When I dug out the bag (which I first had to find) I had the beginning of the centerpiece and the stars completed...that was it. Everything else was just a pile of fabric and uniforms and a vague memory of the pattern I was going to do. After sorting everything and laying it all out I planned out the rest of the top and got started. First I ironed on the pieces I had cut out for the center "block." There will also be a plane and "Cadet McPherson, Class of 2007" on here...but those have not been done.
Next I began on the boarder of old uniforms. I took Matt's BDUs, PT shirt, blues shirt, a hat, and a glove that he wore at the academy as well as a t-shirt he got me from the academy apart and sewed them into a boarders.
When I finished sewing the pieces together and trimming the excess off, I laid it all out to see how it would look.
I sewed the two boarders onto the center block only to notice that the center piece was not even. It was not laying correctly, so I took the boarders off, fixed it as best as I could, and resewed on boarders. Even with that set-back, I was still on track to get the top put together before Matt got home. I started adding another small boarder of white before the stars when my needle broke. It was about noon then and I decided not to make a run to the store, instead I put everything away and did some cleaning around the house.
When Matt came home he was very excited to see the top sitting on the table and all of the different pieces put together. I am planning on getting the quilt done before another three years goes by but we will just have to see...
What a beautiful job you did! LOVE it, I can't think of a nicer gift for Matt ... to gather all the memories of AFA into a warm quilt is so neat and turned out great. You are a very multi-talented artist :) Love to you & Matt,
ReplyDeleteAunt Nancy
Greetings, I just found your web page and love your quilt idea! I would like to make something similar for my son as a retirement gift (which is about 5 years away but will take me that long to get his quilt together!). I was wondering whether or not you would be able to share your pattern for the chapel at USAFA as my son was a 1999 USAFA grad, too? Just let me know.
ReplyDeleteHi - Thankyou for the message.
DeleteThe chapel is actually traced onto fabric from a photograph using a homemade light box: I found a photo of the chapel with the correct angle that I wanted, printed it out, and outlined it with a dark marker. Then I took a clear "table" and taped the photo to the bottom, put a light under it, and traced the chapel with a fabric marker onto cream fabric. To attach it to the quilt I used fusible (I prefer wonder under). When it was quilted we made sure to quilt over the lines so it would come off!
Good luck with your quilt!
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