Quilts of Valour

This year I have been involved in making a number of quilts to donate to various areas of need.  In June,  I wrote about Charity Quilts and  two quilts I made early in 2013. http://www.alwaysquilting.wordpress.com/2013/06/15/charity-quilts/

Recently, one of the friendship groups of which I am a member, decided to make a quilt to donate to the Quilts of Valour (Australia) programme. We chose the Carpenter’s Wheel design, with individual blocks measuring 18 inches.  Each member of the group would make a block and we would then join them together.  Each member would use her own fabrics, but choose a warm beige as the main background colour.

Gathering supplies for my block.

I decided to hand piece my block.  For this task, Aurufil Cotton Mako’ 40 was ideal.

Using a template to mark sewing lines on each piece.

My completed Carpenter’s Wheel block.

When my friendship group met this week, several of the blocks were finished.

Six of the nine required blocks are finished.

The Quilts of Valour Foundation http://www.qovf.org was originally started by in the USA in 2003 by a mother, who, on her son’s return from deployment in Iraq, saw the need to support soldiers effected by war.  In 2012, Victorian resident, Helen, decided to establish an Australian organisation based on this foundation.  At present, Quilts of Valour operates in Victoria and Queensland, but the intention is for this to be a nation-wide activity, with committee representatives in every state.

Quilts of Valour Australia’s mission is to present quilts to wounded service members of the Australian Defence Force in recognition of their sacrifice for Australia whilst deployed on combat operations.  The recognition will also be extended to the families of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. Since Australian deployment in Afghanistan in 2002, 260 soldiers have been injured and 40 have lost their lives. To read more about the Australian QOV organisation go to http://www.quiltsofvalour.com.au/

Perhaps you too would like to become involved in this very worthy project.