Quilt of Valor: Top Pieced & Complete

Saturday we did it. With an 9 hour marathon of ironing, cutting, pinning, sewing and pressing we completed our Quilt of Valor top. My mom and 2 of my closest friends gathered around the kitchen table, set up the press board in the living room and with a pitcher of apple sangria, some finger sandwiches and some fresh salsa (and pineapple salsa!!) we got to work.

About the Quilts of Valor Foundation

The Qult of Valor Foundation seeks to supply comforting, thoughtful, handmade quilts to veterans and combat service men and women touched by war.
The QOVF is a 501(C)(3) not for profit foundation.

Visit the QOVF Website

I’ll let the picture tell the story.

 

The backing fabric. It’s busy enough that I didn’t do a perfect seam but I do love this fabric so much. It was a lucky find $6 red tag with 1/2yd more than we needed on the bolt!

The finished size of the quilt is 72×72″ which is a smidge larger than the 67×67″ finished size from the original Boho Vintage Quilt pattern.  Because I sketched the final quilt on graph paper I knew I needed the inner border with the background color that separated the star from the scrappy border to be 6 1/4″ to fit one more block in.  It was supposed to be a red, white, blue repeat the whole way around but I was tired by the end of the night and didn’t notice till I was showing a friend the picture that I’d messed that up. I decided that in a world full of imperfections that one is tolerable. Plus the corners look just fine the way they are!

What happens next?

I’ll print up the label to stitch on per the organization’s guidelines and soon I’ll know how or where to get the top and backing to a volunteer long arm quilter who will quilt it then ship it back to me to put the binding. While it’s gone I’ll be making a presentation case for the quilt (aka. a fancy pillowcase.) When I get the quilt back I’ll wash it and ship it to a regional coordinator along with a presentation case and a letter or journal to the future recipient. All of which will happen within the next 45-60 days since the organization requests a very reasonable 30 day turn around.

Fabrics used:

• Red, whites and blues are assorted from the calico cotton section at Jo-Ann’s along with a Jo-Ann’s patriotic fat quarter bundle
• The tan is a Robert Kaufman Quilter’s Linen Print in Straw I’d originally planned on Essex linen but am pleased I second guessed that decision

Lessons learned:

• Over sized blocks are so neat
• Over sized blocks pose the challenge of trying to square them up…ugh that made things difficult
• Even when you’re mixing fabrics that shouldn’t look good together when there’s enough int he same color way they blend beautifully
• You can make a quilt top in a day but next time I’ll break it up into 2 days!

Original pattern: Boho Vintage Star @ Moda Bake Shop

You can read more about the process of this quilt in all the Quilt of Valor posts.