Well, to all of you in the USA - happy Fourth of July!

I trust you all are able to have a nice, relaxing day and that we all have a chance to reflect on our freedom that we all appreciate in the USA.

Do you all have any special traditions?

Our family used to watch fireworks if there were any around where we lived - esp in Dade City, FL, once we moved down there when we were teenagers. We never actually bought them ourselves but if our town had them, we watched.

I’m pretty sure most of you realize that this is the day in 1776 that our forefathers signed the Declaration of Independence and declared themselves to be independent from England. And that was the beginning of the fight for independence — for the colonies to be their own country!

I guess a lot of younger people don’t realize that’s why we celebrate July 4th.

Anyway, I thought today would be a great day to update you on our Quilt of Valor summer challenge that we are doing at Quilted Twins this summer.

We have continued to get in more quilts and we are so happy!

So far we have received these - and are delighted to have so many of you participating. It’s 11 quilts so far towards our minimum goal of 80 quilts in to help our local chapter get caught up! Wouldn’t that be a wonderful thing - to get at least one QOV chapter in the USA caught up to current? We all know that feeling is fleeting in so many areas of our lives but it would be so wonderful to help them get caught up.

I trust that today for you will be wonderful. Enjoy it.

My son and daughter in law and one other American lady came over Thursday night for dinner and we had a little mini celebration of homemade hamburgers and potato salad among other things.

We know that many of you are currently making quilts - and don’t worry - there is plenty of time. We have until the end of August to get them finished back to us so we can donate them to our local Quilt of Valor organization where they will be presented to veterans.

Here are some of the ones we’ve had turned in! Each one is wonderful and will be wonderful for a vet!