I had so much fun making this quilt. I hated the process to end.
To recap – when we were home last year, my brother asked if I would make him a quilt out of his military camouflage shirts and his collection of Crown Royal bags. This is a man who doesn’t ask for much – and I was totally thrilled and honoured to do it. He will be retiring in 2017 after 37 years in the military. Quite an accomplishment and I am so incredibly proud to be his sister.
To his uniform shirts and the Crown Royal bags, I added Cherrywood hand-dyed fabrics, hand-dyed wool (the flying geese) and a few Japanese taupe fabrics.
I used inspiration from Sherri Lynn Wood‘s book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters. LOVE this book. I suppose the ‘score’ that I used is closest to her version of ‘Patchwork Doodle’. Basically, I just played with shapes and color. It was truly like painting with fabric.
Sherri asks for you to evaluate each creation once completed. She encourages you to look at it for surprises, discoveries, satisfactions and dissatisfactions. I sat in my favourite coffee shop the other day and wrote this:
What surprised me? First that I thought about K3 nearly the entire time working on this quilt. My memories of him, of family, how proud I am of who he is, what he has accomplished, how he and L have raised such good men.
It also surprised me how many ideas I had – I couldn’t use them all. They just kept coming and coming.
What did I discover/learn? I guess my continuing lesson to go with the flow and trust my instincts. The organic style of designing is very pleasing to me. There are no mistakes. Perfection is over-rated – at least for me.
What was satisfying about the outcome? Well, I think he is really going to like it but more importantly, I love it! And, it just feels like a gift of love that I’ve made especially for him. It came from my soul, from my creativity, from my heart.
What was dissatisfying? It’s a very heavy quilt as the uniform fabric is much heavier than quilting cottons. I’m glad I added the hand-dyed cottons for balance and lightness.
Additional thoughts: I wasn’t exactly sure in the beginning if the crown royal bags and military camo fabrics would go together but I’m pleasantly surprised. I actually think they complement each other! Also, I think the purple is a great tie-in to L (his wife; her favourite color is purple) as she is as much retiring from the military as K3 is.
I was planning to take it back next year when we visit but I’ve decided to mail it to him instead. Better for him to have it to curl up under this winter than for it to sit on a shelf here.