NEW February VRD Rose Card Quilt Patterns and My Quilts of Valor National Sew Day Experience

Hello Quilty Friends!

Happy Thursday to you!

Here in NW PA, things are looking like spring! Punxatawney Phil (the Groundhog) did not see his shadow on February 2nd, which (hopefully) means an early spring. I started seeing some signs of spring even before Groundhog Day — on January 31st, I saw a groundhog awake and out of its hole. Next we started seeing some of our spring birds returning — starlings and bluebirds. We haven’t seen any robins in our yard yet, but other folks in our area have already seen them. Yes, we’ll probably see more snow before spring is completely sprung, but in the meantime I will enjoy winter days filled with sun and warmer temperatures.

Of course, true to living in NW PA, we did have a few weeks of very cold and snowy weather, but right now, we are enjoying the lack of snow and the sunshine with daytime temperatures in the 40’s with a few 50’s thrown in just to tease us. I hope you are just as fortunate as I am in the weather department right now. With all the sun, though, I am wanting to be outside to enjoy it, not down in my dungeon studio/office. Oh, the conundrums of nice weather……

On another note, do you know what day it is today??? It’s the first Thursday after the first Friday of the month which means NEW VRD Rose Card Patterns for February!

NEW VRD February Rose Card Patterns

YAY! Who doesn’t love NEW PATTERNS? Especially new patterns EVERY MONTH? And we’ve got some great new ones just for you this month, including several from our new designers Rachelle Handmade and Creative Sewlutions.

You can grab your set of February Rose Cards HERE for the special price of $8.95.

We also have 2 — count ’em — 2 table runners this month! One from Rachelle Handmade and one from yours truly.

Get your own Baraboo HERE.

Get your own Candy & Flowers HERE.

What a great collection of patterns, don’t you think? Lots of variety AND different styles to appeal to just about every quilter. Which one are you going to make first this month?

Quilts of Valor National Sewing Day

As I mentioned last week, I had signed up to attend my local QOV group, PA Stitcher’s of Valor’s National Sew Day event. Our event was actually 2 days, Friday and Saturday, instead of just Saturday. This meant we could get even more sewing in. But with 2 days of sewing, I still didn’t get my project completely finished. I should have looked over the pattern a little bit more and pre-made my almost 200 Half Square Triangles (HSTs) before the actual sew days. Then I probably could have gotten my project finished. Hey, I was just pleased that I got all the pieces cut out. And I did get the 12 blocks sewn together, so now all I have to do is sew the blocks together and add the 2 borders.

I pretty much spent the first day just making HSTs. My cuz and pal, Robin and I switched projects for a while that first day because her machine was giving her some issues and she was having a hard time sewing her blocks together (Yes, Robin made her quilt blocks ahead of time. Good thinking, Robin!). So she worked on my HSTs while I sewed her blocks together. Group effort, definitely! Robin’s top was finished the first sewing day. 

Here’s Robin’s top. Very patriotic, isn’t it? 

OH NO! I think I switched blocks in the upper right corner….do you think it looks weird???

Here I am with my “cuz crew” — Kim (left front), Lisa (left back), and Robin (right back) laughing and sewing the day away! I am the person on the right in the front — you know, the one with all the mess. LOL! That’s just how I roll, I guess.

Here’s Kim sewing her big HSTs while Lisa is reading her pattern.

Here I am (front) with Robin (back) sewing happily along while we chat and laugh. You can see my cute little gnome sewing buddy on the table beside my machine. Notice my mess isn’t too bad as this was taken on the first day and the photo above was from Saturday (insert eye roll here).

We had a total of 60 quilters in 2 locations over 2 day! Some of the sewers were able to get a project finished, or brought ones to donate that they had already finished. Here are some of the gorgeous quilts and tops turned in over the weekend.

Hats off to Collene, our fearless leader for PA Stitchers, who organized such an amazing sewing event! Lunch was donated both days and there was plenty of snacks to keep us going at full speed. One of the things I loved the best about the event was lending a hand to each other when we needed some help. It wasn’t a race and there was always time to take a break and wander around, seeing what each other were working on. I am smiling while I think about the experience. I look forward to doing it again soon. 

Our local PA Stitchers group meets once a month to work on quilts for QOV. Such a worthy cause — I’m so glad I have skills that can help others. Please contact your local QOV group and get involved — there are so many veterans and active military personnel who need to be covered by a special quilt. So get involved!

And don’t forget to grab your own set of our brand new 12 Quilts of Valor collection HERE. These 12 quilts will give a lot of different options for making your Quilts of Valor quilts, including multiple options for your patriotic panels! All the patterns fit the size requirements for a QOV quilt and a portion of the sales will be donated to the QOVF.

Well, I think that’s it for me today. I hope you enjoyed the quilt photos from our National Sew Day weekend for QOV. Don’t forget to find your local organization and get involved.

Until next week —

Sew. Laugh. Repeat.

Always,

Tricia @ VRD