Quilts of Valor are done!

Yes, I finished the last QOV last night--actually very early this morning!--and it's in the clothes dryer as I speak type. Whoo Hoo! I'm so glad that job is done--my fingers are very sore from all that hand stitching, believe me!  

Yesterday, I took my QOV to the family of the deceased veteran for whom it was intended, and gave it to his widow. She was visibly moved and I hope she will be comforted by having it.  

Before I did that, I was in the sewing room finishing the 4 pin cushions I'd embroidered.  I like how they turned out and hope they sell at the country store. Yikes!  That's less than a week away!  I also finished the last of the wine totes but didn't take a picture of it. I've made a total of 4 totes for sale and the first one which was my sample and isn't good enough to sell.

I used crushed walnut shells for the stuffing and had intended to fill them completely but that didn't work. I couldn't get enough in the cushion to fill it to the top. So, enter Plan B! Gail Pan, in her embroidery book, suggests putting a layer of fiberfill on top of the walnut shells. I didn't  have fiberfill, but I have some polyester quilt batting that I used. I cut a rectangle and used a pencil to stuff it in and it worked beautifully.  It also kept the walnut shells from spilling out as I hand stitched the opening. From now on, Plan B has been promoted to Plan A when it comes to filling pin cushions! 

When I got up this morning, the third thing I did (the first being in the bathroom, and the second was to put on the coffee :o)   ) was to put the 3 QOVs that I'd finished over the past 3 days, in the washer. Just now I went to the laundry room and saw this!  Perfect timing!

  

Now all three are in the dryer and will soon be ready to be folded to await the ceremony on Friday.  

Do you know what this is?  In the picture below?  It's the 2 Color Catchers that I threw in the wash with the QOVs.  They came out only a pale pink, so I know the colors in the quilts are reasonably colorfast and won't bleed.  If you don't know about Color Catchers, I'll tell you. If you do know, skip this and go do something more productive than reading an old woman's ramblings.  Ha Ha. 

So. Color Catchers are found in the laundry section of your store, near the dryer sheets. They're in the same kind of box as the dryer sheets as well. Since I don't pre-wash my fabrics and since I usually use a wide variety of fabrics in my scrappy quilts, I never know when I'm done with a quilt if the dyes are colorfast.  So, I wash the quilt and add a Color Catcher sheet to the wash. Any dyes that bleed are caught up in the sheet and don't damage the quilt. I usually use only 1 sheet but today since I had 3 lap size quilts in the washer, all red-white-blue, I used 2.  The only time I've had poor results was with a quilt that had an intense turquoise/teal batik in it and that bled a little into the surrounding fabrics. Not too much though, so if I hadn't used the Color Catcher, the damage would have been very bad, I'm sure.  Note:  I have no commercial connection with Color Catcher--I just like the product.

Today, 3 of my co-workers for the country store are coming over and we'll spend several hours pricing all the items we've collected for the store and make up signage that we need.  Before then, I'll begin sewing the holiday doll dresses and coats that I want to have done for the store.  Busy, busy, busy!