Hearts for USS John S. McCain

Thursday, August 31, 2017

Deja vu?

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Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

On August 21st, the US Navy destroyer USS John S. McCain collided with a commercial tanker in waters near Singapore. Just 65 days after the US Navy destroyer USS Fitzgerald collided with a cargo ship in Japanese waters.

You may remember this quilt that I made for one of the families of the seven sailors killed in the USS Fitzgerald incident.

Well, I knew I needed to make another one for one of the families of the ten sailors killed in the USS John S. McCain incident.



Kealy (@kealykat on Instagram), a Navy sailor and quilter, collected red, white, and blue heart blocks (tutorial from Cluck Cluck Sew) to make into quilts for the families of those lost in the USS Fitzgerald incident. This week, she decided to expand her efforts to include the USS John S. McCain sailors as well.

This month, the Project Quilting off season challenge was "Do Over." I started the month with a couple ideas, but once I knew I was making another heart quilt, it became the natural choice to use for the challenge too. This added the deadline of the end of the month!

I purchased a couple yards each of the navy and white dot and red and white chevron fabrics that I used for the backing of the first quilt.

I started this quilt by making another 60" square giant heart for the back. I learned after making the last quilt that I actually needed to make about a 64" heart. This really helped when sandwiching the quilt later on!

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain
 

From the leftovers, I cut the pieces to make the hearts for the front. I had scraps of the same fabrics leftover from the previous quilt that I used too. I had *just* enough to make 36 hearts. (I actually had one extra heart!)

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

I used my bolt of Moda Bella 98 that I always keep on hand to cut the white background pieces.

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

Using my laser, I was able to sew all the pieces without a single drawn line! It was so fast! I even sewed a second line 1/2" away from the first on the large squares so that I could make half square triangles with the scraps. It doesn't add hardly any time, and after two heart quilts, I now have a stack of 144 red, white, and blue HSTs!

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain
Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain
Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

For the first quilt, I made the hearts with one red half and one blue half. This time, I decided to make each heart from just one color. 36 hearts made a 60" square top.

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

My basting pins are all in another quilt that I need to finish quilting before next Thursday, so I had to use spray basting for this one. I don't like spray basting. Not a bit. In fact, we're breaking up for good. This was the last straw. If you need a gift idea for me - basting pins.

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

I used 80/20 cotton batting by The Warm Co.

I wanted to use red, white, and blue Aurifil for the quilting, but I ended up going with just the blue (Aurifil 50wt Medium Blue #2735).

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

I quilted meandering loops over the entire quilt top using my free motion foot on my Juki TL-2010Q.


Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain


I had just enough scraps to make a scrappy binding, alternating red and blue fabrics.

Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain
 
I will add a label before shipping it to Kealy.


Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain

I started this quilt the morning of August 30th, and put the final binding stitch in just after noon August 31st. A 60" square quilt start to finish in a day and a half. Plus all the other normal life stuff!


Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain
Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain


This is the fourth heart quilt I've made. The first was one of the Quilts for Pulse collected after the Pulse Nightclub shooting, and the second was one of the Quilts for Peace collected after the Dallas police shooting last year. The third was the heart quilt for USS Fitzgerald. This is the third quilt I've made for donation this year. The first was my 882 Box Blocks quilt for an assisted living resident in Newfoundland, Canada after a fire destroyed their home. The second and third were the red, white, and blue heart quilts.




Red, white, and blue heart quilt for USS John S McCain



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5 comments:

  1. Wow, you put this together so quickly. It is beautiful and I hope it brings some amount of comfort and love to a family at this horrible time. Thanks, as always, for your big heart.

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  2. What a great tribute. And a beautiful way to make a quilt!

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  3. I am always amazed of your quilts and your generosity.

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  4. Another great quilt for another great, but tragic need. Thank you for what you do for others, Laura.

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  5. Love the single color hearts. I liked the two color ones too, but really like these! Great job and so fast!

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