In honor of Veteran’s Day, I thought I should revisit the American Heroes Quilts project. At our Bainbridge Island Quilt Festival this September, there were several American Heroes quilts exhibited and the opportunity for show attendees to stitch quilt blocks at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Our local American Heroes quilt group meets on the third Thursday of the month at Esther’s Fabrics and is open to all. You can also pick up American Hero blocks at Esther’s to make at home. (This may change as Esther’s is about to have a new owner).

The American Heroes Quilts project was established in 2004 to provide recognition and appreciation to wounded service men and women who served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The quilts are like metaphoric hugs and a way to express gratitude. There are over 800 volunteers participating in the program. As of the January 2016, over 21,500 quilts had be given to deserving service men and women and their families. The quilts are sent to Madigan Hospital at Joint Base Lewis McCord, other Warrior Transition Centers in the US, and directly to bases in Afghanistan.

The quilts are made using red, white and blue fabrics, often with patriotic prints. Quilters seem to be generous by nature and this is one of many examples of the outreach projects in which they participate.

I spent a week on vacation in CO in June, where I stayed in Estes Park and had the good fortune to explore the surrounding area and the Rocky Mountain National Park. What a gem of a place with such natural beauty. We visited the MacGregor Ranch Museum just outside Estes Park and had a tour of the house and grounds nestled against the backdrop of spectacular rocky cliff faces in the Black Canyon Creek area.

The MacGregor Ranch is a showplace of early life among settlers and homesteaders in the early Colorado Territory.  Founded in 1873 by Alexander and Clara MacGregor, and left in trust by their granddaughter Muriel MacGregor, the Ranch today is a working cattle ranch and a youth education center. There were a small number of quilts on display in the bedrooms and I was particularly drawn to this one made by Clara MacGregor in the early 1900’s from 1890’s fabric scraps.

I’m sure all these fabrics have their own stories. There’s a good chance that the triangles were cut out of leftover pieces from dresses or other home made household items. Perhaps Clara’s friends gave her some of their scraps to increase the variety of fabrics in the quilt. The result is beautiful.

With Veterans Day coming up next week, I thought it appropriate to write a post about the American Hero Quilts project and to share four beautiful quilts that were displayed at our Bainbridge Island quilt show in September. These quilts were made by a small group of dedicated volunteers who meet on the third Thursday of every month at Esther’s Fabrics from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Each year, this group creates 12-18 quilts, all of which are donated to wounded veterans at Madigan Army Medical Hospital and other military hospitals.

The American Hero Quilts Organization was founded in 2004 by Sue Nebeker from Vashon Island, WA, to give recognition and appreciation to our wounded service men and women who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Each quilt is a metaphoric hug sending a message of gratitude for their service. 11 years on, over 800 volunteers have contributed quilting hours and made donations. As of the beginning of 2015, over 17,500 quilts had been distributed to deserving men and women and their families. This is a tremendous project. Click on the link above to visit their website and see how you can help.

When I lectured at Northwest Quilters in Portland at their June meeting, there were at least 20 challenge quilts on display and members voted on their favorite. I encourage you to participate in challenges if you have the chance – it stretches your imagination and is a great opportunity for trying out techniques that you haven’t previously explored. The challenge topic provides the initial inspiration and is open for any kind of interpretation. For this challenge, each participant received a piece of fabric that had either fruits or vegetables on it. They had to use that fabric in at least five places in their quilt and the quilt had to be no larger than 24″ x 24″. Here are four examples.

Shauna Sonoda made Nature is my Teacher (pictured on the left), this beautiful scene. She writes, “The beauty, color and serenity of Breitenbush Hot Springs has inspired me to grow both personally and professionally for over a decade. It is a place that taught me to open my heart and my mind and accept the many blessings that have flowed into my heart. I’m forever grateful!” Her fabric had beets on it. Denna Bandeen was inspired by trees swaying in the wind in December and made Dancing in the wind including the turnip fabric which she was given.

Barbara Neill’s, A Stellar Harvest, was the winning quilt. She used many surface design methods to create this very Northwestern scene with delicious blueberries (her fabric) and a gorgeous thread-painted Stellar Jay. Design, Cut, Stitch, Create was made by Nikki Schoeffel who used her grape fabric in the Log Cabin blocks by the machine. Nikki writes, “Growing up, no one would have called me creative. Sure, I would follow a sewing or needlework pattern and I always colored neatly inside the line. But through quilting and age, I’ve found the freedom to step outside the box and experiment with color, design and new technologies.” I hope these sentiments ring true for many of you and that quilting is a freeing and inspiring activity.

I’ve just moved house to my own 1,250 square feet townhouse and I love it. The move required serious sorting and downsizing of my many possessions. I have a lovely room for my studio, but no spare bed on which to store all my quilts. The solution has been rolling the quilts on styrofoam swim noodles and storing them in a closet. This also made them easy to transport from my old house. Here they are ready for the move with one left over noodle that I used for quilts that were hanging on the wall.

I like this system of organization as I can group the quilts into families such as Bargello block quilts, template-free Kaleidoscope quilts, Gateway to Mongolia and so on. They are easy for me to access and pack for my teaching trips. I now have them stored like this in a large closet in my studio and am about to pull several out as I prepare for a week of teaching at the AQS QuiltWeek in Paducah, KY.