Blue Star Mom

 For my modern quilting lecture that debuted last week, I needed an example of alternative grid work. Since my son left for his first overseas deployment, I felt ready to hang a red star banner. This quilt killed two birds with one stone!

"The Service flag is an official banner authorized by the Department of Defense for display by families who have members serving in the Armed Forces during any period of war or hostilities the United States may be engaged in for the duration of such hostilities." You can read more about the Blue Star banner at Blue Star Mothers. Pete is in a relatively safe place, but I do miss him more than when he is in his office in North Carolina. I try really hard not to worry.

I started piecing when I was on retreat in January. My first attempts at wonky 5-pointed stars were horrible!

I turned to a crazy piecing technique that worked much better for me. It creates a positive and negative block at the same time, so I have a stack of white stars on a blue field that might become a flag someday. Only a few of the blue stars were bordered in red. I used some Kona solids and some prints.

The blocks were laid out on Peggy's bed since we didn't have a design wall.

After making a couple more stars, I had to figure out how to fill in the negative space around the blocks. I couldn't just start cutting white fabric and wing it. My brain doesn't work like that. So I drew it all out in my graph paper notebook and came up with a piecing plan. The numbers are finished sizes without seam allowances.

It didn't take long to complete the top.

The quilting was done at home a few days later. I selected a star to echo quilt around. In the photo below, the red lines indicate the sections that are already done. The blue tape marks the line I'm getting ready to quilt. 

This style of straight line machine quilting with a walking foot is really tedious! I was ready to quit after three sides, but I knew I had to see it through and complete all five directions.

Oh, the texture!

I had a Marine Corps print in my stash that I had to use on the back. 

When I showed this quilt to the Clamshell Quilters, a lovely woman presented me with this star to send to Pete. I had read about this project before, and I wanted to cry when she gave this to me. Now I remember why I was saving my worn out flag and didn't give it to the scouts to burn.

Rather than putting his stuff in storage in NC, he brought it all home! I found his gloves in his car and the cover was on his desk. Yes, his dress blues are hanging in the closet.

Modern Blue Star Mom

28" X 39"

Started 1/30/16

Completed 2/3/16

Marine Mom Tote

I finally made myself a proud mom tote bag. I mashed up two patterns: The Market Tote by Jodi Nelson of Pleasant Home and Oak Park Bag by Stephanie Dunphy. I used Jodi's idea of the string blocks and Stephanie's corduroy love. The blue corduroy on the bottom is a wide wale, and the red is narrow.

 I made the string blocks while Pete was in boot camp over a year ago. I was planning to make a tote to bring to graduation. Instead, I bought the patch at his graduation from Parris Island. I found the perfect button yesterday at Lorraine Fabrics in Pawtucket, RI.

I inserted a zipper pocket in the lining because the Kindred Quilters taught me how. Now every bag needs zippered pockets! The handles were cut from a worn out pair of Pete's pants. Gotta love desert MARPAT!

 

I am a very proud Marine Mom!

Parris Island

 It was a truly amazing trip to South Carolina for Pete's graduation from Marine Corps recruit training. As we were driving to the base on Thursday at 0545 for family day, I took a look at facebook on my phone and had a bunch of notifications. Oh, hey! It was my birthday! We had all forgotten.  We were all so focused on Pete and getting to where we needed to be. It was my best birthday ever! (even better than 12-12-12)

Our first glimpse of Pete was when the whole company ran by for the motivational run at 0700. 

Pete loves his new quilt, but it will have to stay here for a few months until he finishes training.

 Pete served as a lay reader for his platoon and led the Catholics in prayer every night before lights out. He and the other Christian lay reader gathered the platoon together after graduation for one last prayer. See the Marine in the foreground with the camera? Her photo appeared on the Parris Island facebook page with this caption:

New Marines of Platoon 3100, Lima Company, 3rd Recruit Training Battalion, embrace after being dismissed from Parris Island, S.C., by their senior drill instructor Dec. 13, 2013. The Marines spent 13 long, demanding weeks alongside each other as they were molded into the nation’s finest. Today, the young men are more than training partners – they are brothers in arms.

This might be our Christmas card photo.

 

I'm so glad my brother came with us. He's been proud and supportive from day one. I love the shirts we wore for family day. The 3rd battalion logo is on the back.

 

Julia has the best shirt ever. Who needs a superhero when your brother is a Marine!

Julia got some good news on family day. She was offered an internship at the Pine Bush Nature Preserve. It is a great opportunity to see if this is really the career she wants to pursue. We knew she was perfect for this job with all of her Girl Scout experience and environmental education.

We had some time to kill before our flight, so we stopped at the Angel Oak near Charleston. 

 

I've always had a thing for taking pictures of my kids walking away from me. I've done it on hikes and on vacations since they were little. Here are two more for my collection: Family day on base and on board USS Yorktown at Patriots Point.

Before heading home, we introduced Pete to little Mollie. He's rocking the high and tight haircut. His Eagle Scout promotion to Private First Class went through at the last minute thanks to a very kind Master Sergeant who called me on Monday morning for documentation.

He reported to the recruiting office this morning, and I miss him already. It's hard to let him out of my sight. We're looking forward to celebrating the holidays together before he ships out to Camp Pendleton for SOI West- ITB in January.

Pete's Album Quilt

 Pete's quilt is finished! I love how it looks on his bed. I'll get to keep it here for a while as he continues his training. He probably won't take it with him until he is assigned to a permanent duty station. This is not a true representation of his bedside table. When he's home, there would be a phone and ipod charging, headphones, and several knives of various sizes.

If you haven't already heard, my son will be graduating from Marine Corps boot camp in December. I'll give him the quilt then, and have his buddies sign a big label for the back. One month to go! I can't wait to be a Marine Mom!!

I'd like to thank my hive mates in the Modern Stash bee for contributing blocks for this quilt. We started with modern reds and blues. I added lots of oldies and goodies from my own stash, including a bit of Boy Scout fabric to honor his past accomplishments.

 

I totally love the back. The blue print is from the Quilts of Valor collection. It includes the phrases Thank You,  Miss You, Brave One, Home Safe, Proud of You. The bias striped binding is perfect.

It was fun to bring the finished quilt to Ninigret Quilters last night for Show & Tell. Pat, my machine quilter, happened to be holding the other corner. It is always fun to collaborate with her. There is so much you can do with a simple edge-to-edge design- resizing, flipping, shifting. We moved around the repeats until we got it right and it is exactly what I had in mind!

Quilt Stats:

Pete's Album Quilt

56" x 86"

Traditional Block, tutorial here

 Quilted by Pat Harrison, Ocean Waves Quilting Co

Pieced blocks from the Modern Stash Quilting Bee

Family Vacation

 We've been on vacation in Washington, DC! This was probably our last family vacation together for a good long while. Here are just a few highlights.

First stop: The Capitol.

 The Marine Corps War Memorial (Iwo Jima Memorial)

(The Sunset Parade was awesome!)

National Museum of the Marine Corps

B-29 at the Udvar-Hazy Center

(Bill's father was a navigator on a B-29 during WWII.)

Marine Barracks at 8th & I.

(Evening Parade was rained out, but we talked to some very nice Marines.)

Are you sensing a theme? We had a great week, but we are happy to be heading home. Lots of quilting needs to get done next week, so stay tuned!

Tuesday already?

Monday holidays always throw me off. I want today to be Monday, but everyone is posting their Tuesday features (Tool Time Tuesday and Tuesday at the Table) so I guess I need to move on!

I managed to get a little crafting done last night. I was tasked with assembling posters for jazz night. The high school jazz band and chorus will perform this weekend in a party setting, with food and cash bar for adults. It's a fun night out! The photography teacher offered to take head shots of the seniors and did a fantastic job. All I needed to do was assemble the posters. I'm really happy with how they came out. How convenient that there are eight seniors!

 

I promised you a peak at my Ikea haul. The beer glasses will be used as candle holders at jazz night. I'm covering them with vellum printed with jazz music that looks really cool with the candle shining through. I'll set the candles on a vinyl album charger.

Pinterest is killing me and I feel  the need to transfer all the food in my pantry into storage containers. I picked up a few, but I need lots more! Again, Pinterest is responsible for the purchase of 2 spice racks. We want to paint them (black or white?) and store nail polish or crafts supplies on them. We desperately needed new cutting boards and there is a picture ledge for Pete's room to display graduation flair.

 The most exciting (for me) purchase was the cable system. I have been displaying wall hangings on this hallway wall for years. There is a long piece of wood trim that I feed through the quilt sleeves and set on nails in the wall. It worked, but it doesn't look great.

Ahh, that's better! With the cable system and hanging hooks, I can easily change out the quilts and can hang pieces without sleeves. And I can overlap/layer quilts so I don't have to search for ones that fit just right.

In family news, Pete marched in his last town parade. There is much more marching in his future, though! He's happy it will be done in a cooler uniform.

 

He stood at attention during the playing of the Marine Corps Hymn during the ceremony. Our church choir sang the Navy Hymn/Eternal Father on Sunday. I can't sing it! I start to cry by the end of the first verse and it just gets worse as the song progresses.

 

There was some sibling bonding over new airsoft guns. Do you believe he found Marine Corps airsoft? They actually have EGAs on them.

 I'd better get to work. I think it's a yard work day, before the heat arrives later this week. I need to buy red, white and blue annuals for my pots.

WIP Wednesday

 It has been a pretty good week here in Rhode Island. The weather is finally warming up and feeling like Spring. Daffodils are blooming and the forsythia is hot on their heels.

Finished: Batik Arrowheads. Read more here.

In Progress: RIMQG Crayon Challenge. My crayon is magenta. Blocks are done and laid out on a flannel-backed tablecloth on the floor. If I need to move it, I can roll it up and the blocks stay in place.

Modern Stash Bee. March was my month in the Mo Stash Bee, Three Men and a Baby Hive. The last two blocks arrived yesterday after a little coast to coast detour. Many thanks to my hive mates for contributing to Pete's boot camp graduation quilt! You can find my tutorial for this block here.

I need to add lots of labels to finished quilts, so I printed a bunch on a sheet of printable fabric. Now to cut them apart, border them and add them to the quilts.

Also in progress, the making of a future Marine, which apparently requires lots of protein and mud!

In the near future:
April blocks for Modern Stash Bee
Quilting Mod Bento
Quilting Swap Soup
Starting Bloom Bloom Pow Quilt Along

Time to link up!