Once a month, I meet with a small group of women to sew charity quilts with the goal of creating useful quilts out of scraps and stash fabrics. This month one of our members had done a lot of pre-cutting. We all sat down and sewed like crazy. The result was 3 finished and one partially finished quilt top for Quilts of Valor. They will go to the area Quilts of Valor group who will quilt them and distribute them to returning soldiers.

After leaving Charleston, I then spent Quilt Week in Paducah. It was extra fun this year because of having quilts in the show. As usual, I stayed at Bryerpatch Studio and had tons of fun seeing our regular crowd. This photo was taken by Ron Gentry, Caryl’s new husband. We finished up the week, have a blast on Saturday night at Ron and Caryl’s big wedding reception party.

The month of March disappeared into a haze of bronchitis. I’ve been trying to catch up but have had little time for quilting. I only finished two things in the last 6 weeks. The little quilt above was a challenge project for Piece Mill Quilters. While I was sick, I hand pieced the large Lemoyne star in the center. It’s a variation of the Star of the Magi block. I received  the Peter Rabbit blocks and the challenge was to make a quilt using them. The quilt will be donated to a sick child at Cardinal Glennon hospital. Then I managed to quilt this little piece on my Handiquilter 16 Sit down machine. One of the Bits ‘n’ Pieces members pieced the top. This quilt will also go to a hospital for a sick child.

This week I met a group of friends to work on another charity project. As a group we pieced the quilt above. It will be donated to Quilts of Valor for a returning soldier. Tracy coordinated the project and kept us all organized so that the blocks went together accurately. In addition to the finished quilt top, we also pieced enough blocks to make a second quilt!

This weeks mail brought great news! For the first time ever, I entered two quilts in the AQS show in Paducah. The letters came this week saying that both quilts made it into the show. The first is “From Coal to Copper” which I made using the technique in Ricky Tims’s Kool Kaleidoscope book. The second is “Uekibachi” which was made from Kim McLean’s Flower Pots pattern.

Now I think I’ll go take more vitamin C and have another nap. I hate colds!

  Nancy, in the photo on the left, finished her Bordeaux Baskets quilt top. Susan, on the right, finished her Drunkard’s Path quilt top. Tracy, below, finished her Helter Skelter pattern quilt top. We’ve been a very busy group this week!

And we all know that I love Lemoyne Stars. Louise is making these 8″ square Lemoyne star blocks that are just gorgeous! Some of these blocks have sixty or more very tiny pieces!