Sjoerd, there is a ceremony where each veteran is given a quilt. It's an award. They aren't sold. I haven't been there before. This is new to me this year. I plan to go this year. I think it's in two weeks. If they allow photos, I'll try to take some.
Daniel your quilts are the best gift for veterans. A beautifully designed and hand made quilt so unique in many ways. Considering you are a veteran yourself it has an extra special sentiment. God Bless you and all the vets. My DH was a war veteran and a pilot with the army Black Horse 11th Cavalry. I received a beautiful hand crocheted shoulder wrap from the wives of the veterans of the Black Horse Assocuation. A unexpected salute and a treasured gift to our family .
Daniel— thanks for answering my query. Well mate, even if you do not get to take pics, I would be interested to hear how it all went. What a great initiative. Respect to/for the Veterans. I am proud to say I know you. Chapeau.
Today I helped out at the Quilts of Valor presentation at the Cowlitz Tribe meeting to honor tribal elders. There were probably about a thousand community members in the hall (I'm a bad estimator, just a wild guess on my part). Probably over a hundred were Cowlitz tribe members, who were veterans, and a couple of Siletz confederation members who were veterans. Their time of military service ranged from Korean and Vietnam war eras up to the recent decade. The quilts are awarded as a civilian version of a medal, for honorable service. Since it wasn't possible for the group to make a hundred quilts (it's just about a dozen volunteers, if that many), they chose the oldest veterans to award them to, figuring they have waited the longest for such a thank you. All were given gifts and applause. Here are ten of the awardees. Sixteen veterans were awarded quilts, today. The quilts on a rack, waiting to be awarded. There was also a drum ceremony, a tribal dedication, and a trumpeter playing patriotic music for each branch of service. The line of veterans being honored. I felt pretty moved by it all. I will continue making quilts to contribute. It's better than making them to just store in a closet sonewhere.
That really was a thoughtful gift. Something to treasure! And thank you for the nice comment. I only did what I thought was the right thing at the time. They say that "God watches over fools and children" and I certainly had a guardian angel looking after me.
So much emotion in the pic posted from the quilt veteran ceremony. It’s a time to remember and appreciate what all veterans have accomplished for us and for this country. My heart goes out to them all , as peace , security and freedom has long been every veterans gift to us all. God Bless them all and God Bless America.
Despite not finishing the summer stars quilt (tedious border work), I've been working on a flannel winter quilt. Flannel is stretchy and shrinks a lot, and unravels, so it needs preshrinking (hot water wash and hot dryer) and heavy starch, which I did. Also the seam allowance is 1/2 inch instead of 1/4 inch, so I bought a different pressure foot for the sewing machine, that measures 1/2 inch. Also, the blocks need to be big. These start out as 10" blocks after the preshrinking and cutting. Here are the quilt blocks so far, laid out on the floor. About 15 more are needed, Then I can assemble it. This was my arrangement to see how far along I was. I rearranged to see which blocks are needed for the arrangement that I want. They will still need to be moved around a bit when the last blocks are ready. It's starting to get cold now. I need to finish this one soon!
Daniel—Woah mate, that is a great series of pics and explanation. My Bride and I really enjoyed your posting. Thank you so much for posting the pics of the event. What a capital idea to have such a ceremony. I found it moving. Anyone that does anything positive for vets gets kudos in my book. Do vets get anything else other than quilts in other years? Thank you so much for this posting, and chapeau for your donations. You do great work. BTW—good luck on your new quilt. The three dimensional aspect of it is interesting.
Daniel OMG The intricacies with the fabric and design blew my mind. I can’t even process how it’s all put together. So were you a math major? Very impressive work and stitching. Beautiful and luv the colors. Bright and cheerful…
Last night I completed the flannel quilt and washed it to remove starch and fluff it up. It's a bit more weighty than quilts made from lighter weight cotton, but not too much. It's quite warm and comfortable. The batting was the thinnest cotton batting I could find, and the backing is a lighter weight flannel fabric. This was my own design. I'm pretty happy with the result and glad it's completed.
That is beautiful @Daniel W , you are so talented not only in sewing skills but in design too!! Fabulous.
That's so nice Daniel! Both the flannel quilt and the veterans quilts. I just sent off the last three quilts for Christmas. I'll have to look back and see which ones I took pictures of and posted. I was really worried about the last one. The one quilting machine had to go into the shop, so I had to sign up for the other one. Then the other one started messing up and I had to take three rows out. Live and learn...always check the rows as you go, no matter how close it is to having to get it sent.... But I finished six quilts in the last year and repaired one. This is the last one that I ended up having to take stitching out and redo. The pictures are blurry because they're pictures of pictures on my phone.
