This is the second red string bag I made for myself! I used muslin for the foundation and left the "U" section uncut. When I stitched the red strips, I carried them along the entire purse, then cut out the "U" on the pattern.
The reversible lining is the same as Pat's bag below.
I decided not to use a white Chinese Coin border around the Quilt of Valor below. Instead, I call this "Funny Money Border" because it's just rectangular pieces of every width stitched together. It was after reading another quilter, Meredith in Corona, CA, writing about using more color in the Soldier's quilts that I chose this border instead of the boring white.
Thanks to Pat in New York, I just pulled pieces of fabric out of a box she sent me and if it had a straight edge, I stitched it to another and just kept going. The larger scraps I sort into colors as I go. That way I'm being productive while going through the WONDERFUL boxes of fabric Pat has sent to me for these charity quilts. Life is good!
Today I heard from London, Holland, England, and Alaska! How great is this?
These are the blocks I'm currently working on for my second QOV. Most of these strings were donated from New York (thanks, Pat!) and also used scraps from Louisiana, Montana, Indiana, and Ohio. I got the pattern idea from Mary (HeartStrings Quilt Project) on her website: maryquilts.com and is called The Patriotic Star.
http://www.maryquilts.com/patriotic-string-star
How fun is that? To send one wounded Soldier a quilt that came from all over the nation? The blocks have not been squared up, yet. Solid red strip blocks will go in the corners. Then I'm thinking about a row of whites/lights in Chinese Coins, then another row of blue.
This is the Happy Block top I posted earlier (Feb 21).
I decided to go ahead and use a flannel sheet as batting and just eyeball down the center of the sashings. I think the next one I'm going to quilt the square wonky, or twisted.
I used red thread on the bobbin even on the white sashing. This quilt is being given (tomorrow) to my little man who is 3 years old. I'm going to tell him the red quilted squares around the back are the garages, buildings, and roads to play with his cars on. I'll keep you posted if he buys it.
Last week I saw this idea but didn't write down where it came from. This is strictly haphazard sewing. I just randomly cut scraps and stitched them onto white strips. No measuring, no centering, no straight rows. After each row was done, I just cut them all to 4 1/2" wide and started stitching them together.
It is great fun, fast and no concern of anything being square except the overall top when finished (which I'm not!)
I just found out that the original was actually a doll quilt. The tutorial is at:
http://ladyharvatine.com/2007/05/in-the-true-spirit-of-whiplash.html
Barbie is 50 years old on Monday! She doesn't look a day over 20, except she lost the pinky finger on her left hand. I don't remember how. She's wearing the original top, but I lost the skirt that goes with it.
This has hung on a wall someplace wherever I've lived. The edges aren't bound, it's not framed, just another one of my early projects that is now a UFO.
I had four of these blocks that were given to me and were made by my Great Grandmother Carey sometime in the late 1800's. I shared two with another relative, and this shows the back of one and the top of the other. These have to be one of the oldest UFOs today.
This UnFinished Object was a great surprise to find. I have no idea what year I made it, but it was the absolute first blocks I tried to quilt on. I thought I had lost it several moves ago! Maybe there's hope finding the baby quilt center UFO.
2 layouts - same blocks
These blocks will soon be in the mail to Sue. I think I'm still ahead on my 365 blocks for 2009!
