Quilter’s Name: Carolyn Jordan from Graceville, Florida
Name of Pattern: Original Design
Title of Quilt: My American Heritage
Featured Date: 05-22-24
Hi, I’m Carolyn. I made this quilt to honor the American military, patriotic songs, national parks I have visited, and national monuments. It took around a year to make. It is hand-quilted and I did all the machine embroidery.
The quilt was made for the annual Daughter’s of the American Revolution quilt contest several years ago. The theme was my American heritage. My father was in the Navy, so the upper left section honors the Navy. My son in law was in the Air Force so that is the theme of the upper right section. I also have many family members in the Army and Marines so they are honored in the bottom half.
Every patriotic song I knew at the time I made the quilt, is there with a bar of music notes on top of the block. The theme of each armed service is in that section. The name of many of the national parks we have visited are also displayed.
The outer border contains the state name postal codes and the cornerstones shows the 9/11 flag raising. I had a hard time finding that fabric since it was so long after the event, but a kind quilt shop owner sent me some scraps she had after I had inquired about the fabric. I bought the national monuments fabric from her store and explained the project I was working on.
The final quilt looks nothing like my original design. I couldn’t find some of the fabric I originally wanted, and changed my design including the fabric I did find. Quilt shop/fabric shop owners are wonderful people, willing to help you find what you need and make suggestions to solve problems. I used graph paper to design each of the sections. I covered the paper with clear tape. I made to scale blocks for each song, monument and park with tape loops on the back. That way I could move all the blocks around until everything fit. I then used fussy cut blocks of the service branch to fill in the spaces between the blocks.
We the people of the United States is the opening line of the preamble of the Constitution and is in the center of the quilt with red, white and blue chevrons pointing to it.
The hand quilting took a long time. My husband did so many things to help me so that I could continue my quilting to finish on time!
Thanks!
Carolyn
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Wow Carolyn!! Amazing, and so very much work involved.
Wow! A lot of time and thought went into creating this quilt! It is a wonderful tribute to America!