I had in mind to make 3 quilts for the Quilts of Valor program this year. The last one is ready, so here they are. These are given to military veterans to thank them for their service, but I make them in honor of my parents, who both served in World War II. You can see their pictures in an earlier post, here.

Here are the finished quilts. I’ll now take them to my local QOV representative who will see that they get to deserving veterans.

QOV 2025-1, 60″ x 80″

QOV 2025-2, 61″ x 72″

QOV 2025-3, 61″ x 74″

All these were quilted by Linda Nichols, who is an official QOV longarmer

Now it’s on to the next quilt–you know that story! What are you up making these days?

OK, the first finish isn’t mine, but it’s all the more notable because of that. A friend who had previously made only two quilts decided she wanted to make a sea glass quilt and asked for my help. And by help, I mean I only showed her how to do things; she did every bit of the cutting, fusing, quilting, and binding herself! She just decided she could do it, and she DID.

Sea Glass wall hanging by Michele

The only part that gave her any trouble was the binding, and I think we can all agree that’s a challenge for many quilters.

The second finish is a quilt I made for the Mancuso Celebrating Women challenge.

Full Circle

To make this, I cut up a partial quilt top left by my Grandmother, Mary Lee Ownbey Kimsey. I’ve written before about the dilemma of what to do with the unfinished pieces I inherited, and this seemed an appropriate solution.

Grandmother’s wedding picture, 1908

Granny pieced by hand and her seam allowances were only about 1/8″! However, there was NO chance those seams were coming apart. She took tiny stitches and backstitched frequently to lock the seams. I originally tried taking some of it apart to re-use, but that was almost impossible!

Quilt Stats

Name: Full Circle

Finished size: 24″ x 24″

Designed, pieced, quilted by me, using some pieces joined by my Grandmother some time in the 1950s.

I submitted this in accordance with my resolution to submit more/be rejected more this year. And by the way my entry to the International Quilt Festival was not accepted, but the point is that I tried.

“Irregularly irregular” is the verbal description of atrial fibrillation, a common but abnormal cardiac rhythm. The words stuck in my head (I’m a word person) so that’s what I named this little quilt. The quilt itself is irregularly irregular, but I figure that’s good for art.

The 4 quadrants are all different sizes, the seams are intentionally unmatched, and the quilting is irregularly spaced.

The edges are wonky, too, but THAT was an accident. I found the 2A foot among the accessories for my new Bernina 570 and wondered what it was for. With the help of Ms. Google I quickly found a video of someone using it to finish a quilt edge with a satin stitch, so I tried it.

It distorted the edges, and especially the corners, of the quilt. Of course, this was my first attempt, so I may get better with practice. Or not. Stay tuned.

Quilt Stats

Name: Irregularly Irregular

Finished size: 15″ x 15″

Designed and quilted by me.

And when the next person asks, “What’s this one for?” the answer is “Because I wanted to”!

I admire the graphic nature of many of the designs by Eudaimonia Studio and have made several quilts from her patterns. This latest one is from a pattern named Sincerely.

The background fabric is a metallic silver I bought some time ago. Maybe you can see it better in this next photo. Look at the cool quilting as well–it’s a panto from Urban Elementz called Retro Lines One.

Quilt Stats

Name: Sincerely

Pattern: Sincerely by Eudaimonia Studio

Finished size: 59″ x 59″

Pieced by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

If you like unusual patterns, check out Eudaimonia Studio. She has a number of free patterns in addition to those for sale in her shop.

For those of you not familiar with it, the phrase “half a bubble off plumb” is used to describe someone or some action that isn’t quite right (in the opinion of the speaker, of course). The “bubble” referred to is that on a traditional level (tool used in building), which will be half a bubble off if the board you’ve laid it on isn’t level. And so…

Since this quilt is a little crazy, I named it Half A Bubble Off Plumb. 

This quilt is made from “studies” done in Tara Faughnan’s block studies course for 2024-25, which of course you’ve read about here. I added a few strips and other pieces and re-arranged the pieces for days before deciding on the layout.

After deliberation, I decided on this black fabric with tiny dots of various colors for the binding.

Quilt Stats

Name: Half A Bubble Off Plumb

Finished size: 57″ x 59″

Designed by: me, using blocks from Tara Faughnan’s block studies course

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

I guess this counts as another orphan quilt, with more to come because I have lots of blocks left from Tara’s class.

As mentioned previously, I have well over 100 “orphan blocks”. Many are just leftovers from quilts where I made extra blocks. A friend recently asked WHAT I could do with them!

I know some of you like to put those on the back of the quilt, and I agree it looks good, BUT: I hate piecing backs, and long-arm quilters hate pieced backs. That’s two reasons, and the second one is the more important; I DO NOT want to aggravate anybody who is willing to quilt for me.

I do piece backs sometimes anyway. For example, this quilt had so very many extra blocks that I just made it reversable:

This and other patterns by Sassafras Lane are surprisingly easy and are good for using fabric collections

But what else can be done with them?

If you have 9 that are similar enough in color/value/style/whatever, a Circle of Nine quilt works well. There are multiple Circle of Nine quilt books by Janet Houts and Jean Ann Wright; just look on the used book websites.

A couple of Circle of Nine Quilt,s to use up orphan blocks

I’ve also taken a bunch of leftover blocks, cut them up, and put them on the design wall with variable sashing to make an improv quilt.

I made this quilt from orphan blocks

Orphan blocks can be used in place of focus fabric in quilts designed for big prints, like the BQ patterns.

Orphan blocks can be used as the “focus fabric” in patterns designed for big prints

And some of us are so stuck on the same color families that blocks from many different quilts can be combined into one. This next quilt is made entirely from orphan blocks. Some had to have sashing added, some had to be cut up, but they all worked.

Blue Sky and Sunshine, 60″ x 72″

Of course a limited number of similar blocks can be combined into a table runner, even if it’s necessary to add sashing to make the sizes equal..

This little block was hand quilted and given a facing to finish the edges for a wall hanging.

I had forgotten about this little leaf-pounding piece that I quilted by hand.

And individual blocks can be made into placemats, mug rugs, potholders, etc.

What do you do with orphan blocks?

No, I didn’t repair a quilt. Repair is the name of this pattern by Eudaimonia Studio.

I made this one a while back and loved it…

Patterns by Eudaimonia Studio often use large pieces and are fairly easy to piece

So I made a second one, arranging the blocks differently and adding a border:

Quilt Stats

Name: Repair 2 (yeah, I know, not very original)

Finished size: 65″ x 71″

Pattern by: Eudaimonia Studio

Pieced by: me

Quilted by: Linda Nichols

I like this one even better than the first!

And just for fun, here’s a picture of the trunk of my friend’s car headed for Ronald McDonald House with our group’s quilts!

On a recent trip we stopped at the Virginia Quilt Museum in Dayton, VA. It was small but lovely, with well-hung exhibits in a nice interior space. Here are a few samples.

As you can see, the interior space is beautiful and simple to make a good backdrop for the quilts

There was an exhibit of quilts by Virginia quilter Emma Allen:

Quilt by Emma Allen

Quilt by Emma Allen

“Gossamer Wings” by Emma Allen

There was a fun exhibit of vintage sew machines.

There were a number of machines in their original cabinets, including this one that looks just like what my grandmother used well into the 1950s.

There were these beautiful quilts by Barbara Hollinger:

The museum is located off the beaten path, but the drive was lovely and a welcome break from the interstate. And if you have time there’s a large quilt shop in Dayton!

One of the groups that donates a lot of quilts met recently, so I thought I’d share a few of the quilts. I like to recognize their work, and we ALL like to look at quilts, so it’s a win-win! You can click on any picture for a closer look.

And here is the fanciest one of all, made by a group member to donate for her class reunion (not saying how many years!).

Some of these are small quilts; some are twin size. It depends on what is wanted at the places where we donate. Hope you enjoyed the quilt show; we enjoyed making the quilts!

A long-time quilting friend, who leads one of my donation groups, recently bought a longarm quilting machine. She has offered to quilt our donations for Flying Horse Farm! So in future I’ll have pictures of the tops but not of the finished quilts, because she is willing to bind and deliver the quilts as well! What a deal!

Our group recently had a retreat, and that’s an additional story. I had cut out one project for each day of the retreat, thinking I could sew without having to get in the way of others trying to use the cutting area. That part worked out fine. However, I ran out of projects before I ran out of retreat time!!!

Luckily we all bring shoeboxes of fabric we no longer want and everyone takes something for a future project. I went to those boxes and found that a friend had donated a set of coordinating fat quarters she’d changed her mind about! This quilt is the result.

I had to wait until I got home to add the border because the retreat was 40 minutes from the nearest quilt store, in a lovely rural area. This isn’t the house where we stayed, just the neighborhood.

And here’s the quilt top I made from batiks I cut ahead of the retreat. I was able to finish that top and send it home with the friend who will quilt and donate it!

And that’s all we’ll see of these two tops, because after they’re quilted they’ll be donated directly!