Quilts of Valor

In my spare time, that would be every other Wednesday, I head a group in Luxembourg  making quilts of valor.

 

Why Luxembourg you ask?

 

Well, if you are ever living in Europe and were not affiliated with the military, one of the ways to get a "taste of home", is to join an expat group. The closest one to my location is in Luxembourg and is called the American Women's Club of Luxembourg.

http://www.awcluxembourg.com/

I am a quilter, along with all the other sewing things I do, so when the opportunity came up to start a group within the Women's club, I signed up. We have advantages here. The big one is that we can hand deliver the quilts to the Chaplin's closet at Landstuhl Hospital in Germany.

This last weekend I got two of the quilts I am making or that my group has worked on to the point where they are as far as I am going to go at this time.

The first was part of a "Buck a Block" with a quilt store in Atlanta Georgia called Little Quilts

http://www.littlequilts.com/

If you a quilter, you would recognize the name since they write books as well.

I remember standing in line one the select  mornings, rain, sleet, sun and snow for the opportunity to buy my block for the month. Did I keep up? No, sadly not. AND I spent over $12 for the opportunity to not finish it. I suppose I should mention that I bought the finishing kit ($$$). In other words I have real money tied into this project sitting in my basement that needed to be completed. After the move to France, I brought over the bits and pieces of the not yet completed the quilt, where it continued to sit for another couple of years. This weekend I completed it.  It is ready for long arm quilting.

The second quilt is a New Years day mystery quilt done this last year called Merry Mayhem’s Mystery Quilt Case # 134: Chips ‘n Strips

http://webstore.quiltropolis.net/stores_app/browse_dept_items.asp?sid=&Store_id=430&page_id=17&Categ_Id=1800

Steps were given on January 1st, 2012 every several hours. I made mine a little larger so that it would be large enough to donate. It is because I enlarged it that I have a "petit problème". I did not cut enough for the binding so I have to wait for the next time I can go into storage stateside to cut a couple binding strips so that I can finish it.

 

 

Both quilts, to be completed need to make a trip to or need something from the United States. I have a favorite long arm quilter that does all of my quilts and while I am there I can locate and cut fabric to complete the Merry Mayhem quilt.