Veterans Day is this week and this is a time to thank those who have served. Our little community always has special events for the local veterans and it makes me proud to see. My dad served in the Navy during the Vietnam war and did two tours. Then he enlisted in the Army National Guard. I grew up with Army green supplies and Meals Ready To Eat in the house. We loved the Chiclet gum in those meal kits. I have fond memories of my dad and his sense of duty and honor to country. So I am always proud to make something for a Veteran and one of my recent quilts was specially made to donate.
I started with a panel from Northcott Fabrics. This jumped out at me when I was shopping my local fabric store. I thought it would be a perfect throw size quilt. Now this pattern is not my original idea. I have seen many people online cutting a panel and adding strips. It just seemed like an easy project to get done as I had recently finished a harder quilt. Sometimes you have to give your craft brain a rest and this did just that.
I used the panel and a yard of gray fabric. I cut about 12 inches off the yardage and sewed it to the bottom of the panel and then to the top so it was a loop of fabric. Then I cut six even strips lengthwise and cut the looped fold so I had 6 inches of yardage on top and bottom of the panel. The strips of gray fabric were cut 2 inches wide and pieced so they were as long as the panel strips. A 1/4 inch seam allowance was used to sew them all together. This is easy straight seams but I would advise using pins to keep the strips from stretching as you sew.
Here is the panel and strips sewn together. Even though the print is separated, your brain "sees" it together. Kind of cool and it levels up the print so it is a bit fancy. Pressing as you go really helps this process also. You could stop right here but I decided to add some borders.
Red white and blue border strips were cut 2 1/2 inches wide and then sewn round robin style. Again pressing each one keeps it flat. I also made sure that all of the loose threads were trimmed before I quilted it. My white, blue and red fabrics were side by side and I didn't want any loose threads showings through the white.
Here is the quilt after I pulled it off my Handi Quilter longarm machine. An edge to edge star pattern was used.
I trimmed the quilt and sewed the binding strips by machine so it would be nice and sturdy.
Now that is a beautiful simple quilt and I delivered it to my brother when I travelled to Houston for the quilt show. He is a member of a Veterans Riding group and I can't wait to see what they decide to do with this quilt. I filmed a video showing a more in depth look at how I sewed and quilted this project. You can watch it below. Has this inspired you to make a quilt for a veteran or organization? I hope you have enjoyed this post, share what you learn and are generous with what you create. Someone will appreciate your hard work.
