Quilts of Valor 10th Anniversary Block Drive

I wanted to write a quick post about something near and dear to my heart. As I'm sure you have noticed, I am a big supporter of the Quilts of Valor Foundation. If you have ever wanted to get involved, but haven't been able to commit to a whole quilt, I have a great alternative for you.

To celebrate the ten year anniversary of the foundation, a block has been designed and all the blocks are being collected at one central location. The blocks will then be made into beautiful Quilts of Valor. I can't wait to see all of these beautiful quilts that are going to come from this block drive. How special for our nation's heroes to have quilts made by people throughout the nation!

This little block is super easy to make and will make good use of your red, white and blue scraps! So you wanna make one (or two)? Follow this link to the Quilts of Valor website and download the directions. Please feel free to pass this on to your friends, family, guild members, church congregation, anyone who you think might be interested!

WIP Wednesday

This past week did not find me spending much time in my sewing room. I have made absolutely no progress on my Quilt of Valor. Instead I have spent the past week making valentines for H's preschool class. We've also been taking advantage of the awesome weather lately and playing outside practically non-stop. I do wish we could get one real snowstorm before this season is over, but I have to admit all this sunshine is giving me spring fever! Yesterday I cleaned out the birdbath and dug around in the flower beds. H kept asking if we could go to the store and buy flowers. Not yet buddy, but soon!

I did get to work on the Christmas stocking a little in the evenings. I finished Santa's sleeve and his pipe this week. Last night I started on his pants, but I think I might have made a mistake. I'm going to look at it later with fresh eyes. I really hope I didn't mess up! I hate unpicking all those little stitches!  

I wish I could say that things will be different this coming week, but I don't think so. The rest of the week is going to be busy in the evenings and this weekend my husband has a rather big home improvement project planned. Wish us luck! My husband is pretty handy, but I have to admit I'm a little nervous about this one! It's going to be pretty hard to play with the kids while my fingers are crossed and I'm holding my breath! Needless to say, I don't think I'll have much time at the sewing machine. Since he's not planning on starting his project until Saturday morning, I'm going to try to spend most of Friday evening working on my quilt.

I'm linking up with everyone else at Freshly Pieced this week. Later today I'm hoping to look at everyone else's progress and maybe that will encourage me to finish that quilt top!

W.I.P Wednesday

I've made good progress this week. I like having a daytime project vs. a nighttime project to work on. That way I can tell what kind of week I've been having. This week I've been sleeping until the boys wake up, so I've had very little time to work on my latest Quilt of Valor. I have managed to sew all of the blocks into rows during naptime. Now I just need to join them together and add the borders. I think I'm going to have to sacrifice a little couch/cross-stitch time this week to work on the quilt. I really want to finish this one up so I can work on my other W.I.Ps. This is a free pattern called Bricks-RWB designed by Mary Johnson of Mary Quilts. The quilt goes together really quickly, but makes quite a striking quilt.

I am very pleased with the progress I've made on H's Christmas stocking! Every morning when he comes downstairs he asks to see what his stocking looks like. Needless to say, that little extra pressure has given me the drive to work on it a little bit every night, even if it's just one row. Maybe I need to have someone in the military call me everyday and ask about the progress I've made on my Quilt of Valor!

Here's a picture of Santa's tummy:

I can't wait to finish this! I think it's going to be so cute!

I'm linking up over at Freshly Pieced for W.I.P Wednesday. Won't you join me? If you're like me and have some projects that need finishing, W.I.P Wednesday really helps you accomplish your goals!

Until next time, have a great day!

W.I.P. Wednesday

Oh, it's been a long time since I've done one of these posts! I'm hoping if I get back into doing these it will inspire me to work on my projects. I really need to clean out my sewing space especially of the WIPs!

I'm still plugging along on my Quilt of Valor. I haven't made as much progress as I would have liked, but slow and steady wins the race!

I try to do most of my quilting in the morning before everyone else wakes up and if there is time in the afternoon while little G naps. At night, after the boys go to sleep, I like to do handwork. That way I can spend a little time with my handsome hubby on the couch. It is a little too messy in the sewing cave currently for him to spend time with me in the basement (hanging head in shame).

I started this cross-stitch Christmas stocking for H this week. I was going to make quilted stockings for the boys, but I fell in love with cross stitch again last year and subsequently Shepherd's Bush's stockings. I'm making Harry's stocking for H and Thomas's stocking for G. Won't these be beautiful over the fireplace I WILL own one day??

The pattern is pretty easy, but these babies are huge! I'm hoping that since I'm starting in January at least one of them will be finished this year. H really wants his stocking, so I'm getting lots of encouragement/nagging from him. I think I'm going to have to get some of these labels for these stockings!

Sometime this week I need to sew the binding onto another Quilt of Valor. Saturday I'm going to the Mother Seton Parish Quilting Angels meeting and I want to turn this in. I really want to work on the cross stitch in the evening but, I will have to start sewing on the binding tonight if I'm going to finish it by Saturday. Oh well! It will feel really good to finish a project and get it off of my couch downstairs!

I'm joining in the fun at Freshly Pieced today, won't you join me?

Friday Night Sew-in Results

Well, I wasn't as productive as I wanted to be, but I did make some progress on my latest Quilt of Valor.

I'm using this great pattern from Mary Johnson for this one. It is a very simple block that comes together quickly, but the magic happens in it's arrangement. If you are in need of a quick project I highly recommend this pattern! While obviously I'm working with red, white and blue, I think any combination of colors would be beautiful!

My fabulous husband has taken the boys to the local Children's Museum for an afternoon of fun, so I'm off to work on the quilt top. I'm hoping to make some real progress today! Oh, and clean up my sewing space. It's an embarrassment!

January Friday Night Sew-in

It's the first Friday Night Sew-in of the year, and I'm so happy to be participating! I made dinner for the boys and headed down to the basement to work on my latest Quilt of Valor. I would love to be able to show you a picture of it, but my camera's battery died. I'll have to show you a picture of my progress later.

Hope everyone else has a great time sewing! It's cold and snowy here, so it's perfect for quilting!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to you from my little family to yours!

I'll be back soon to show you the pajama pants I made for the boys this year!

May you and your family enjoy all the many blessings of the season!