Remembering 9/11

Wow. 12 years later, and the disasters still horrify and fascinate and pain is still fresh.

Once again, my brother-in-law is posting FB pictures of dad's friends and fellow firefighters that perished in the towers on 9/11.

Here are some of my favorite pictures gleaned from Facebook first thing this morning.

Here is big brother, heading off to the school bus this morning. This is one of our favorite shirts. Daddy went on shift at the fire station this morning. We also have versions of this shirt that say "grandpa" and "uncle" too. "I wanna be a firefighter just like my dad"

This morning, I took little brother down to the city Memorial Park for our city's memorial service. Little brother just wanted to play on the playground as I sat and listened to the program.

Then I tried taking him to story time at the library, and that didn't go over well. I spent the afternoon after lunch, watching little brother and his best little friend running around playing. I was sitting in the sofa, marking HST and flying geese for the remaining Swoon blocks.

After I put the little guys to bed, I opened up my new iron, set up my portable table and portable Olfa cutting/ironing board, and turned on the History Channel to programs for remembering 9/11. (I am watching another one now: Miracle of Stairway B.)  I settled in to fuse tires and hubcaps to rescue vehicles.

(The little blue finger-cover is a new silicone finger-protector. More in those at a later time.)

I used paper towels as a pressing cloth. At least I could toss them if they were sticky with extra fusible web.

Then I worked on pressing HST and flying geese for two Swoon blocks. And then I pressed the bonus HST as well.

I felt that working on my own rescue vehicles was an appropriate way to remember the terrorist attacks and the 343 firefighters that lost their lives, tryi g to save the almost 3,000 others that lost their lives, too.

Goodnight all. May you keep the families and friends of those who died in the towers, in the planes, and in the Pentagon in your prayers.

Fire Engines

Happy Friday. And as it's after midnight, it is now my hubby and I's Ninth wedding anniversary!

Linking up with Quiet Play's Friday Paper Piecing Party, are my pieced fire engines. "To The Rescue" from Sept/Oct 2009 Quiltmaker Magazine.

It took me a couple of nights to do these sections, but I'm in no rush.

Here the are, ready to trim and join the sections.

Ambulances, help with pink!

I've got my paper-pieced ambulances done. I just need to add a bumper & background pieced strip underneath, and a background strip above the ambulances. I will add all those after I have ALL the rescue vehicles paper-pieced. There are four vehicles each of ambulance, fire truck, and ladder truck.

Once again, these rescue vehicles are from "To The Rescue" in Sept/Oct 2009 issue of Quiltmaker Magazine. It's still available as a digital download issue at Quilt and Sew Shop.

I like to remove the paper in the seam allowances before piecing the sections together. There is less bulk, and if there's any matching seams to do, sections ease together better without stiff paper in the seam allowances.

Then I leave the rest of the paper on the blocks until I'm ready to sew them into the quilt top.

I also have all the strips cut for the fire truck.

I'm linking up with Quiet Play's Friday Paper-Piecing Party. www.quietplay.blogspot.com

Also, quick design question:

See this gorgeous roll up by Jennifer Paganelli? It's called Girls World Vibe. It's only got 15 strips. I want to use it for a  small girly project that I want to try, and I want to use some stash. What do you think of this pink blender? Should I use it for a background for the strips, or a backing? Or should I use plain white for the background?

My first ribbon!

I'm still giggling and glowing and happy!

I collected my quilts at the close of the Peteetneet Quilt Show, and fellow quilting blogger and Payson City neighbor, Konda Luckau (Moose on the Porch Quilts) checked out my quilts to me, and showed me that my quilt won a ribbon!

Remember, this is a fun show, and the awards are Viewer's Choice. I received an Honorable Mention white ribbon for my To The Rescue fire trucks!

Konda said that the fire trucks generated a lot of interest and lots of comments. I'm so happy!

It's my first quilt show, and I received a ribbon. How lucky and cool is that?!

Finish Friday-To The Rescue

Update:

I have now finished both To The Rescue quilts!

I am entering them in the Bloggers Quilt Festival at Amy's Creative Side !

http://amyscreativeside.com/2013/05/17/bloggers-quilt-festival-spring-2013

My goal for April was to finish binding the fire truck quilts.
Second goal: finish machine quilting the Starburst. I've got a few days left to work on that goal!

Ok, here's a few informal pictures of my little guy's fire truck quilt. It is "To The Rescue" from Quiltmaker Magazine Sept 2009. Two years in the making for both of these little wall quilts! One for him, and one for big brother. This one achieves my goal! I'm still hand-stitching the binding on the other one, as well as hand-embroidering both labels.

Quilt stats:

Approximately 30x36

Fabrics: Robert Kaufman American Heroes collection, Marbleous in red; yellow Pizazzaz and blenders from Cranston Village; random fat quarters from Joann. They are almost completely twins except for the scrappy fabrics in each truck, and the border fabrics are different (red and red stars)

Thread: Metrosene yellow and Natural for piecing and quilting, Bottom Line by Superior, Superior King Tut in Chariots of Fire, variegated yellow by Star Machine Quilting Thread

Techniques: Paper-Piecing, piecing, fusible appliqué circles, machine quilting

Pieced and quilted entirely by me, Rachell Reilly, on my Bernina Domestic machine.

Reason: for my two little sons for wall and play quilts, because daddy is a firefighter.