Sewing With Nancy

We sew because we like the process. We sew because we like the end result. And, we sew because on occasion, we sew to honor special people in our lives. Today's Nancy's Corner guest created a gift of a quilt that crossed decades using military uniforms as the fabric to honor military service. I'd like to introduce you to Cathy Ott. Cathy is a retired U.S. Army Reserve Major and has made a very special quilt. Welcome to Sewing with Nancy, &nbspCathy. Thanks for inviting me today, Nancy. I had to ask you to be my guest when I read about this quilt because you made it for a special person. Yes, I did. I made it for my daughter's boyfriend, Zach Radtke. He is a specialist in the United States Army Reserve and is stationed at the 377th Maintenance Company in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. You have many uniforms in here as the fabric. Yes, there are five different uniforms in the quilt. They start with uniforms that I wore when I was in the military. Three of the different squares or different types of uniforms have the O.D. fabric in them. One was one of the first original O.D. fabrics which required a lot of ironing in order to keep it straight. Then was the permanent press uniform. Then the third O.D. green one is the uniform that was worn in Vietnam which was much more light-weight. So things have changed since that era and that decade in both the feeling of the military and the uniforms, as well. Yes, it has. They have patterns in their uniforms now. I was fortunate enough to wear the B.D.U. with the forest camouflage in it. Today, Zach wears a uniform that has a digital pattern to it. You can see that in the lower panel here. You incorporated many interesting batiks the brown and the black. It really makes the green stand out. Thank you. It's really a nice combination. Lights, mediums and darks whether you use military fabrics or if you use traditional fabric. The part that I find fascinating as well is the border. We'll show you the border next. We've recycled on Sewing with Nancy &nbspmany times. This is another way of recycling. This bottom panel is part of one of the newer uniforms. It has on it, one of the pockets from the actual uniform itself. It has the Velcro on it where you can stick patches such as the names. You can put them on and take them off. It also has his rank on here. It has all of his ranks since he's been in the military. You put more patches. His unit patch is over on this side. He can add more patches as he gets into more units. You signed your quilt with a cuff. I like this. Yes, on the back is the cuff from one of my uniforms with my rank on it. Cathy told me that the tricky part was cutting the uniforms not necessarily the geometric shape but making that first snip. Exactly. Exactly, cutting into a uniform that I'd taken so much care for was hard. You're used to pressing and maintaining it, and now you were cutting it up. Yes. Good job making that first cut. This is very charming, has a great story to tell and the reason you made it is because? I made it for Zach so that if he gets called up or gets deployed he has something from home to take with him that he can curl up into his duffle bag. It's small enough, compact enough so that it could fit in, and he could carry it. Oh, it's great. It's machine quilted with variegated thread. It's quite compact and it's heavy because some of the fabrics in here are not the traditional weight of cottons. Correct. It will keep someone warm and comfortable. What a work of love that you put in this. Cathy, thank you for joining us. Thank you for having me come today. You're very welcome. If you'd like to learn more about Cathy and other guests on Sewing with Nancy and anything Sewing with Nancy you can go to nancyzieman.com where you can watch 52 of the most current Sewing With Nancy programs on-line. At the bottom of the page you'll find an area that says "Nancy's Corner," just click on that and you will be able to find out information about all our guests for this section of the program. You can also sign up for our blog and other social marketing areas. I hope you've enjoyed this first program of the series. We'll be back with the conclusion of the program. Thanks for joining us. Bye for now.