Military Memory Quilt

Since tomorrow is Valentine’s Day, I thought I’d post a “sweetheart item”.

This memory quilt was made for me by an old flame. She asked me for some of my old uniforms, and months later she surprised me with this hand-stitched quilt. In it you can see some woodland camouflage battle dress uniforms (BDU), grey army physical fitness uniforms, dress greens, dress blues and even an old mess dress jacket. Some squares have the original uniform pockets that still open. Other squares show the lapels. The grey squares with the large black “ARMY” were part of the physical fitness uniforms. The wide gold or black stripes running across some squares were the stripes running down the legs of my dress blue and dress green trousers. The loopy gold braid (trefoil) came from the cuff of my mess dress jacket. Unit patches, rank insignia and qualification patches were arranged on the outer squares.

The romance I had with this quilt’s maker has run its course, but the time and the love put into the quilt still moves me and I consider it one of my dearest keepsakes.