My Hero's Quilt

This quilt is actually completely designed by the love of my life.  He served 4 years active duty in the US Marine Corps and 7 years (and counting) in the Illinois Army National Guard and the Army Reserves.  He also served one tour of duty in Iraq as part of an Infantry unit.  When we first started dating and he found out I quilt he not so slyly mentioned that he would love a quilt of his own.  At first I was going to make a 'man quilt' in a manly pattern with manly fabric.  That wasn't going to fly with him.  He wanted a military themed quilt.  Now I really had my work cut out for me.  I showed him the Moda Quilt of Valor and he literally designed the rest.  He's very proud of his military career and the awards he's earned so this is what he came up with.

Now, a little explanation.  The solid red stripes just help to frame and set apart the other stripes.  So from L-R we have the USMC Blood Stripe.  It's a major honor to earn this stripe in the Corps and is worn on the outside of the pant leg on the dress blues, when this quilt is quilted I will add his ending rank (Corporal) and the Eagle Globe and Anchor.  The next stripe is all of his awards he's earned during his military career through the end of his tour in Iraq.  They are in order of highest importance to lowest importance.  And finally, the ACU stripe.  We went back and forth on this and just using the old Army dress uniform color, OD Green.  In the end he decided on the ACU because believe it or not, his unit was the very first to wear the Army Combat Uniform in Iraq, which according to my boyfriend is odd because they were a Reserve unit, new uniform issues are usually given to those in active duty.  So, that is how this quilt came about.  

If you're interested in colors, I used a LOT of Kona solids.  I couldn't tell you all the color names but I know for sure Royal, Poppy, Red, white, and I think Corn.  The stars are a Robert Kaufman print and the ACU print was actually found as a remnant at JoAnn.  I drafted all the ribbons using a free quilt pattern program called Quilt Assistant.  It can be kinda finicky when it comes to drafting something from scratch but play with it enough it'll work.  I also strongly advise if you want to do this paper piecing is a MUST!  There are some pieces of fabric that are only 1/4" wide and with 1/8" seam allowances due to how they're designed.  The paper helps keep them stable.  They're 8" x 2" finished.

Still unsure of how I'm going to quilt it, I'd love to send it out it's just not in the budget right now.