Step Five: Craftsy Quilts of Valor Mystery Quilt-a-long!

Welcome to Part Five of this guest Quilt-a-long series from Alycia of Alycia Quilts. Last week, Alycia walked you through finishing a star block. This week, she will show you how to put the blocks together in rows. Come back each week for the next  step of the mystery quilt designed for Quilts of Valor! This quilt will also be featured in an upcoming Bluprint quilting class.
Step Five: The Inner Quilt

Are you all ready? We have all the blocks sewn – 8 Star Chain blocks, and 7 cream-colored blocks. You cut the cream-colored 12 ½ inch blocks in the cutting instructions. So today we will complete the center of the quilt.

The setting is 3 x 5.

The first, third, and fifth rows will be a Star, Solid, Star row:

The second and fourth rows will be a Solid, Star, Solid row:

When finished the inside top will look like:

Since this was a pretty efficient step, I thought I would take a moment and tell you about Quilts of Valor.

The mission of the Quilts of Valor Foundation is to cover ALL combat service members and veterans touched by way with comfort and healing Quilts of Valor. This foundation is not about politics; it’s about people.

To date over 67,000 Quilts have been awarded, and many more are needed. QOV has standing requests for quilts in Afghanistan, and at Landstuhl where the military hospital is. I happen to be the coordinator in Colorado, and serve a Warriors in Transition Battalion, several VA centers, and an Equine Therapy unit. All of these areas serve the wounded, both physically and emotionally. First hand, I can tell you that these quilts are sometimes the only hug that is accepted. It is the very beginning of healing, and a true comfort to our service members.

If you are wanting more information, you are welcome to check out the Quilts of Valor website, the Quilts of Valor blog, and my blog.

Just in Colorado, 436 quilts were presented in 2011, and so far this year 319 Quilts have been presented – with many more waiting.

Questions? Feel free to email AlyciaQuilts@gmail.com

Now that you have your inner top finished, come back next Wednesday to find out what the final step will be! Join us for the last week as we create a mystery quilt together. To see all the steps so far, click here. Thanks again to Alycia for leading us on this fun quilt-a-long!