It was my goal to say that I did "everything" myself on this quilt. Other than the labels on the backs of the quilts, I stayed true to my goal. I'll never win a prize at a show for my workmanship but I hope to instead demonstrate that anyone can create a quilt if they are dedicated to it.

**update** After the SD Quilt Show, I think I did pretty good on my workmanship. Not that I could compare my quilts to those in the show, but one has the ability, to downplay their skills--especially as a novice. So thanks for all of the "well done" and "that was a brilliant idea that you did there" in terms of my workmanship.

Ultimately, I dedicated my work to preserving the memory of the men and women that served, sacrificed, and supported the front lines and the home front during WW2 for the United States of America.

It is the presentation of this that will even allow me to display my quilts at shows and ultimately in a museum.

I am afraid to even start to figure out how many hours I have invested into creating these quilts. It would be a remarkable number--and this not even including the time invested in searching for the patches.

Below are some photo galleries of the quilts being constructed.

I also sewed around each of the patches so that they would "pop out" and stand out better. This also keeps the patches from sagging when the quilt is hung vertically for displaying.

Shout Outs

Special thanks: to the $90 Singer sewing machine for doing what you did.

To In-Weave Fabric (Hawarden, Iowa) for getting me the extra long olive drab backing in time. You kept me on schedule!

The Sew N Sew (Glendora, CA) for helping me conceptualize the corners for borders.

To Janet for the free use of your long arm, showing me how to do the quilting, binding, and keeping me sane throughout the process.

To the Youtube video by Fons and Porter in teaching me how to do the sleeves.

To Charlene for working the magic with the labels!