Memorial Day Memories

For most, Memorial Day is start of summer.  The long weekend a perfect time to get away with friends and family.

However, Memorial Day is a reminder of those who served our country and gave their lives for our freedom.  For many it is a chance to honor those who are no longer here.

The holiday's origins can be traced back to the American Civil war.  It was originally called Decoration day as the war graves were decorated with flowers, flags and wreaths.   

Memorial Day decorations typically involve patriotic colors, flags and symbols of remembrance. 

When designing the Memorial Day quilt, I tried to incorporate the spirit of the original Memorial Day/Decoration Day. 

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Memorial Day Memories Quilt EQ8 Tutorial

For the Memorial Day quilt, I started by creating a flag block.  I decided to make my flag block square.  I did include 13 stripes -- but went with only 13 stars.  Piecing fifty five-pointed stars seemed a bit much.

These stars were very simple to draft using StarMaker - a simple to use tool in the Applique toolkit.

Since the flag has 13 stripes, I went with a block size of 39" (3 inches per stripe). 

The stars will be 4-1/2" x 4".  Nice and big and easy to applique.

Flag Block designed by Kari using EQ8

 I decided to add a floral wreath along with a silhouette of an eagle on top of the flag.  (Consider using a different background block for a variation of the design.)

To keep things simple, the wreath and eagle blocks were obtained from the EQ8 block library.

Flower Wreath 2 can be found in 04 Classic Applique>Wreaths.

The block includes a background.  Check out my trick for getting the background not to "show" -- without having to copy and paste the patches to a new block.

I primarily used fabrics that were blue, red and white from the EQ fabric library and some old Stash collections.

​The longest part of creating this project was coloring the wreath.

Flower Wreath 2 from EQ Block Library

Flower Wreath 2 Recolored in Red White and Blue

The eagle motif was found in 06 Motifs>Folk Motifs.  Blocks included in Motifs category do not have a background.  Because the design is a silhouette it was simple to recolor. 

Eagle from EQ Library

Eagle Recolored

For the pieced border, I went with an auto-border.  I selected Picket Border 12 from the Picket style.  I loved that it carried the striped theme from the flag.  

One of the plusses of using an auto-border is it also provides a coordinating corner.  EQ decided to pair the picket block with an attic window corner.

Picket Border 12 from Auto-Borders

Attic Window from Auto-Borders

Check out how to create the blocks and quilt in this short video.

Here is the quilt from the video.

Memorial Day Memories Created in EQ by Kari Schell

I know there are many in my audience that are not from the US.  What do you do to honor those who have died in service for your country?  How would you modify the design to reflect your customs and traditions?

​Share your designs in the Learning EQ Facebook group.

Learning EQ Facebook Group Memorial Day Memories Post

Happy quilting.

​Kari

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