In memory of our servicemen and servicewomen

I thought it the right time to talk about a project that I am involved in called "Home of the Brave." The main goal is to make and provide quilts to the families of fallen servicemen and servicewomen, of which there are simply too many.

I decided to join this effort in memory of my dad, Charles Prentice, who was a career Army man. What really got me going was the death of LCpl David Raymond Baker, a local serviceman in my home town. I didn't know him, but he touched my family in many ways. My son was working with my uncle's tree service down the street from Baker's parents' home when the Marines arrived to give the family the news. My husband was working at Kohl's in Mentor when a member of the Baker family came in to buy clothes for the funeral. My husband had also placed the story in The News-Herald the day before. His sister worked with my best friend's sister at a local bowling alley. 

I decided to stand with the grieving community when he was brought to the church for the funeral.

I talked to my quilt group and got a sew date to make blocks to use to construct quilts. With the help of my friends who donated money and signed blocks, the business owner who let us use her overflow room and the The News-Herald that published a story on our efforts, we have made a few of these special quilts.

The Ohio quilt block is a little different than what is on the website, but it is keeping with the tradition of a signature quilt. We use the patten of the Civil War, meaning no bright reds, as red is said to remind the families of the blood of their fallen son, daughter or spouse.

We still need to have batting, backing and to have them quilted and delivered to the families. If you know any quilter who does Longarm Quilting and would be interested in assisting in our effort, please contact me. You can find the detailed history here.

Holiday Door Hangings

Do you like to dress up your door for the holidays?

My hubby is a huge Christmas fanatic and I am a Halloween freak so I was looking for something different to hang on the door besides a wreath. I found a Halloween panel at one of my trips to the NQA Quilt show in Columbus and stashed it away in my stash until I found myself temporally unemployed this summer. I looked through my stash and found many panels and my brain started working overtime. I ended up making 2 for my sisters, 1 for my step mother, aunt and my cousin. I even added some extra large rick rack to add a little something extra on some of them.

Where was mine I thought. I got an idea from a wall hanging I did of funny turkeys and thought that would be cool to make one for my door for Halloween.

This is what I ended up making for Halloween and it looked so good I thought that I would take the turkey wall hanging and hang it on my door. They looked very cool since I have full glass storm door.

What to do for Christmas? I came up with an idea for snowman for a door hanging. I made my own pattern using white fleece for the snowman heads and fabric for the hats and felt for the noses and flower on the snow lady’s hat.

I posted a photo of the snowman door hanging and got a Facebook message from a friend asking me if I could make her one for each season and she ordered a bunch of the snowman hangings for next Christmas

Here is the first one that I made for her.

You don’t always need a pattern just an idea and some imagination.

What to do with patches

Do you have a Boy Scout in your family who has a ton of patches that you don’t know what to do with?

Well I came up with a great idea for my son’s camping and other misc. patches. Robert Kaufman came out with a line of Boy Scout fabric that I found at quilt shops and quilt shows. On their website I found a free pattern and thought that instead of making a quilt for my son I would make a wall hanging to display his patrol patches, camping patches, rank badges and his merit badge sash.

The pattern is a very simple 4 patch block and one large block, I added black sashing in between the blocks, put on a border and binding.

My next hurdle was how to attach the various badges. I started with my son’s sash which I put in the corner. Then I attached the badges and patches with invisible thread so the stitching didn’t show. Instead of having the wall hanging quilting I tied it.

 

Then I thought that it might be a good idea to enter it into The Lake County Fair, to my surprise I got 1st place and 2nd place in The Geauga County Fair.
Now I have a nephew who is a Boy Scout who needs a wall hanging soon since he will be attending The National Scout Jamboree next year.

Still scrapping

What can be better than having a mother-in-law who quilts? A mother-in-law who gives you her scraps! A couple of years ago, my wonderful mother-in-law gave me a bag of scraps that she didn’t know what to do with. Boy did I show her what I could do with them.
First I used some of the 1930s retro fabric, added a few more colors and a white on white fabric and came up with a quilt that won 3rd place in the Lake County Fair, my 1st ribbon.

I then went on to make a tote bag. Using some small squares that she had put together I made a pink and white tote bag. I did have to add some of my stash to make the inside and cover the handles.

She also made my daughter a quilt and gave me all the left over fabric and I ended up making curtains for her room and a backpack for school.

What could be better than making a baby quilt for someone – making a tote bag to give the quilt in and then they can use it for a diaper bag.

If you are like me and have to part with the wonderful fabric, use your imagination and turn those scraps into some great.
I guess I shouldn’t have showed her what I did because she now is using her scraps.