March 21, 2013

{This Quilt will be a family Heirloom that will be passed down through Generations...}

...No pressure, right? :) 

That's basically what my brother in law, Yandy told me as we were working through the designs for my most recent quilt project! He is in school/training to become a chaplain with the army, and wanted a quilt to keep with him, especially when he is assigned to a squad that gets deployed. The idea behind it is that it will have references to the people he loves most! 

He's handy with photoshop, and he worked up this great design for me to go off of (after we talked through some plans when Mikhal & I were there visiting in December):



After a few months of on again/off again work: Here's the finished product! 




(Let me just tell you, this thing is pretty HUGE. Mikhal had to stand up on the railing of our patio deck rail holding the corners for me to get a good picture of the whole thing!) 


 This blue material is a reference to the color Yandy & Tanya had in their wedding (11 + years ago!) 



 Yandy helped me decipher the many different types of camo material, and we ended up getting this one at: Army Surplus World. I was so happy with how quickly it arrived, and just the overall quality of the product! 

Here are some details of the different blocks:



Tanya- Yandy's wife (And my husband Mikhal's sister)


Daniel (or Danny) is Tanya & Mikhal's youngest brother who has been living with Yandy & Tanya for a couple of years now. 


Hannah is their oldest daughter (just turned 4 this last month)



Michael is their 2nd (about 18 months) 


Isabel is the name they would like to give a little girl that they plan on adopting some day in the future.

And last but not least for the "kids": Chester their dog (who they've had quite a bit longer than Hannah!) & Shadow, their cat; a more recent addition to the family 


 Yandy also thought it would be cool to have some references to his mission/calling!


This is the Army Chaplain insignia. 

This was one of the aspects that I was a little nervous about at first, but I ended up making our own "patch" version by getting custom material at Spoon Flower!  And because it was only a small piece we needed, I was able to do it on a $5 test swatch! :) Once it arrived, I sewed it to some interfacing, turned it inside out, and appliqued it on! I think it'd be hard for me to be happier with how it turned out! 


This is the Army Chaplain Motto.


Yandy's favorite verse: "Not many of you should become teachers, my brothers, for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness."

(This was one of the only real modifications that we had to make to the original design: doing just the reference of the verse, rather than the whole thing. It was pretty hard to see my letters for the embroidery on the black background fabric, and I just knew that having to do so many more words, and so much smaller would be too stressful.) 


And lastly, the Army Chaplain cross, which I believe is a patch they wear on their uniforms to distinguish them from the rest of their squad.

Another cool detail that is not pictured is that Yandy has plans to sew on the patch of the different squads he may be assigned to, to the big plain camo blocks (see the big picture) to make it even more personalized throughout his time in service. 


Overall, I am SUPER happy with how it turned out, and honored to be a part of making a family memory that I hope will be treasured for years to come! 

And I think Yandy was pretty excited to receive it... :) 




Until next time...