Back in the winter of 2021 when my work was featured in What Women Create Magazine, I received a lovely email from Tricia in South Carolina who was touched by the article, enough so that she saved it in her files, knowing that one day she would reach out again.

Fast forward almost five years, and, as promised, I received her second email expressing interest in commissioning a memorial quilt in honor of her recently deceased husband, Allan. Allan was a compassionate, talented man who bravely served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and went on to a long career in Public Relations for multiple companies in the Southeastern United States. For his professional attire, Tricia described him as a “Brooks Brothers kind of guy” and sent me a delightful selection of his button down shirts.

Born and raised in Oklahoma, Allan never forgot his roots, nor his alma mater, The University of Oklahoma.

Tricia and Allan were regular fans at the football games, and so Tricia put some of her favorite OU swag in the materials she sent.

Tricia also included some of Allan’s more casual wear that he preferred in his retirement.

I know that for many service members, their experience in serving our country is a huge part of who they are and of their personal history. Therefore, I looked to examples of Air Force insignia as inspiration for a quilt block design, much like I had done for Mayor Joe Gunter’s quilt that was featured in What Women Create Magazine. (see previous blogpost)

I looked at a small graphic of Air Force insignia wings to get started designing.

I then played with the fabric and color composition.

What became quickly apparent was that we needed to make a two-sided quilt to express the two different aspects of Allan’s wardrobe: the more corporate “Brooks Brothers kind of guy” and the laid back, rural Oklahoma guy. The quilt top featured the former, and the quilt back featured the latter. This helped a lot in getting the color feelings just right.

I began with the quilt top which contained a primarily red story and blue story color-wise.

The large quilt blocks had segmented “wing” shapes that also subtly gradated from light to dark.

There were a few of Allan’s shirts that had small monograms on the pockets which I was able to piece into some of the blocks.

We went with large scale blocks where the wing pattern was duplicated in a mirror image and turned 90 degrees.

Allan and Tricia both had a thing for gingham. Tricia taped notes to the large scale red and blue gingham shirts as being some of Allan’s favorites, so I made sure they figured more prominently in the quilt.

The crispness of the quilt pattern mirrored the feeling of the fabric patterns.

The big blocks began to come together here.

Sewing angles and aligning points can be tricky, so careful measuring was important.

Here is the final quilt. Allan’s dark blue corduroys became the border, thanks to Tricia’s suggestion that they would make a soft edge while she cuddled beneath it with their beloved dog.

And some details here.

Making the back was like playing a game of Tetris to get all the various sizes of the graphics to be visually balanced.

I used Allan’s khakis, jeans, denim shirts, and khaki corduroys to fill out the remainder of the backing.

And here is a detail with the final quilting.

I am both impressed and honored that Tricia kept my article – and found it again! – after so many years when the time was right to engage in this beautiful process of remembrance.