DAR Fiber Arts Entry

This is a quilt I made for my son Brian who is career US Army.  It came in first in the art quilt category NE Division and will be judged at the national level.
I had to write abt it also  and below is what I submitted.

A Family Tradition

I designed this wall hanging quilt using a larger variation of the Ohio Star pattern. The fabric and design were chosen to reflect both my son Brian’s years in the US Army as well as the service of many ancestors and relatives.  His maternal great-grandparents served in the European theatre in World War I. Both of his grandfathers, eight great-uncles and two great-great aunts served in World War II.  One of the aunts was a nurse stationed at Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941.  His maternal grandfather turned 21 on Christmas Day 1944 while dropping supplies for Patton’s Armored Division during the Battle of the Bulge.  Two great-uncles served in Korea and one in Vietnam. Brian was deployed three times to the Middle East; once to Afghanistan and twice to Iraq.  While serving with the 101st Airborne Division from Fort Campbell, he volunteered for Operation Anaconda in Afghanistan. After providing support for the Battle of Bagdad in Iraq, his engineer unit worked to confiscate and destroy caches of enemy weapons and ammunition.

I chose to tie the quilt with uniform buttons from World War II, and then used medals, pins and military insignia of family members to embellish it.  Among the items used are a World War I medal and pins belonging to Brian’s maternal great grandfather; an identification bracelet and Army Nursing Corps pin belonging to his maternal great-grandmother.   There is a World War II Air Medal, several uniform pins and a dog tag belonging to his maternal grandfather and a bracelet belonging to his paternal grandfather.    Other items were contributed by living veterans in our family.

I believe that the design, materials and embellishments work together to meet this year’s theme, “Enhancing the Present: Contemporary Expressions of Our Heritage." 

Construction

All the cotton fabric in this quilt was machine pieced and sewn with the exception of the binding. It is a double French binding that was machine sewn to the front before being brought around to the back and hand sewn carrying the thread in the batting.  The buttons are tied with crochet thread in such a way that they can be easily removed if the quilt ever has to be washed. Any embellishments not pinned on with the original pins are also attached with removable ties.