WIP Wednesday

Yesterday was a soggy, rainy day. I have to force myself to be productive on days like that. I'd much rather spend the day on the couch with my laptop.  

I did manage to get two Wild & Goosey blocks done. That brings me to 20 out of 25 I need for my wall hanging. This riot of color was the perfect antidote for the crummy weather.

Quilting the Farmer's Engineer's Wife is at the top of my priority list. I have to add one more large piece to the back, then it can be basted. I will be trying Sharon Shamber's method of using boards to keep the parts square and flat. I haven't decided yet if I'll thread- or pin-baste.

In the finished column since my last WIP post, I have added another QOV for a cousin 

and a graduation gift for a friend's daughter.

I'm participating in the modern fabric postcard swap on Instagram. These are the 4x6" postcards I will be dropping in the mail later today. It was fun playing with the color and fabric choices of the recipients.

 I printed 4" New York Beauty blocks from EQ7 and added 2" of extra background on one side. I wasn't sure if I could piece such a small curve, but it wasn't too bad. I pinned a lot!

Have a great day!

Lea's Graduation Quilt

 I can finally show you the second stacked squares quilt. Remember the blue one I made for my cousin? The red one is for Lea, who will be heading to Catholic University in a few weeks.

Lea's mom, Janet, is a good friend of mine. Way back in February, we went shopping for fabric during a snow storm. She had originally considered a t-shirt quilt, but Lea wasn't ready for her shirts to be cut up. The lone shirt that we included used to be her brother's. We had fun shopping for reds, whites, blacks, grays and some fun cardinals.

A few extra  blocks were added to the back.

The quilt was finished in time for graduation, but it wasn't gifted until last week at her graduation party.

The quote on the label is a song lyric that was supposed to be including in Lea's graduation speech, but it got cut in the last edit. It still works.

 

Janet and Lea wore blue to coordinate with the party colors. I'm the short one in pink.

Quilt of Valor for Tom

 I was very happy to present this Quilt of Valor to my cousin Tom at a family reunion last week.

I had been working on this quilt, on and off, for several years. You know how that goes. Once I finished Leo's QOV, I decided I needed to finish one for Tom, too. And you know how well I work under the pressure of a deadline!

I had a minor mishap while quilting the border and quilted through the tip of my machingers. At least it wasn't my actual finger!

I turned to my brother for help with the label. Tom has written a book about his experience in Vietnam, so most of the info came from there. He did not, however, earn a Bronze Star. I'm not sure how we got that wrong. I know a QOV label is supposed to just have the first name of the quiltmaker, but in this case, I thought it was fitting to include my full name. 

 My son, the Marine, presented the quilt to Tom while I read my presentation speech. Another cousin's son graduated from Marine Corps boot camp a few days ago.

Tom was totally surprised and rendered speechless, which is really saying something for a Martiniano and a prolific author. And, yes, our family is so big, we wear nametags!