a group collaborative QOV

some of you may remember previous posts about this particular QOV... it was a collaboration between a large group of women over on facebook, called the "quilt block swap group." our swaps there are an every other month type swap and there's an option for a "6th block" that is set aside for a charity or donation quilt. february's swap was a red/white/blue disappearing 9-patch and i was the recipient of the 6th blocks for a QOV.

i pieced together and machine this particular QOV. for some reason, there was a strong sense of need for me to do more work on the quilt than just make my one 6th block and piece it together. doing the quilting was my way to satisfy that urge.

i sent the QOV to it's intended owner recently. the recipient is active duty army and has been deployed, suffered injuries and is dealing with TBI and PTSD. he needed a quilt. i needed to make him one. i have not met him, nor his wife, but his wife and i are both part of an online enlisted spouse community. i learned of them through our little chats on the forum. no one else could receive this quilt after that... a quilt made from an online community to go to a person from another online community.

while i assumed i would not hear from the recipient or his wife, i secretly hoped i would. there's been no little hint on the forum of the quilt and no messages. and that's ok. but since the quilt was delivered more than a week ago, i guess it's alright to post this blog now. no surprises can be spoiled.

and as always, i wish as easy a recovery for the family as possible. and that the QOV helps just a little if not a lot.

saturday's meeting of the HMQG

saturday was the regularly scheduled meeting/sew-in of the houston branch of the modern quilt guild. i love these meetings. the women (and token male) of this group are absolutely fantastic and there is never a dull moment.

we had our largest meeting ever with 13 members in attendence. we were missing a couple of our "regulars" but this bunch is quickly becoming the normal group to meet. i'd love to meet a few more of those who are signed up on the site.... but i understand some can't make it on the 3rd saturdays. hopefully we'll get to meet you all during other sew-ins!









this picture looks hazy, right? well...that's not my camera, but smoke. there was a wee fire started when our brisket keeping warm in the oven decided to drip and catch fire. our hostess saturday also fed us the yummiest BBQ i've had in a long long time. her hubby was "practicing" for a cookoff and no one complained one bit. :)

i spent my afternoon paper piecing a QOV with my dear friend K. she's helping me work on a few to meet my request of 12 QOVs for the navy. thank you, thank you! this one is going to be gorgeous when it's all together. that's also my hubby and he made more progress on his first quilt ever. snappy got to assemble a few blocks together so it'll start to take shape soon enough.

watching everyone work on such different pieces is amazing. i love the creativity that flows during our meetings. the suggestions, critique and constructive work is something i have missed from my days in school.

here, you can see a few quilts in progress. handquilting in the background and diligent machine quilting in the foreground.

i put out a call-for-scraps in our flickr group and on our soon-to-be-moved forum - scraps to be used in a string quilt for a QOV. when i made "homecoming" i used scraps from all sorts of projects...dresses made for myself or my sister, quilts for family and friends, previous QOVs... all things to bring together a sense of family and friends. i wanted to recreate this with the HMQG string quilt. have scraps from as many members as possible to bring together a community. that community in turn would be a warm and comforting QOV for a sailor. i had just sat down at my sewing machine when one of the members came by with a stack of strips for me. one i hadn't realized she had read my post. then another member would periodically hand me scraps off her current project during the meeting. our hostess, who i knew wanted to contribute, gave me some fat quarters out of her stash at the end of the day. there will be a few blocks made for me as well.

aren't these great ladies?!

we discussed our first guild project/activity as well. we're going to divide into groups for round robins and row robins. snappy even signed up for it!! i'm going to be in the row robin group - i've never done one and i'm excited about it.

well...i guess i need to get back to working. just thought i'd give you all a little update on what i've been doing lately.

waiting for delivery

i sent a quilt out yesterday but i can't discuss it yet... you've seen the beginnings of it, but if i post it now and say where it's going, the surprise could be found.

this is going to drive me a little nuts. i "know" of this person but we've never met. this quilt is going to be one of those completely random acts of kindness and only a few others know what i've done and where it will go. there are some who follow me who "know" this person as well.

more to come in a few days.

look what i found!

i'm long overdue in checking out the QOVF blog.... and on my "catchup" reading today, i found this:

http://qovf.blogspot.com/2010/07/cub-scouts-present-qov.html

how lovely!

sewing a little on hold right now...

i haven't been sewing much this month so far. instead, i've been painting. and tearing out carpet and installing new floors. later, we'll build a new bed/desk combo and put everything back in place.... all in my son's room as a surprise for him.

i've got a helper for my painting.

he even tried to use his tail as a brush.

i'm exhausted. so is snappy. we've been pretty much nonstop since the weekend, with just a little break for a movie or dinner with friends. boo is out for a week and it's the perfect time to take apart a little boy's room and put it all back together again right? he picked the paint color months ago but he has no idea we're working on the room while he's gone. he'll even get a new loft style bed with built in desk (that's been sitting in 4 boxes in the garage for the last month and a half or so).

sewing resumes next week!

castle peeps summer camp!!!

holy cow! have you seen lizzy's blog this lovely grey and hurricane-clouded over morning? summer camp! and our camp counselors are all super fantastic....

i'm looking forward to the projects if i ever receive my "pre-ordered" castle peep fabric that i ordered a month ago. sigh. and after getting to play with the fabric at lizzy and cherri's house during the april HMQG meeting, i fell in love with it.

i could always purchase more from another source and get it in faster... not like i need more fabric... and i definitely shouldn't buy more fabric for a little while...

words in my head...

this past weekend, my mom told me something in conversation.

there's a few places on the above quilt that have pulled a little. it was an early quilt...started just before i separated from my ex, pieced quickly and then took me 3 years to complete the handquilting while a single working mom of a 3 year old. i feel bad that my piecing and handquilting skills are so much better now than 5 years ago. so i asked her if she wanted me to do more quilting on her bed quilt.

she looked at me and asked "why would i want you to do that?" then proceeded to tell me about my sister's MIL and the recent time that [B] was checking out the quilt. apparently she was inspecting it closely. [B] came across a black spot on the fabric, pointed it out to my mom and asked if she was going to clean it (mind you... this quilt has been washed several times). my mom's answer: that that particular black spot was her favorite thing about the entire quilt.

of course, you're going to ask the same thing [B] did. why? as my mom explained to [B], there was a fire in my townhouse apartment during the time i was working on the quilt and that permanent spot of soot reminds her that boo and i are still alive, that not all was lost in what could have been a complete tragedy.

that one spot was the only spot of soot that i couldn't get out of the quilt. the quilt was near the source of the fire and wasn't badly damaged, but it was in the hoop and basted. i couldn't exactly throw it in the washer until it was finished 2 years later. i've always hated that spot.

but i am very happy boo and i are still here, that we had it as good as we did with that fire. we could have lost everything and my neighbors could have too. it's never a good day when you come home from work to a smoke and soot-filled home...one that was extinguished moments before by some sacrificial fish and a melted seal in the tank.