More on "A2 10-22" One Hell of a Huey"

Blogspot was giving me trouble before so I couldn't keep typing after inserting the photo of the finished quilt! Hence two posts from me in the one day. Here's a few more photos of the making of the quilt:

Here's my dear husband Barry dividing the  bottom horizontal border for me and pinning it evenly, ready to attach to the rest of the quilt. I would not have finished the quilt in time, without his help.

This map is one from this website:

http://vietnam-war.commemoration.gov.au/combat/battle-of-long-tan_map.php

DH (Dear Husband) wanted me to include a map of the Battle of Long Tan in the quilt. We spent a lot of time on the computer looking for a copyright free map of the battle. No luck ... so then I contacted the Australian federal government to ask for permission to use the map above. After 5 days (pretty good going actually) I did get permission to use the map in my quilt. But ... I didn't figure on the map not printing out at a size that would be able to be read without a magnifying glass, did I? The website settings disallowed copying and pasting from the website, so what to do.

I hadn't taken the name and contact details of the last government officer who gave me permission to use the map, did I? Time was running out so I decided to draw the map on fabric ... after all, I can draw a bit. Then ... no fabric pens in those colours could I find. Drive with hubby "up the road" - a good Aussie term for just a few kilometres away ... say 15 minutes' drive (we tend to think of distance in time taken here in Australia because our country is so big).

Arrived back home, had to use a magnifying glass anyay to work out the symbols. Then had to Google "topographical" features because I couldn't work out the symbol for rubber trees. Any ... way ... here's how the map turned out on the quilt:

I also drew up a key to the symbols on another block. I'm pretty pleased with how the map turned out.

Lastly here is a photo of the quilt being sandwiched. It is a large-ish quilt, 60" x 40":

The A2 10-22 quilt is finished

It's hard to believe that it is nearly a month, yes, a whole month, since I finished this quilt. Since then I have not even touched the sewing machine, let alone sewn on it. This has been because of a combination of sheer exhaustion from working so hard on the quilt, plus developing chronic sinusitis and weekly medical appointments re my hand that is recovering from finger surgery in late January.

However, I digress. I finished the quilt on the morning of March 15 one day before the helicopter Dedication. I had to wait though to get a decent photo of the finished quilt as all of my photos were a little dark or did not show the whole quilt.

Drum roll ... here's the finished quilt called "One Hell of a Huey":

Photo courtesy of Chris Phillips