OUR QUILT OF VALOUR (PART THREE)

It has been awhile since I shared with you the progress our quilting group is making on our quilt of valour.  The reason is we haven't been able to get together since September.  I missed that meeting because we were on vacation.  I intended to write a post for it, but never got Kay's pictures. 

We were finally all in town for our January meeting and were able to meet and accomplished a lot.

When Janice, Fran, and I got there, Rita was already busy at the ironing board.  I think she was pressing some of the "squares" that they sewed back in September.

To decide what we needed to do, we looked in the magazine where we found the pattern we were using .  We had the larger squares cut and a lot of the "fourzies" (the block with 4 smaller blocks) made.  From the diagram, we realized we needed 41 "blocks" made up of a large red square and a fourzie with 2 red squares, 41 "blocks" with a medium cream large square with a fourzie that contained 2 blue squares, and 40 each large blue squares and large neutral squares sets.

We noticed that some of the ones they had sewed in September needed to be "unsewn"...like this one because the darker blue small square was supposed to be in the upper right hand corner of the "fourzie"

so Sharon got busy "unsewing".












Janice, Fran, and Rita got busy putting  "fourzies" with  large squares.

Red ones waiting to be sewed.

and Blue ones.




They worked hard so that they weren't repeating a grouping.

Kay was busy sewing the "fourzie" to the square

and so was I.


TIP.....since two of us were sewing, I had to make sure my 1/4 inch seam agreed with Kay's.  That would be disastrous if we had two different seam widths when we got to the part of sewing them all together.

It turned out that we needed a few more of the large squares cut.

Since Fran learned how to use the rotary cutter, she was ready to cut a few medium toned ones.

We also needed to have some "twozies" cut and Sharon spent some time doing that.  These are two different two-piece strips that the "twozies" were cut from.

When we quit for the day, this is how much we had gotten done.

They all got piled in the basket along with the magazine and a list of what we needed to do next time.  That way we will be able to get right to work when we meet again.  Strips are also there as we need to make a few more "twozies".







Before we left we had "show-and-tell"--always a fun time to "ooh and aah" over.

Sharon has been busy knitting a backpack for a trip she is planning.  She is an outstanding knitter.

Kay shared a quilt top that she has been working "off-and-on" for ten years.  It is beyond beautiful.

This is what it looks like on the back side.  You can see her stitches from hand stitching the black bias tape so that it looks like stain glass.   She told me it has over 100 yards of bias tape and she stitched on both sides so that means over 200 yards of stitches.   She would get bored with it and put it away and then get it out again later.  That's why it has taken her ten years to finish it.

Here is a closeup of one section.  Isn't it just gorgeous?!
























We always look forward to seeing Kay's "craftland" because she has made enough quilts that she changes them out every season.  Here are some pictures of the quilts she had hanging in the room.

She appliqued the holly leaves and berries on this one.

She said the top quilt shows what Santa does after Christmas.

This one is so cute.

Hopefully we will be able to all get together in February so we can work more on our quilt.  We should come close to finishing it in two more meetings.  Then we will send it off to be quilted by a group that quilts "Quilts of Valour" and when everything is finished, it will be presented to a Wounded Warrior.

Read about our next work day HERE.

Missed the beginning of this journey....check it out HERE.