AMERICAN FLAG FOR VETERANS

My cousin who is a funeral director came over to my house with this huge flag.  She was wondering if I could fold it.

She wanted a flag to drape over the casket of the Veteran, in which she could use over and over.  The cost of buying a folded one is out of this world.

Then at the gravesite another flag will be laid across the top of the casket and then the ceremony of folding it for the family to have.

The trick was having the red and white on the other side of the blue stars.

We spent over 3 hours pinning this puppy, folding and pleating.

We used every pin I had in the house which is ALOT.

We got poked so many time it became maddening.

We got her pinned and the back was all wonky and would not lay flat.

The middle blue was pulling to one side.  We were on each side pinning and folding that I think we were working against each other.

Finally, enough was enough.  She then asked me if I could just make a quilt out of it.

Hummmmm

Three hours later and extremely tired she left.

I sat and thought.

and thought.....

and thought....

It was around eleven when I finally got up and took all the pins out.

I kept telling her the pins were working against us.

I ironed the flag.

Then I stared from the middle to get the center and worked over to one side.  Fixed the red and white....and then worked on from the middle to the other side.  I got my huge ironing pad and put it on my quilting table and ironed as I went.  The only thing I pinned were the top and where it had an opening.

At one in the morning, I had her ironed with the hope that my cousin would like it.

It stayed on my cutting table for a week.

Which...I thought....

and thought....

and thought.

I tried sewing the inside and the machine just pulled and it looked horrible.

so I thought some more.

The problem was, I could not move on to another project because this was in my mind.

so Friday night.

I cut (yes, cut it) and made the binding for the top and a sleeve.  I had to hand sew the back (no big deal)

Then I thought some more.

Tried sewing again....NOPE>>>>

then I decided to just tack it, just to keep the pleats .....

Yea!!!  it worked.

She will hang this in her funeral home and use as needed.

We love our Veterans, I have five in my house and am so grateful for them.

This is just one thing that will make the funeral more special, even tho it will not be the same flag they will get when the funeral is over, it is still special.