Final Fireman Finish

My son-in-law was gifted this wallhanging for Christmas (previous 12/17/24 post) even though I had only completed about 90%. The remaining portions to FMQ were the fireman silhouette and a wide red border framing it. These last areas had remained non-quilted since I had been incapable of deciding the pattern. I vacillated back and forth on the fireman portion and finally opted to take a chance on simple echo-quilting. Echo-quilting internal parallel curves was a lucky call since this approach accentuated the shape and enabled me to be vague about where the edge of the coat sleeve was.

I usually name my quilts but this one I documented for the giver and receiver instead. I made two corner labels, one label embroidered with DIC_2024 and the other label embroidered with FOR_JEREMY. The fireman wallhanging is my final completion for 2024. It took only five years to start it after the panel purchase in 2019.

I planned to stitch stars with my new star template in the upper and lower sections of the red border framing the fireman. Red thread for the stars would minimize the visibility of a goof should there be template shift; black thread would make the "oops" obvious. I made two red stars and decided they did not show up at all! Foregoing more stars while I rethought what to do instead, I stitched wavy lines in the vertical red borders. Those lines barely showed up also, but at least they added more texture. Plus, I could convince myself that those waves were symbolic of fire hoses. I painstakingly picked out the teeny tiny stitches of the two nearly invisible stars, and instead stitched nearly invisible spirals freehand in the upper and lower bands of the red frame. I convinced myself that spirals were symbolic of coiled hoses. These symbolic artistic interpretations are surely a stretch of my poetic license. Jeremy interpreted the swirls as the water entering into or coming from the ends of the fire hoses.  Looks like I am not the only one with a good imagination.

Here is my son-in-law Jeremy posed with his now fully completed fireman wall hanging, front and back views.

On the back side, Jeremy further interpreted the straight lines between the outlines of the Maltese Crosses as the skyline of the city buildings through which the firetrucks wind their way, or even the network of the roads themselves.  See? Active imagination! I am so glad he likes the quilt.