Ok, so I know this is a HUGE undertaking, but I think it will be well worth it. This will be my "work in progress" post to keep myself on track where I am at and where I am heading. If you know my dad...MOM....do NOT let him know this is coming. :-) I really want this to be a surprise. OK...10 months and counting...here we go.
Rough idea of where I am heading...
**Just noticed that I left out the S in SMSGT. oops....better not do that on the quilt. ** :-)

Front of Quilt - I would like his name, rank patches, and some pictures of his enlistment and retirement. I will have to search the albums for those. I am not looking forward to that. I also have an idea about a border on the front. On the uniform they have these bars that they wear above or below their name tags. (I don't know what they are called.) I want to get a pic of his retirement shadow box (has a copy of all of his bars) and quilt each of the bars and connect them into a border. Does that make any sense?
Oh yeah.....I want as much of this quilted as possible. I got some suggestions from friends (thanks guys), but it looks like I may have to get out the good old paper and pencil and put my math skills to the test to make the logo as large as I would like to make it for the quilt.
I found some letter patterns to do his name at the top and U.S. AIR FORCE at the bottom with. I will figure out the sizes of those and then determine the size for everything else from that.
Just found out that my pattern for letters is going to make me 4" letter. hmmm....let me go calculate.
They all look pretty easy too!!!
Back of Quilt - American Flag ( I want the flag to be as realistic as possible.) If anyone knows of any great flag patterns (exact replica of the flag), please let me know. The strips will be easy, and I can create a paper piece pattern for the stars, but if I can find a pattern already made and buy it, that would save me a lot of time. (Why reinvent the wheel....right?) :-)
YEA!!!! I found the perfect star pattern....check it out.



Oh yeah...I will be quilting the front of the quilt. The quilting wont show much on the back and the front will have a lot of empty space, so I think it will look kinda neat to have the front quilted over the flag. :-)