Quilts of Valour

Both Canada and the United States (and other countries) have organizations that specialize in making or collecting quilts to present to wounded soldiers and veterans. In Canada, it is Quilts of Valour. I've been involved with QoV for a few years, mostly in a minor way. One of those ways is helping to host a quilting bee where we make quilt tops.

We just finished a marathon two days with 28 quilters. Some stayed both days. Others came for one or the other. The work was fabulous and it was God-blessed all the way. 

On Saturday, a few had completed their tops from the kits and so on supplied by the QoV past president, Lezley Zwall. I'd brought the red top I'd made from red scraps. I'd roughly followed the idea of slabs that has been promoted by a quilter from Calgary, Cheryl Arkison. Lezley had bins of scraps leftover from other QoV bees and they were sorted by color, ironed by a volunteer who does not sew but came to help, and several of the quilters quickly discovered how addicting these 'slabs' become. 

I brought my bin of purples (with pinks and all sorts of related prints) and got a good start on a quilt that will be the right size for QoV. Here is the photo of a few of the blocks laying on the fabric that will become the sashing. Wanda at Exuberant Color often says that purple does not photograph well. She is right! But you get the idea. The sashing will be wider than it shows here, likely 3" or so. The blocks finish at 12" and are much more purple than they appear here.

It was a wonderful time. This is the second one we have had and they are already saying things like "next year . . ." However, right now all I can think is "how soon can I have a nap?"