I turned in the completed Quilt of Valor, and picked up two more to quilt and bind! I just hate the thought of the quilts all put together and just waiting to be completed before being sent off. I quilted one of them and put the binding on, I stopped working on the binding for the blue quilt because I'd like to get the QOV done so that I can turn it in tomorrow, members of our guild and others (anyone welcome) are meeting to sew the signature blocks together so that they will be available for people to sign during fall festival. I realize that sounds like quite a ways away, but we like to have at least 2,000 of the squares available. Once I'm done with those two I am going to concentrate on completing MY Quilt of Valor quilt, It's been pieced since July, I finally sewed the backing together yesterday and now I am trying to figure out what I want to do for a label. I should have figured that out before I sewed the backing together, Now I remember why I was holding off on that . . . Oooops. Anyway, the picture is of a quilt that my grandmother and I worked on this past August, and of course that is my Gram. She is 97 years old and lives by herself in Western Massachusetts. She has many relatives who live nearby and help with snow removal, grocery shopping etc., but she is fiercely independent, tough as nails and my best quilting "buddy". She started quilting over 30 years ago after she broke her hip and was having trouble sleeping and had become bored with embroidery. A couple of years before I had my son, I took a quilting class from a local school when I lived in Pennsylvania. I completed a queen sized sampler quilt and was hooked. I then spent a week with my Gram that February, she was newly widowed and the winter was long and lonely. She taught me how to make a Barn Raising quilt using the Eleanor Burns method. She also taught me how to use the rotary cutter as well as all of the good habits that I have today, ironing as I go, picking off the threads as I go, pinning, marking the rows and not being afraid to rip it out (and boy, have we ripped it out over the years!!) Every year I would take a week off from work and go up and quilt with Gram, even after my children were born I'd just bring the babies along. Once my son got into grade school we switched to one week during the summer, although the last two years we go in the summer and also for a week after Christmas while the children are on their school break. Anyway (How I digress!!) in August, she made a king size rail fence using fabric from her stash, we still had fabric left so she sewed the remaining blocks into this rail fence and once I got home I added the borders. Using stash and 6 1/2" blocks she also made a twin sized quilt for her newest Great-great grandchild. When we sew together, she irons the fabric, I cut it, she sews it and I'll re cut the strips into squares, we'll lay out the quilt, pin it and she sews them together and I iron. We really can get alot done. So, I finally quilted it, I just need to get some plain green for the binding, I don't have much plain green left, and what I do have just doesn't go. The big question is, will I be able to resist getting anything else? Can I stay on my fabric diet??
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