A Really Good Weekend...

So the Tidewater Quilters' Guild Quilt Show 2018 is in the books. It was a fabulous show, full of fun, friendship, finely crafted quilts and a fantastic array of local and out of area vendors. We added at least four Stick-It-To-Me pin cushions to our collection and I'll need to work off two pounds of cookies from The Custom Cake Shop.

Not Forgotten QOV, once again, was the recipients of a gracious invitation to set up a booth, meet up with old friends and QOV Volunteers and introduce many others that were not aware of the Foundation and its Mission. We are already looking forward to the 2020 show. Our heart felt thanks to Karan Fisher, Show Chair, the Quilt Show Committee Members, all the volunteers and members of the Tidewater Quilters' Guild for allowing us to participate in this years show. The overall theme this year was close to home, like every service member, veteran and Quilt of Valor..."Every Quilt Tells A Story." What a memorable experience for Elaine and I...again.

Elaine had the hand crank Singer up and running much of the time making blocks for future QOV's. But for a short time on Saturday she had to leave. She went to the Combat Veterans Motorcycle Associations Monthly Meeting...with good cause. We really don't have abundant time or space to thank the Association enough. A life span would be to short. Now there is a slight amount of bias here. We are both members of CVMA, myself a Full Member and Elaine is a member of the Auxiliary. They live by the creed of "Veterans Helping Veterans" Many of the Full Members, Support Members and Auxiliary proudly express that on their vests with the embroidered patch "Vets Helping Vets." The list supporting that creed, Nationwide by Chapters like ours, Virginia 27-1, is truly endless. This year CVMA 27-1 selected Not Forgotten QOV to be the recipients of the proceeds from their annual "Ride to Remember." Elaine accepted the check at the meeting. 

Accepting the check from Commander Mike "Iceman" Arndt. Elaine's smile is not as big as the check. The donation to Not Forgotten QOV will go along way to replenishing supplies of fabric, threads, batting and notions to continue our efforts to award comforting and healing Quilts of Valor to our deserving service members and veterans.

In attendance from Not Forgotten QOV are volunteers standing on the left, from left to right Nell, Paula and Gene. 

I should mention here that Gene won a Blue Ribbon First for his quilt "Barn Raising Under the Stars" at this years Quilt Show in the "Hand Quilted Pieced" category. Congratulations Gene. 

We Raffled off a $100 Gift Certificate for Longarm Services from thee Leatherneck Kilted Quilter. Our winner, Becky, is a new quilter and was certainly a happy new quilter with some longarming service to look forward to in the near future. Congrats Becky. 

The longarm has been busy...and there is no end in sight. 

Alwasy plenty of QOV's in queue. 

You might recognize this from a short video on Elaine's Facebook Page and thee Leatherneck Kilted Quilter's Page. This was our grandson's first quilt. He picked the theme panel the and border fabrics. He did some sewing and some longarming as well. We'll make a quilter out of him yet. 

There is always time for a baby quilt. Always fun to longarm a baby quilt. 

As a reminder...we are close by. We are getting a fair amount of traffic on the website... wequilt.org. It is on the website where you'll find two Photo Gallery slide shows. You might see one of your QOV's in one. The other is directed towards other quilting activities we are part of and other quilts I have longarmed. On the website you will find a link where you can contact us via our Yahoo address wequilt@yahoo.com. There is a calendar that we keep updated with upcoming events and sew days and when possible we will post upcoming QOV Awards were we have the authorization to invite Not Forgotten QOV Volunteers. On those occasions where we have assistance from NFQOV Volunteers our gratitude would overflow Hoover Dam. Without you we don't exist. So proud to be a part of such sincere and dedicated quilters who are committed to our service members and veterans. As a Vietnam Combat Veteran there is a place in my heart that for a long time was just a void...you have filled that void. 

The blog is getting a little more of my attention, Elaine's Facebook Page is very active and now there is a new page that I manage from my personal FB page, Thee Leatherneck Kilted Quilter. If you get a chance pay it a visit. No, we aren't going to tweet. Instagram is a thought...but not currently on the calendar. As silly as it might sound...if I'm attending to social media...I'm not longarming. I already take enough time away from the longarm room with golf and the motorcycle. I must admit three passions makes for busy days. I've told Elaine I need to get a full time job so I can get some rest. 

With that...My latest Stick-It-To-Me and the latest signage added to the longarm room...

This is a fact...not an unconfirmed rumor. Just ask Elaine. Why else would she say, "You are just the same as when we met." We met when we were 15. 

Quilt till you wilt...we do. 

Milestones...small but still Milestones.

At the end of the day I will have completed 100 quilts for the used up portion of 2018. Nothing major but a milestone for me anyway. The most I've completed in one calendar year was 152 so it looks like I'll break my own record by the time the New Year rolls around. Either that or I'll get in a lot of golf and motorcycle rides instead. 

Another small milestone was the completion of my 800th quilt. Like the first quilt I ever longarmed it was a Quilt of Valor. It was crafted by one of the many Not Forgotten QOV Volunteers, Nell H. We look forward to awarding it to one of our active service members or veterans in our community.

You may have noticed that we have finally gotten our first video series going. This has been something that we have wanted to get off the ground for sometime. So like...finally. It is hoped you enjoy and that there is something you can take away from them that is useful to your craft. If you have any feedback you can comment via our website...wequilt.org...love to hear from you. 

In regards to the website...please pay it a visit. When we lost We Quilt on Facebook it was a set back. Now with the website and a new Facebook Page, Thee Leatherneck Kilted Quilter, we hope to reestablish contact with those lost when Facebook Admin Deactivated our We Quilt Page. It was tough to loose five plus years of communication and sharing of our crafting, longarming, events and photos without any opportunity to save our data or photos. 

In case you missed it...not sure that could happen...it's Shark Week. Okay, so this is my first Shark Week. I've never participated before, not even for one second. But tomorrow we will be picking up our grandson for a visit for the first time. He'll be sharing our time for the next several weeks so Gramps has had to catch up. I had to binge watch the Jurassic movies and watch Shark Week episodes so that I'll be on the same page with him. Apparently he is a huge fan of both. 

Elaine's Brother PR 1050X embroidery machine has been busy as well. She has made Shark Week T's for the three of us. Here's mine. 

Like spiders and snakes I'm not a huge fan of Sharks. But a Gramps has got to do what a Gramps has got to do. Elaine has a long list of activities so for the next couple of weeks we'll be busy. Hey, spoiling takes time and effort. 

With that...I'll leave you with some photos of some of the latest quilts, QOV's and otherwise, that have been completed. We will soon be working on another video for the My Way Series. So there is lots going on in Studio 708. Thanks for stopping by and we hope you enjoy our brief exchanges. Whether here on the blog, at wequilt.org or on Facebook at Thee Leatherneck Kilted Quilter. 

You can keep up with our activities on the website calendar on wequilt.org. We have several things coming up including the Tidewater Quilt Guild Show in August and the AQS Event in October as well as our annual Christmas Craft Market in November. Hope you all have a fabulous day, week, month and what's left of 2018. Later...Les...

Quilt till you wilt...we do. 

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My Way Introduction

Facebook OUT...Website IN

After more than five years Facebook informed us that our We Quilt Page was not authorized. It appears someone has sued the begeezus out of them for something. There making policy changes faster than diaper changes on a three month old.They said we couldn't have We Quilt because We Quilt is not a real person. DUH! They would gladly allow us to continue if we could provide a valid ID in We Quilt's name. Honestly...it took them over five years to figure this out. I don't know about you but I feel much more secure now on Facebook knowing they are asking for a valid ID of everyone to prove they are in fact who they say they are on FB. Like that's gonna happen.

So not letting the door strike our rear ends on the way out we headed over to GoDaddy and registered a domain name. We were going to go with wequilt.com but it appears there is a group in CA that uses that domain name. Which we found kind of funny considering they have absolutely nothing to do with quilting. It does have to do with a membership program for women to congregate in each others homes. I'm assuming that's the connection. Also assuming they aren't aware that men quilt and that a women's only membership group seems a little 20th Century now. They have been around since 2016...so far so good.

With the .com being used we went with wequilt.org, it was available so that is where you will find us on the web.

wequilt.org

Home of thee Leatherneck Kilted Quilter

&

Not Forgotten QOV

Check us out and we are open to all suggestions and comments. Until I gain some more website type knowledge and web building skills you'll have to settle for the "scroll down" concept to view all of the items being posted.

If you are one of our Quilts of Valor® quilters you might see your quilt in the Photo Gallery. If you've used us to longarm one of your personal quilts or you've contributed a quilt that we have utilized in a raffle event you may view it under "We are more than just QOV." I will continue to post photos until I max out...then I'll start rotating them with newer quilts and award photos. Enjoy.

If you have been keeping up you are well aware that Elaine has a new toy. As a result of her Brother Entrepreneur 1050X Ten Needle Machine we have embroidered towels, bags, hats, shirts, jackets, pants and well, name it. I'm gonna admit it's kind of neat. I don't ride a Harley Davidson and finding anything Suzuki motorcycle related is next to impossible. That is until Elaine embroidered a baseball cap for me. I wear it with pride. Not long after she gave me the hat I was on a motor ride that mustered at a Harley dealer. I went inside to look around and one of the salesmen approached me and asked "Where did you get that hat." I can be pretty quick when someone opens a door this wide. I pointed over to the section where they had all their hats and said, "Right over there." I aged while he pondered that and then ventured on. When I looked back he was headed for "hats."

You know she wanted a convertible...So I named her machine "Rag Top." Hey it's on wheels and doesn't have a top...don't be so picky.

So if you need to get a hold of Elaine or I...we have more avenues leading to We Quilt than ever before.

wequittogether.blogspot.com
wequilt.org
elaine.navarro-page@hotmail.com (She is a real person so she is still on FB)
wequilt.yahoo.com
i.longarm.yahoo.com and
2getherwequilt@gmail.com

Nothing like being accessible.

There is also a calendar on wequilt.org and I am going to make every effort to post anything and everything regarding our Quilt of Valor Awards, our events,Tidewater Quilters' Guild events and other events in our area that pertain to our quilting, longarming and embroidery adventures. So when you get a chance stop by. Until then...later...

Quilt till you wilt...we do.