I made this quilt over the course of several weeks in 2023 as I used 1.5” strips. Because I did use the small size strips, I wanted to spread out the work as it is a bit boring and slow.

The end, however, is really fantastic. Well, maybe that is overstating the case.

Anyway.

I do like it.

It is the size of a Quilt of Valor (QOV). I may try to find someone over here who could use it rather than bringing it to the states to give away.

I was first inspired to make this last year when I heard that one group in the Dade City, FL area was no longer going to do any more QOV due to the high cost of making the quilts. It felt really sad to me to hear that.

I wanted to see if I could make what I considered an “acceptable” QOV with scraps at a minimal cost. I quilted it myself, so naturally I didn’t incur any more costs beyond the scraps, the thread, backing and batting. Let me see.

That would be - for

• the scraps - $5 leftovers from other projects (I took them from my bags of strips)

• thread - $4 (That’s the cost of a whole spool or two of thread and I don’t know how much I used, frankly -- it is not heavily quilted)

• batting - $4 for polyester batting purchased locally

• backing - 24 Polish zlotys or $6.11

• electricity for doing it - I have no idea - let’s say $1 (that would be a good project to try to ascertain how much the long arm costs to run per hour)

So all together - for the actual cost to me of making this - $20.11.

Obviously if I had to go to the store to buy a panel plus accompanying fabrics, well, that would be a different story. If I had to pay to get it quilted, also a different story.

So…what do you think? Do you think a man who is in his 40s, 50s or 60s + would like this? (I’m assuming QOV tend to go to middle aged or older people). Would it be better for a younger person - maybe someone who got injured in the military? I really think that most of these won’t compare to the panels that my sis has which are so very nice for patriotic quilts.

But, this experiment was trying to avoid the cost of even buying a $10 quilt panel.

I did use a piece of Polish fabric on the back - and it is nautical themed. I actually thought this quilt would work well for someone who had been in the navy or coast guard.

We’ll see.

I have no idea how to go about finding such a person.

Anyway, this is simply a rail fence block with alternating red and white or blue and white strips put on point.

I worked on it over the course of several weeks in order to break it down and make it easy for me to get it done. By doing it that way I kind of “tricked myself” into making it without it being too much at once.

For some reason, several quilts were “too much” at once for me this year (The mini rail fence, this one and the Test Pattern #49). I seemed to have a crisis of working hard.

Oh well.

So far this year - which is exactly one day, I’ve been able to finish another two quilts (I bound them today - need to be washed.)

And there you go. While I still need to go over it some more to get the rest of the little strings off of it - as there tend to be a lot when working with 1.5” strips and squares, I think I’m not embarrassed by this quilt. It is fine - and to the right person - would be a nice gift.

I’m writing up a pattern about this so that people who go to the free patterns page can find this one as otherwise, it does encompass several blog posts in 2023. Sometimes (most of the time) those are hard to find as the search engine on the blog posts seems worthless.

Have a great day wherever you are reading!

Thanks so much for coming along with me on this journey!

Be sure to check out what my sis has for you in the store here!

Feel free to browse the site.