OK, I will admit it, I have to eat a crow...
It's the "Quilt of Valor" crow....
I really didn't understand the Quilt of Valor initiative, I will confess...
But when my guild said "we are making Quilts of Valor, I said, fine, here we go... and I started this RWB for the Guild show in March (yep, LAST March, oh well!).
Isnt this a cool pattern? It is by Joan Ford, in her new book Scrap Therapy: Plus One... I especially love that border, which wasn't nearly as difficult as it looks! That big wrinkle in the right side is the cat's work - no worry, it lays beautifully flat, and has some of the best quilting work i have ever done. When it's bound, I will take some better photos.
Well, one night when I was working on this, I asked Dear Hubby - 'honey, do veterans coming home from war really want a quilt? wouldn't they rather have something like, oh, a fishin rod, or a tackle box, or one of those super-manly things?"
He got quiet, and then he said: "When I came home from Vietnam, I flew into the Seattle airport, and some people saw me, and one of them called me a name and spit on me..... I think I would rather have been given a quilt."
Well, from that moment on, this has been his quilt, although he doesn't know it yet. Just needs binding now.
Thank you, Honey, for your service... Sorry it took so long.
Let me get a knife and fork, and start eating that crow...
Kate
2 comments:
OH, Kate, Your story brought tears to my eyes. I've heard similar stories before. Several years ago, our guild had a project to send quilts to Walter Reed Hospital, and I made a 3-6-9-12 quilt of RWB scraps that had been gifted to me. We had so many, they wouldn't fit in the vans, so mine went to a local veteran.
Oh, wow...what a wake-up. Please, when you give him his quilt; give him a big hug from me too, and thank him from me for his service (way too late). Our poor warriors were treated by some so poorly; may that never happen again. We learned our lesson, I hope.
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