Quilt of Valor for Tom

 I was very happy to present this Quilt of Valor to my cousin Tom at a family reunion last week.

I had been working on this quilt, on and off, for several years. You know how that goes. Once I finished Leo's QOV, I decided I needed to finish one for Tom, too. And you know how well I work under the pressure of a deadline!

I had a minor mishap while quilting the border and quilted through the tip of my machingers. At least it wasn't my actual finger!

I turned to my brother for help with the label. Tom has written a book about his experience in Vietnam, so most of the info came from there. He did not, however, earn a Bronze Star. I'm not sure how we got that wrong. I know a QOV label is supposed to just have the first name of the quiltmaker, but in this case, I thought it was fitting to include my full name. 

 My son, the Marine, presented the quilt to Tom while I read my presentation speech. Another cousin's son graduated from Marine Corps boot camp a few days ago.

Tom was totally surprised and rendered speechless, which is really saying something for a Martiniano and a prolific author. And, yes, our family is so big, we wear nametags!