QOV 3 finished top!

My third QOV top is finally pieced, pressed, and ready to be quilted.

The only thing I have left to do is piece the backing together so that I can request a longarmer and ship it off.

I chose to use Moda's American Primer "Hair Ribbons" fabric for the backing.  I got four yards of it at the Houston quilt festival especially for a QOV.  I think that I'll just do a solid red for the quilt binding to keep it simple.

Piecing backings is my least favorite quilt task.  I find it difficult to get a really straight edge over a long length of fabric.  I'm also hoping that I have enough yardage to match-up the pattern on the back.  If anyone out there has some tips or tricks they use to really square up their backings, I'd be glad to know them.    

QOV #3 WIP

Here's just a little sneak peak of how my Quilt of Valor is coming along.  I've finished piecing the top and am giving it a final press with a light misting of starch to really flatten my seams. I also use a q-tip to put a bit of extra starch at the intersecting seams so that they stay down during the quilting process.





My hubby has promised to help me get a good picture of this top outside before it goes off to the long-armer, but it's hard to get motivated when it's 13 degrees outside. We did have a little sun yesterday, and it looked so pretty coming through the quilt top. It reminds me of stained glass.





I'm also linking up again with Lily's site for her small blog meet

I always love visiting new blog sites. It's crazy how many great blogs are out there; I just can't keep up! So if you're visiting from Lily's, make sure to leave me a comment so that I can head to your site and return the favor. :)

QOV #3 progress

I am definitely making some progress on my patriotic drunkards path quilt.  I pieced my blocks into four square units to make it simpler to arrange them in a pleasing way on my "design wall". Since I live in a fairly small apartment with my husband and three kids here in Germany, I really don't have a dedicated space where I can arrange quilt blocks.  In the past, I would wait for the kids to go to sleep, move the dining table, mop the floor, and stand on a chair to get a view from above of my quilt arrangement.  This has gotten a bit old so I thought that I would try to hang a temporary design wall on my closet with hangers and fleece.  It was a complete fail.  Getting them up wasn't too hard, but any rearranging made ten blocks fall off.  Taking this photo with the blocks on the fleece was a miracle.  In the end, this did work, but it wasn't a time saver.  I like the idea of getting the quilt blocks up on a design wall, but I need something more stable and also compact so that I can store it while it's not in use.

Quilt of Valor #3

I am well on my way to making my third quilt for the Quilts of Valor Foundation. I always enjoy the challenge of planning a new quilt that will honor a member or veteran of our armed forces.  It is also a time that I like to try patterns and techniques that I haven't done before.  I've always wanted to make a drunkards path quilt so I found the idea of making a patriotic version almost irresistible.  Without sounding too much like a commercial, I have to say that I do love my EQ7 program.  I was able to arrange the colors and layout on this quilt much easier than in the past.  The plan for this quilt was a bit of a happy accident while learning my EQ7.  After I had the quilt all laid out perfectly, I accidentally hit a button that flipped around some of my quilt blocks.  After realizing my error, I decided that I liked the accidental layout better.

This quilt will end up being around 60x72 inches and has 480 3 inch curved squares.  I have been using my newly acquired curve master foot to piece these blocks.  Piecing tight curves was a challenge, and I ruined about a dozen test blocks before I got used to the curve master, but now it is going along rather smoothly and I should have my blocks pieced and pressed in a few days.