Today is Veteran's Day - A day for reflection and gratitude

I have a soft spot in my heart for Veterans.  My Papaw was a veteran of World War II, my Dad is a

veteran of Viet Nam, my husband is a veteran (though he wouldn't agree with me) of the Cold War and the first Gulf war; my Son is a veteran; my cousin is a veteran; and my nephew is a veteran.  I am proud of these men, and honored to know them and call them family.

I used to think veterans were these old guys who would swap war stories and sometimes jump at loud noises. But I look around me and I see all these young guys and gals who are 18, 20, and 30 who are veterans! 

I am honored that these fine young men and women volunteered to serve our country.  When called to service they go willingly, sometimes excitedly.  These sometimes nameless, faceless patriots face unspeakable conditions with grace and courage. Their service and sacrifice humbles me.  I am profoundly grateful that they stand for the freedoms we all enjoy; stand up for the weakest among us and stand between us and the evil that lurks in this world. 

Veterans past, present and future have seen and done things most of us cannot even imagine in our worst nightmares. They pledge their loyalty and service to our great country, sacrifice holidays, birthdays, and witnessing the births of their children to do their sworn duty.  Their families miss them as much as they miss their families.

I once heard the term veteran described this way:  A veteran writes a blank check payable to the United States of America, for all that they have up to and including their very life.  It is a sobering and humbling reality.   Too many of our service members have wounds we cannot see.  Still others are undeniably and irreparably harmed.  Far too many have paid the ultimate price.

So I'll leave you with these thoughts - where would we be without our veterans?  Would our lives be better or worse? 

If you know a veteran, thank them for me.

I never really thought about it before....

What would it be like to Quilt in Space?  In a weightless environment where your needles, pins, fabric, scissors will float off... Oh my goodness!

NASA Astronaut Karen Nyberg talks about Quilting in space, what it's like, the challenges she's faced, and shows off her own hand pieced star block.  I know this has happened to me, gone on a trip with a project and forgot a key piece of equipment.  How easy is it to pop into a LQS or Wal-Mart for pins or a rotary cutter blade?  There doesn't seem to be a plethora of Wal-Marts in space, however, and like our pioneer ancestors, she had to make do. 




She's also inviting quilters to contribute a star block to bee included in a quilt that will be exhibited at the 40th International Quilt Festival in Houston.  See more information at Quilts.com about this awesome opportunity.  Deadline for entries is August 1, 2014.  It will be here before you know it!

Her block is awesome.  In my book it is a masterpiece.

You can read more about Karen Nyberg and her amazing journey here. 

I'd love to hear your thoughts about this.

Kathy

FMQ Friday - A great finish and other fun stuff

It's been a busy week here at the family homestead.  Our son and his lady friend were going to make an appearance with their two fur babies (very large dogs) so we needed to pick up and dog proof our home.  To say Buffy and Sassy were not happy is an understatement.  But the deal was he'd come to visit if he could bring his friend and the dogs.  Since we haven't seen him since July - the joys of having adult children - we agreed. It's interesting how the dogs are attracted to me, and are at my side every time I'm in the same room.  I'm a CAT person!

On the quilting front, I was able to find the fabric I wanted for the Quilt of Valor I'm working on for a client.  I love how the flag fabric sets off the blocks.  Now to make the time to piece the rows together and get the border on!   Because of all the white in the top, I decided to pre-wash the border fabric.  Good thing, because it took 3 washings with color catches to get the red to stop running!

I'm really excited to get  this finished and given.  I'm hoping they'll have many hours (years) of snuggling under the quilt.

 

 

My little quickie project this week is a fabric box.  We've been talking about them a lot at the Missouri Star Quilters Forum.  They are so quick and easy to make!  Check out the Tutorial from Seaside Stitches.  Tina Craig shows us how to make them.  I have plans for many boxes in the future for gifts and giveaways. 

This test box was made from a 10" piece of striped fabric with a great green piece from a layer cake. 





But by far, my favorite and best finish yet is the Big Brother quilt I made to go with the Baby quilt I told you about a couple of weeks ago.  I found the Tutorial at Wedding Dress Blue called Brotherly Love.

 

There are  many half square Triangles in this quilt!  I scaled it down to use 4" and 2" finished Half Square Triangles.  Buffy was right here to give her seal of approval.

Quilting it was a bit of a trial with all the seams and intersections.  My thread broke a lot!  But its done and on its way to a special little boy with his baby brother's quilt tagging along.

I'm linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
 

and Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project.

 

Until Next Time ~ Happy Quilting!

A Peek into My Creativity Zone

... Warning ... It's pretty messy!

This is the new ironing center that I picked up at Joann's a few weeks ago.  It's nice and big - but following the flat surface rule - it's starting to get piled up too. Do you know the flat surface rule?  Something about the project expanding to fill the surface area of the available space.  I have a lot of surfaces that are covered like that...

 See the calculator on the end of the ironing center?

 

Behind the center is a 4' x 4' design board covered with flannel, and test blocks of various shapes, and a multitude of other things.  Between the ironing center and the wall is a TV tray to catch the fabric from going on the dirty floor.  See all the clip-on lights hanging off the shelf?  The light in the room is behind me when I stand at the ironing board.  This illuminates my work surface, at least until I find an under-shelf light that works better.  I love the "daylight" CFL (Compact Fluorescent Light) bulbs I picked up from Walmart for $.88 for a set of 4! 

 

 

This is a project I'm working on.  I love my bins and containers!  The cardboard container on the left is from Hobby Lobby.  It's helping me corral the pieces until they are ready to go up on the design wall.  The little cup is an applesauce cup (that I washed) and now holds a few pins or whatever I need handy...

It's all sitting on top of my extension table next to my spare machine that I'm using for piecing while my lovely Elna is set up for FMQ. 

 

Here's another project I'm working on - it will be 1/4 square triangles, but first I need to mark them.  One of those projects for when I get 'a few spare minutes'... Yeah, right.  Hubby and I have a road trip coming up, so I thought I could do that while he's driving.

This is my cutting table.  It's one of those big drop-leaf jobs from many years ago.  There are little tubs and boxes all in and around the pile of 1 1/2" squares cut from scraps, 2 1/2" HST cut from scraps, Dresden plate blades to be sewn into Dresden plates, extra fabric for projects I'm working on, and well, just a pile of who knows what.  One of these days I'll get it cleared off





There are days when I wonder how the heck I even function in this clutter.  But I know, if I put everything away - I'll forget where I put it! :)

Until next time - Happy Quilting!

Not MIA - I've been Quilting!

It's been a busy couple of weeks here at Kathy's Cache.  In my other life, I'm a bookkeeper, and with the late-filing tax season winding down, I had my head in someone's books for a good 2 or 3 weeks.  I was still able to snatch a few 15 minute breaks for cutting, sewing, quilting, pressing and trimming, but mostly book work.  I'm glad that's behind me until after the first of the year again.  Now I can concentrate on my list of UFOs...


Last weekend I went on a Quilting Retreat at Susan's Calico Creations in Fulton IL.  I had a blast!  I sewed to my heart's content until late into the night, and was up bright and early the next morning to sew again.  I made great progress on a number of different projects...

First up is a Quilt of Valor I'm making for a client's son and his wife.  Recently married, he's done his time in the sandbox (more than once).  On my last business trip to visit with her, I showed her some Quilts of Valor blocks I was making for the national block drive for Quilts of Valor.  She instantly fell in love with one of the blocks and claimed it as her own.  She signed her name to the block, and I added it to the pile I dropped off at the local quilt shop to be added to the others from across the country.

I was able to pre-cut the pieces before the retreat, so all I had to do was sew the blocks together.  I was able to finish 25 of the planned 30 blocks.  I'm going to have to re-think the plan because, well the numbers aren't coming out right - so I'm thinking on it.  I need to have it finished by November 7 when I plan to present it to her to give to her at a workshop we're both attending.  She will have it in plenty of time to give to him for Christmas.   A triple blessing.  Stay tuned for pictures of the finished quilt.

Big Brother quilt is assembled.  This one is made up of something like 300 half square triangles.  Did I mention I spent a lot of 15 minute work breaks pressing and trimming?   This one is from one of my favorite designers at Wedding Dress Blue - a take off of her Brotherly Love quilt.   I scaled it down to 4 1/2 inch and 2 1/2 inch half square triangles, and made a toddler-size quilt for the big brother of the baby whose quilt I wrote about last time.  The pieces were also pre-cut and the triangles were made, so this one went together in a snap once I got the pattern figured out!  Wouldn't you know, I left the directions at home!  Thank goodness for Wi-Fi, and a very generous hostess who let me tap into her internet.

I also made 7 pillowcases for gifts 21 split nine patch blocks, and a big batch of chili (sorry no pictures it was all gone!)

I really enjoyed my time away from home, pushing the fabric through the machine and visiting with all my new friends.   I'm planning on doing this again in the future.


So a big old Whoop Whoop for getting so much done in one weekend!  Linking up with Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict!

Linking up with Leah Day's FMQ Friday

So what else have I been up to?

Bin dumped out on the cutting table

 While my machine was set up and being used for FMQ this week, there were times I wanted to play with my fabric, but not necessarily quilt.  Do you get that way too? 

Pile of strips on the ironing board

Pressed and hanging on a drying rack

I finished up cutting strips for a swap, and got a good look at my 2 1/2" bin of strips.  I knew I would have to do something sooner or later with this mess, so in my 15-30 min of fabric play at a time, I pressed and sorted out my strips by color.  And pressed, and sorted, and pressed and sorted....




 This is what I ended up with by the end of the week.  Strips of fabric sorted by color, just waiting for me to do something with them.  And an empty 2 1/2" strip bin. 

For now, I'm going to enjoy looking at them, I think.  Except, that monstrosity is in the way of the cutting table.  Maybe I'll put them in Ziploc bags by color family and put them back in the bin.  What would you do?


My next challenge will be my 1 1/2" strip bin.  I wonder how many of those I have?

FMQ Friday - Lots of Quilting Going On Here

 

 

First up:  Welcome Home is completed, with the binding finished and everything!  We're hoping to be able to present to our Soldier friend very soon.

Next up:  Bella's Beauties is done but for the binding (see all the clips?)

Just waiting for a few hours of quiet time to stitch down the binding.   Chief Inspector Buffy is checking the workmanship.


 I love the bright pink binding.  It makes me smile every time I see it.  I'm thinking I'll have to use the rest of that fabric for a pillow case for Miss Bella...  Maybe for Christmas.  The quilt is for her birthday next week.  Nothing like a deadline to push a project along!

I used a Lollipop Chain for the pieced border

Next:  100 Hugs a Day - Blue

The binding needs to be finished on this one too.  Notice how neither of the cats wanted to get too close?  I wonder if they know it's not all the way done yet...  Nothing fancy in the quilting here, just an all over loop and circles design.

On the machine now:  The Grinch Won't Steal This Christmas!

 

This was a kit from Quilts for Kids.  Not sure I would have chosen the white backing for a child in the hospital, but this is what they sent, so this is what I used.  I'm on the last corner for quilting, then I can get it bound, washed and on its way back to the organization to be given to a child in need. This will be my first foray into machine binding (I usually do mine by hand).

Quilts for Kids is (are?) asking for volunteers to make quilts and donate quilts.  With so many projects on my plate through the end of the year, I would be hard pressed to squeeze out another quilt this year.  Maybe you can help? 


I'm linking up with Leah Day's FMQ Friday, and Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Check back later this weekend for what else I've been up to this week.  It sure has been a busy one!  Until next time - Happy Quilting!