This next Quilt of Valor was an asymmetrical quilt with a nice design to augment a panel.  The panel is the center section with the eagles.  The right side section has pieced friendship stars set in rows alternating with strips of star fabric.  On the left side is a sashed strip of alternating color background with white stars.  Altogether, it gives the quilt the look of a flag.

Auditioning thread, I gave some thought to the variegated red.  But the backing was navy, so the blue seemed the better choice.

I folded it up, and note that the edges are longer, and the center bows upward in the center indicating the borders are too long.  Yet again.  It wasn’t so much that I needed darts this time, but it did require a bit of manipulating the borders as I quilted to work in that extra fabric.

Some of you have wanted to know what a pantograph looks like, so here is the one I used.  It is Tiger Swirl by Lisa Calle for Intelligent Quilting.  The paper is 12 feet long, and I follow the continuous line with a laser light on the machine.

The navy thread is doing well on the dark red, providing some texture to the solid color.

Looking good on the whiter areas too.  The panto has gentle curves to soften the sharp edges of all those stars.

Getting down to the bottom, and all seems to be going well.

The corner is pulled a bit off square to take out some of the fullness.  This can be cut off when the quilt is squared.

A cursory view of the back, it is a bit difficult to see the quilting because the color is so close.

So, I took it to the cutting table and trimmed the batting and backing to the quilt top, squaring it off.

Folding it up, I noticed this, some little loops in two spots of the stitching.  Crap!  I didn’t see this until it was off the frame and trimmed.  It isn’t a lot, and to fix it I would have to reload the quilt and realign the pantograph, rip out all looped stitching and restitch it.  This isn’t as easy as that sounds.  Knowing that the committee will wash the quilt before it is awarded, I chose to leave it.  I think it will even out when it is washed, at least I hope so.  I wrote the director a note and pinned it to the quilt so she would be aware of it, and be sure it was presentable before awarding it.

So, all done.  I do still have a few more to show, and I’ll get to them soon.

What is in your UFO pile?

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