Quilt of Honor Finished!

Recently, I finished a special Quilt of Honor for a wonderful Marine who served her country during WWII.  This veteran, Jane Ann Jordan Henderson, is unique in that she served in the US Marine Corps Women’s Auxiliary Reserve between April 1943 to October 1945.

This Quilt of Honor was pieced by Bobbie Jarrett and features a photo transfer onto fabric by The Pixeladies, Deb Cashatt and Kris Sazaki.  This quilt, once bound, will be unveiled at The National Museum of The Marine Corps at Quantico, Virginia later in 2013.

Here is the “Before” picture of this quilt, taken before the machine quilting:

Quilt of Honor by Bobbie Jarrett and quilting by Carla Barrett

The designs for this quilt were digitally drawn out by me especially for this quilt.  Once designed, I imported them into Art & Stitch digitizing software, stitched them out, then added lots of freehand touches:

Quilt of Honor for Jane Ann Jordan Henderson. Pieced by Bobbie Jarrett and quilted by Carla Barrett.

I also want to point out that besides all my designs, I also used a wonderful feather design by Sherry Rogers-Harrison in the 2-toned diamond shapes. To fill the space, I freehanded some curls, as well, in the diamond space.

Here are some additional photos of this quilt, and for any non-quilters, the image below shows you what my longarm quilting machine looks like and how the 3 layers (top,batting, backing) are stitched together to make a quilt.  The 3 layers get attached to rollers, then the quilter only works on a small portion of the quilt at a time:

Quilting by Carla Barrett

Block design is also my design, as well as the corner design shown in the above photo.

I wanted to quilt something feminine, but with a patriotic flavor, hence the hearts, feathers, stars and stripes.

Here is how I handled the blocks that had embroidery on them:

Quilting Design by Carla Barrett

I am very pleased the quilt turned out so well, and it is off to be bound by Bobbie.  I plan to post some photos from the ceremony at the museum when the quilt is hung.

I will end this post with a personal note to the recipient, Jane Ann Jordan Henderson:

Dear Mrs. Henderson, I want to thank you for your service to our country.  I understand, too, that you also spent several decades teaching children in El Dorado County schools.  This quilt was a wonderful group effort- and I am privileged to have quilted it for you.  Warm Regards, Carla Barrett