With more time to sew this week, progress was made on the Quilt of Valor begun last week. When we left off, the top was assembled and ready to quilt. It uses a panel with six star blocks and large sections of a patriotic print.

I loaded it on the longarm frame, and began auditioning thread colors looking at light blue, navy, red, and white. I didn’t take any photos of that. Ultimately, I decided on a light blue Glide thread for the top with light blue Bottom Line in the bobbin. The backing is blue with light and dark areas, and the color goes well on both sides.

I am using my favorite pantograph for Quilts of Valor called Blue Star from Urban Elementz. It has stars and swirls. The design covers almost 14 inches on a single pass so it quilts up quickly.

I like the texture it creates in the larger blocks of star print. I got about 2/3 of the way through, and hope to finish it today.

I generally have two projects going at once, so I can stand at the longarm for a while then sit and sew for a break. I need to make two of these quilts, so I got started on more star blocks. I cut 6-1/2-inch large squares for the center, and 4-inch squares of red and blue fabrics with white background to make the half square triangles.

Chain piecing the half square triangles makes sewing them fast.

Squaring up the individual elements makes the block go together with accuracy. They are now 3-1/2-inches square.

Normally, I would go ahead and chain piece the star points in sets of two, but this time I wanted to be sure I had three blocks with the red on the right, and three with blue on the right. So each block was laid out on the table and sewn individually. The corners are 3-1/2-inch squares.

Sew the star points first, then assemble using web method.

Three have blue on right side just to be sure the blocks were not all the same.

Six blocks finished.

This time, I wanted to put a border around the panel then add the blocks. Fabrics were auditioned and this was the winning combination.

The first border went on with the writing facing the outer edge all the way around.

While I was sewing, I noticed that I was running out of thread. I found myself sewing a bit faster hoping I would get to the end of the seam before it ran out completely even though that makes no sense at all!! Have you ever done that?

Next was to add side panels with the blocks in the center. I got this far before having to stop for the day.

Today, I will work on adding the top and bottom with stars on the corners, then a final border. I have about 3-4 more quilting passes to go on the first one to finish the quilting, then I can do the binding on that one. I’ll probably load the second quilt on the longarm on Monday.

Thank you to those who are sending blocks for more quilts so we meet our goal of seven by the first of June! You are all amazing!

Today begins the Great Backyard Bird Count. I’ll be doing a count each day through Sunday to add to the totals. I use eBird to report my totals. It’s free to use. There were about 3 dozen robins in the meadow this week, and I hope they come back on counting day. My Sweet Babboo will fill the feeder so we see as many as possible. Nobody is using the birdhouse yet, but I have hope that someone will as the weather warms up.

We have no grand plans for Valentine’s Day tomorrow. We are going to have breakfast with some car club friends, and after that, I plan to sew.

To all my gal pals, Happy Galentine’s Day!! What are your plans for the weekend?

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