Catherine and Marianne's Excellent Adventure!

Good morning everyone,
I am at Market with Marianne Fons and the crew from What's Your Stitch N' Stuff, a Virginia Beach quilt shop. Marianne and I introduced the Under Our Wings program yesterday to a very receptive market audience times 2. Her brother-in-law, Major General Walt Davis was also there to speak informally. Today exhibit hall opens to general Market audience so we'll be in our UOW's booth that Holly and her crew set up beautifully. Here are a few pictures from Friday.

Catherine Roberts

Very Exciting things are in the works!

Can you find something new on our homepage????
Follow the link for a hint of things to come.

More QOV in OK 10.23.2010

Here are some additional shots from

the "Autumn Leaves" Quilt Show, hosted by Country Fare Quilters Guild in Claremore Oklahoma. The pattern and directions for the banner displayed on the table can be found in the files section of QOVFChat.

Belated Happy Birthday to Le Ann, and congratulations to your group for your work and for a great looking booth!

Showing Our Colors in OK!

L-R: Delores, Mary Beth, Mary Anne, Pat, Linda, Norlene.

Hi June,

Here's some info on our group's activity this weekend:

Seven members of the NE Oklahoma Quilts of Valor group sewed blocks, put top kits together, and finished one quilt top, while working in a booth at the "Autumn Leaves" Quilt Show, hosted by Country Fare Quilters Guild in Claremore Oklahoma.

Along with all the sewing, our group collected several hundred signature blocks, and helped spread the word about Quilts of Valor.

It was even extra special for me, because I was celebrating my 50th birthday surrounded by my quilting friends and beautiful quilts!

(I am attaching a picture of some of the ladies, holding the completed quilt top. L-R: Delores, Mary Beth, Mary Anne, Pat, Linda, Norlene. More pictures to follow in other emails )

Le Ann Weaver
Persimmon Quilts
www.persimmonquilts.com
Look for my new book, "More Loose Change" in bookstores now!

Director - NE Oklahoma Quilts of Valor

Opportunity to make a QOV in MO.

Hello June!

My name is Kathy Buff and I am the owner of a new quilt shop called "Quilting on the Square LLC" located in Fredericktown, MO. I currently have 7 completed QOVs and 9 presentation cases. I am in the process of creating the QOV labels. We have 5 more at the quilters and one that I have on the design board.

I designated Mondays as QOV day at my shop. We have fabric that was donated and I keep quilt kits cut so that anyone wanting to stop by can work on one at any time (as long as I don't have a class in progress). The fabric is running low but

Since I haven't had too many stop by to help on the quilts, Mom likes to sew and work on them. She is disabled and I bring her to the shop almost daily.

Our local newspaper, The Democrat-News, did a newspaper article on the QOV day at my shop and the pic was in color! The hours listed for the QOV workshop were wrong but that is okay because people stop by and ask questions.

My family background is military. My father was in the Air Force, I was in the Marines, two brothers in the Navy, and my son is in the Army. I also had lots of uncles, cousins, and an aunt in the service.

My son was injured in Iraq in May 2007 and is still dealing with his injuries. He came by on 7/3/2010 to thank the ladies that joined me for a QOV sew-a-thon.

My goal at the shop is to complete 2-4 tops per month. I am quickly running out of quilters in our area to quilt the tops!

Here are a few pictures of the presentation cases and quilts we have made.

Have a wonderful day!

Sincerely,

Kathy Buff

Quilting on the Square, LLC

15 Court Square

Fredericktown, MO 63645

Attention Toppers! Plea from a longarmer.

One thing that I don't like to see. Almost EVERY quilt top that I receive has skimpy backing. Cheap fabric, poorly pieced, mis-matching grain or color, etc. The backing is just as important as the top. Longarm quilters appreciate a mid-tone back that compliments the top with a busy design to help mask tension variations. I just saw a video by famous quilter, Sue McCarty, who supports this. The backs also need to be generously oversized to allow pinning to the frame leaders. The one that I'm working on now only has about 1 inch allowance. This doesn't work well, especially if the back or top isn't quite square. I rejected one back which looked like an old bed sheet. In addition, the diagonal seam piecing had a big pucker in it. This is from a longarmer who takes as many as 6 QOVs per month.

Report from Maine MaDDay

Joline Frazier to june

The Monday Morning Quilters, which is a small group in a small town in Maine, have made and sent 29 quilts this year with 6 more in the works. Of these 9 have gone to active combat areas to cover our wounded heros on their flights home. Others have gone to VA hospitals and veterans individually. We hope to be sending the 6 we have in progress to a hospital in Afghanistan where a Navy Nurse distributes them to the wounded.
Keep quilting, it is the very least we can do for those who so bravely fight for us.

A great way to involve your friends/family in making a QOV - get them to donate fabric!

In August of last year (2009), I asked almost all of my family members and friends for a quarter-yard of new batik fabric (their choice of color and style) and from those fabrics I promised to make a quilt for the Quilts of Valor Foundation. I called it the Batik Challenge. My husband cautioned me to not have high expectations. When I wrote to people asking for contributions, I was clear that I was not keeping track of who gave and who didn't. I truly wanted this to be a gift from the heart. I just figured that if even only 10% of the folks I asked contributed one piece of fabric, I'd have enough to do something with, even if I ended up adding the rest, and that would make a neat story quilt. I asked for batiks mostly because they are pure joy to work with, but as most quilters know, they tend to blend easily with each other.

My husband was the first contributor, naturally. He's pretty good about stuff like that and his masculinity wasn't compromised by going to a quilting shop. And bit by bit, pieces of fabric started showing up in the mail. As each submission would come in, I would "ooh and ahh" over it (or them - sometimes people gave more than one piece) and then add it to the ever-growing stash. When 1 Jan rolled around (the deadline for contributions was 31 December), I couldn't wait to get them all out and start figuring out how to use them. I was stunned by the amount of fabrics to work with. There were so many, in fact, that I was able to group them into two distinct categories and make two quilts. The first one was a bright, tropical one (which was wonderfully cheering in dreary January), for which I used a complex block pattern to really show off the colors and prints. The second quilt was a rich, more sombre-toned one, and I did a sampler block theme in order to use the varying sizes of batik fabric submitted.

Not only did I ask my family and friends for the fabric, but I asked them to name who they were donating in the honor of and where they bought the fabric. It was interesting to print that list off (it was sent with each quilt) and see the giant web of connections that went into making these two quilts.

The generosity and outpouring of love and support for our troops from my family and friends underscored why I am honored to be associated with and part of them.



Kim Burke
Newark, OH

Destination Confirmation

If you are concerned about your quilts when you send them off, do what I do. Pay a little more at the post office for “Delivery Confirmation” and you will be able to go on-line to track where your package is and when it was received. I have found it very helpful with each and every quilt that I have sent off in the past few years. It’s good to remember that Red Cross volunteers and chaplains are very busy in their work with our veterans and this simple step relieves them of the responsibility of sending of letters for each and every quilt. I also include a note in the package thanking the volunteer/chaplain for their service, too. And I also remind them that I do not need a thank you note since I’ve used delivery confirmation.

Hope this idea is helpful, Bonnie Camp (Waukesha, WI)

***

About the concern for whether our quilts get to their destinations, I have the following suggestion:

I include a self-addressed, stamped post card with the quilt, etc. I ask the point of contact person to mail it back to me. You can purchase already stamped post cards at the post office for $.28 each which is a small sum to pay for the piece of mind knowing your quilt was delivered to the intended person.

Marti Zimmerle

martiz9327@aol.com

Help is needed in Kandahar

Good Morning, My name is Karan Hancock, I have done several Quilts Of Valor. My husband is a Navy Seabee that is presently deployed to Kandahar, Afghanistan. Recently, his unit Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 18 (NMCB18) found out something disturbing that I think you could help with.

Naval Mobile Construction Battalion 18 (NMCB 18) is a reserve Navy Seabee unit that has been deployed to Afghanistan. The base where they are living is also the place where wounded Army personnel are brought for treatment. These are the service members that are not urgent enough to be transported to Germany, but are too injured to go back to their unit. The wounded warriors can be at this camp for a couple of days or a couple of weeks. It all depends on how fast the Army can get orders for them to go home or to go back to their unit. During this time the wounded warriors are given a cot in a huge tent. All they have are the clothes on their backs which are often dirty, bloody and cut open from getting medical treatment. As a result, many stay in their tents, in their battered clothing, with nothing to do.

When NMCB 18 saw this, they jumped into action to help. They built shelves, chairs, and a deck and requested that the folks back home send toiletries.

Here is a list of things that are needed: soap, shampoo, toothbrushes and toothpaste; blankets; bedding; small towels; socks; Crocs(footwear men’s sizes 9-11); t-shirts; underwear; sweat pants; sweat shirts; and books. They request clothing sizes to vary in sizes from Medium on up. The colder it gets the more important the warm clothing will become. Try to keep things unisex in color.

All the items can be shipped to:

UCCM Ralph Hancock,

NMCB 18 Main Body,

FPO AA 34099-1701.

He will make sure that all the items reach the wounded warriors. If you use the “large Flat Rate Box for APO/FPO addresses” the post office will give you a discounted rate for shipping, only $12.50. You will also be required to fill out a customs form.

If you have questions please feel free to contact Karan Hancock, NMCB 18’s Family Readiness Group president at nmcb18airdet@aol.com or by phone at 503-524-5648 (Pacific Time).

Karan Hancock is a Navy spouse and a quilter of QOVs. You can check out NMCB 18’s Wounded Warrior Program on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/notes/nmcb-18-deployment/public-affairs-office-update/162899177056429.

Please, help the Navy to help the Army’s Wounded Warriors.

He's working on 1,000 QOVs, how 'bout you?

www.superiorthreads.com/blog/2010/9/ron-olsons-quilt-970-971/

Wow! Ron Olson is working towards his goal of completing 1,000 Quilts of Valor. Click on the above link to see quilts number 970 and 971.

Thank you Mr. Olson for all your contributions!