A few months back my friend Melinda brought some quilt tops and backings to the Roanoke MQG, looking for someone to quilt them and finish them off to be sent as Quilts of Valor. I decided to take them, and then the craziness that was this holiday season took over. But I am finally finished!

This first quilt Melinda called “Autumn in Virginia. I quilted it with “Signature” which is a loopy free form pattern. I thought it sort of looked like the way leaves would swirl around. Plus it’s my favourite pattern, so I use it a lot. I bound it along with Nicole and Lindsay one night at Lindsay’s studio (thanks ladies!)

The second quilt Melinda called “Blue Ridge Fog”. Again I used Signature quilting on this one. I bound this one myself using a green blender fabric.

I got word the other day from the folks that coordinate the shipping of the quilts that I was to send them to a rehab facility in GA, for service personnel that have trouble adjusting to life back home after a deployment and are struggling with substance abuse issues. I am proud that these quilts will be helping someone at a dark moment in their life and I hope that they bring comfort and a feeling of love. Thanks for all those that helped put these together!

Way back, months and months ago, the Modern Quilt Guild put out a challenge to create blocks that represented the MQG and the upcoming Quiltcon in Austin at the end of this month. Blocks that were selected from the group have been added to a quilt that they are going to raffle off at Quiltcon. (You can see some details about that here, and you can see that my quilt block was chosen – it’s the one that says “MQG” on the bottom left).

Those blocks that were not chosen were sent out to different branches the MQG that had offered to put them together as donation quilts for the Austin Children’s Shelter. We agreed as a guild this would be a fun thing to work on and sent off for our blocks.

This is the set of blocks that we got, randomly stuck up on the design wall at Lindsay’s quilting studio. To be honest, I think we were all a little worried about how it was going to come together! Whitney and Nicole made some additional blocks to fill up the space, and we decided to meet up at Lindsay’s house to put everything together.

You can see we enjoyed ourselves with a wee bit of wine and some good company. We decided to lay out the blocks in rows, and then add random widths of sashing between the blocks to make the rows the same length.

Once we did that, we added horizontal sashing in between the rows. I took the quilt top home from there, and added some wide grey borders to bring the quilt up to size.

Lindsay was kind enough to quilt it for us on her longarm, which is a huge time saver. Check out the cute little stars pattern we chose!

We figured that was “kid” enough, and it also tied to Roanoke quite well.

Once it was quilted, I took it home again and trimmed the edges, added the orange binding, washed it up and tada!

I am really pleased with how it turned out in the end, as was our group!

The top blocks include some lovely log cabin blocks that Whitney made,

and the bottom includes Nicole’s pezzie star (second from the bottom on the right). We added a little label in the bottom corner too, with the info about the quilt.

The pale mint green thread that Lindsay picked for the quilting was perfect. Just a bit more interesting that plain white or grey.

Hopefully it will keep some kids warm and cuddly at a difficult time. I am so proud of our guild for our first big group project!!

One of the things the SWVA Modern Quilt Guild wanted to do when we started our group was some charity quilts. I showed you some kids quilts that we have done, but one of the larger projects we have been working on it a Quilt of Valor. These quilts are given to injured members of the Armed Forces to thank them for their sacrifice and offer some comfort. Last week I finished up the binding and had a chance to take some pictures.

This quilt has star blocks made by Kathy, Whitney, Lindsay, Melinda, Lori and myself. A few months back we got together to piece the top using some light blue sashing fabric and red borders.

Once the top was together, I pieced a backing and added a label.

Lindsay quilted it on her long arm with a star and swirl pattern.

Once Lindsay had finished with it, I added a patriotic binding.

After a quick wash and dry, it is all ready to go. Once the guild has had a chance to check it out on Wednesday, I will apply to find a recipient. I really do hope that the person who receives it feels a little comfort, and knows that we are thinking of them.

Has anyone else out there been involved with the Quilt of Valor project? Or another quilting charity project?

Our modern quilt guild has been working on a couple of different charity projects, and I managed to finish up two of them this morning.

These two little quilts are headed off to Quilts for Kids (as soon as I have had a chance to show everyone at the next meeting. Both of these quilts were pieced by Melinda (who is sadly blogless) and quilted and bound by me. The first one was actually a kit that that Downy donated.

It has super sweet farm animal fabric, so I decided to quilt it with little sheep.

The second one Melinda made out of fabrics she had on hand. I am sure I shouldn’t pick a favourite, but this one is it.

How adorable is that background fabric? It has owls and racoons, woodpeckers and even opossum. I wanted to quilt this one with a cute owl, but all I had was a more realistic, aka scary looking, owl so I went with teddy bears instead.

Thanks to Laura for the use of your machine. I hope these will keep a couple of kids nice and snuggly, and show some Mommies the love too!