful quilts.  I will try to get photos of their projects tomorrow night.  Paulette is new to quilting so she is making practice blocks to build her skills so she is good at sewing straight seams.  We'll have her quilting in no time!  She's very excited about learning to quilt. 

I spent part of Thursday with Gyleen Fitzgerald, of Colourful Stitches (www.colourfulstitches.com) and we are working on a new pattern using her Poly and Poly2 rulers.  I'm stitching blocks this morning and can hardly wait to show them to you.  I know you'll love them as much as I do.  Sending a big thanks to Gyleen! 

Anyway, hope you have a beautiful day!  Looks like Spring is finally here.

Hope you had a wonderful Easter!  We did!  Grandkids came for an egg hunt but also entertained us with a magic show. 

 

 

Not sure which magic trick this was but she kept trying to  pull a rabbit our of her hat.  Such fun!

 

 

We were blessed with a fabric donation last week and had fun sorting through fabric.  We ended up passing some on to another charity as it wasn't all quilting fabric but we did add to our stash.  Should make for some happy quilters.  :)

 

 

And, even though it is Spring...it's still cool here in Maryland so I spent the day quilting....

 

 

 

 

Anyway, that's all for now.  Happy quilting!  Hope you'll visit again soon.



So, we had a WONDERFUL Easter: Church, Easter Egg Hunt, a delightful magic show by a 4 and 7 year old and lots of food!   Love being with our sons and grands!  Clean-up is all done and back to my quilting.  And, tomorrow.....plans to meet a very generous fabric donor to pick-up a big addition to our fabric stash.  I think our quilters will love it!  Can't wait to share it with them. 

 

Wishing you a blessed Easter and a warm and happy Spring.  Bring on the sunshine!