QOV Quilting

At a meeting of the quilt guild's board, we voted to support the local Quilts of Valor group with some funds to defray their costs associated with mailing quilt tops and completed quilts.  Because this group finishes so many quilts, their postage costs to mail quilts to VA hospitals and other locations for veterans is fairly steep.  In her thank you note to the guild, Kathy mentioned that she had 42 quilt tops waiting to be quilted.  Talk about feeling guilty!

I've been harboring a few QOV quilt tops trying to get motivated.  One of the most difficult tasks is to decide on a quilting pattern.  I remember a comment made about a year or more ago by one of the QOV coordinators (not here in Columbus) that she really wanted to see some interesting quilting designs and not more of the same old-same old quilting.  That weighs on my mind each time I start a QOV quilt.

On top of that, Kathy gave me some interesting quilts - one that had corduroy for the backing and another that had a chamois type material - still not sure what it was.  She knows I'm willing to try almost anything at least once. Here's what I turned in on Monday. 

Continuous curve in the 9 Patch and cornerstones with a leafy vine in the sashing.  Several of my longarmer friends have told me that I'll reach a point where things start to come naturally.  My leafy vines are starting to come much more naturally and I think they're looking good!

This quilt was quilted with a variegated thread.  Believe it or not, the thread had each of the predominant colors in this quilt top!  Unusual pairing of lavendar, green and a rusty red color in the quilt and what luck to have a thread with those same colors.  It was actually a thread Gloria had given me because she didn't like it - way too linty (she was right about that) and very thick.  I won't reorder any of this particular thread but it was great to have it for this quilt.  Thanks, Gloria!

I used Kathi's circle boards.  I like the overall effect on the quilt but those boards were a pain in the neck to use!  She had warned me that was the case.  Big problem was that I didn't have the right length stylus to use with her boards so I had to make do with a long, narrow pen whose tip kept falling out.  Try quilting by holding the stylus in the grooves of the pattern boards with your right hand and holding the boards with your left hand.  Then, keep your eyes open for things like running out of bobbin thread, pins in the border and other fun stuff.  A real experience!   I won't be doing this design again any time soon.

I loved doing this quilt.  I used different border designs in each of the different fabric stripes.  Baby Booties was the name of the variegated thread used on the interior - matched the colors in the fabrics beautifully!  I did switch to a black thread for the exterior border since the fabric was a black and white check.

When I delivered these quilts, I also picked up some more to quilt.  We'll see if I can get them done by next Monday - may be tough since I also have to start working on the ribbons for our quilt show.

Cheers!
Margaret