Camo Rag Quilt #3 (Military Memory Quilt)

Another fun adventure in my new hobby, military memory quilts. This one has a great back story.

So a few years ago one of my neighbors who has been retired from the military for a decade or so decided it was time to clean out all his old military stuff from the shed (with a little prodding from his wife ;) ). It just so happened that all of the kiddos on the street were outside having an airsoft gun war. Like Santa emerging from his workshop he came out of his back yard laden with fun items for all the kiddos to enjoy.

Every kiddo got a lot of fun items and they all ran home and put them on and continued the epic airsoft gun war in style. The following weeks our street looked as though it was participating in tactical exercises with all the kiddos dressed in camo running around with airsoft guns.

 Fast forward a few years. My kiddo has outgrown the uniform he was given and brought it to me to donate. That is when inspiration hit!!! To repay his generosity and kindness toward all the neighborhood kiddos and to say thank you for all his years of service I decided to make him a military memory quilt for Christmas. Only one problem..... I only had one shirt and one pair of pants, I knew that this would not be enough to make a quilt. Luckily (or unluckily) Mr. Crafty Camper had just put a hole in a olive drab pair of dress pants!!!! I upcycled the dress pants and uniforms into a great quilt.

After a quick wash to fluff the seams I wrapped it up in a Christmas bow and delivered it to my unsuspecting neighbor. The look of shock, surprise and gratitude were so overwhelming that there were tears all around. He absolutely loved it as did his wife. He later took the quilt to a family holiday party, it was a huge hit. His father loved it so much he almost did not get it back!
A few days later I received a hand written note from him expressing his gratitude and  how much he loved the quilt. I have cherished that hand written note for many months now and will never forget the joy one simple quilt has brought to all our lives.
CCG