A couple of Gold Stars

     For the past few years, friends of mine, the twins, that I went to high school with, through their long arm business, Chasen Dreams. make sure the local camp, Camp Pioneer,  that hosts Gold Star childern (who have lost a parent in the military) or a children of a parent currently deployed (Camp Purple), gets quilts for every child attending. They donate the quilting and batting, the rest of us make the tops, bind them, and sew a label on. I was able to finish two this year. The children pick out their own quilt and take it home after a week of camp. Donations are made so this camp is free for the children. Bravo to them for a big job well done.
    Here are the two: the first pattern is Basket Case from Cluck, cluck, sew and the other is Diagonal Variations from jellyrollfabric.net  The backings are a donation from a friend in Massachusetts.

Happy National Sewing Machine Day!

     I almost did not get this posted in time. I love my sewing machines- all vintage and wonderful feats of machining that give perfect straight stitches with lots of power.
     Today, I used mine to rapid assemble a quilt for the Gold Star camp happening in our area in July. Every new child gets a quilt to pick and take home. Almost at the last minute, my friends at Chasen Dreams who do all the quilting, found out there are 150 new kids. Yikes! So they asked for quilts quickly. I did not have time to plan and graph, etc., so I poked through my donated scrap boxes and found these animal panels. I thought I would set the bigger ones in the center.

     Then, I looked for fabric that would read well with the animal images. I found lots of browns, animal skins, and even some scrap strips that someone sewed but discarded, that I made into piano keys.

     The quilt needed to be bigger, so I kept adding until it was a good comfort quilt size. Luckily, I had some Ikea wide print for the back. So when Kris picked up the quilt for quilting, it was ready. I will get it back for the binding and label.

     A woman, Lillian, from my guild dropped off another quilt that went with mine.

Nominate and more Gold Star quilts

     I became aware that the National Quilters Circle is running a best blog contest with several categories. I urge you to nominate your favorite quilt blog. Blogging takes a lot of time and energy and those who do it consistently and contribute to the field of quilting should be recognized. I made my nomination in the Best overall category to Exuberant Color. There are a handful of bloggers who have helped me and encouraged me way beyond where I was and Wanda is the quilting queen. I am so grateful to them. Every morning I read them and learn from them. If only I could be on that level to reach others!
    Two more Disappearing Nine Patch Gold Star Quilts. Quilted by Chasen Dreams. Photos shot outside in sun!!

The blue sashing is a chambray that someone gave
me big irregular pieces that I was able to cut into 5" squares

The back done with quilted fish

Back with hearts