Patriotic

I was asked to design a quilt for a dedicated military man.  I was honored to do this job....not only has this man served his country, but his dad and grandfather had also....The area I am working with was 24"X 30" and below this space is a cabinet that displays the flags of the generations before him....What a beautiful sight!  I wanted something special to display above the memories they see when they look at that area of the home.  There are antiques all around and a warmth, love as well as memories displayed, so I was looking to add to this without taking anything away....I wanted it to look like it had been around for a while and not "newly added".  I used graph paper to design several wall hangings and this is the design I decided to go with:

I had envisioned a "flag like" wall hanging to represent the patriotism this family has had for generations....I wanted it to look as if it was flying in honor of the past, present and future!
The family name was something that was needed, so I decided to use strong full letters and ran them at an angel down the quilt to give the illusion of the words flying across the stripes, but it needed to have a few stars flying thru it....so I added those to the bottom of the pieced stripes.

I just could not stand to leave it squared off, it just didn't look like it was waving, so I decided to cut my masterpiece--(after getting a second opinion) I started cutting and gave the bottom and right side some curves to get the "flag waving in the wind" illusion.

Not bad, but it still looked too new, so I laid it in the bathtub and gave it a soaking in strong coffee.....wow, how that makes it look old and like it had been around for a while....maybe stored in someone's attic or a box.....

Almost finished with the binding...down to the last 12" to get sewn down....then add tabs to the top in the blue fabric to hang it from a shelf....   I quilted stars on the 9 patches and squiggly lines thru the stripes.