Fireman Panel Wallhanging

During my Country Heritage Tour in March 2019 I bought this fabric panel and coordinating fabric at a Cinnamon's Quilt Shoppe in Jacksonville, Florida. The panel height is the width of fabric.  A tape measure beside the word-and-symbol fabric shows its scale. The panel is by Sykel Enterprises, Pattern #FIREFIGHTERS-1181.

My grandiose plans of making the panel into an attic window style quilt dissolved as I considered the logistics. Too much of the unique fabric would be consumed in seam allowances. Instead, I changed to a simpler plan where I bordered each side of the uncut panel with the coordinating fabric. I fussy cut the side strips so that the emblems aligned horizontally and so that the long vertical words of FIREFIGHTERS were symmetrically placed on either side of the central panel. This approach also handled the issue of how to handle the emblems on the top and bottom of the panel. The emblems have significance as stated in the following diagram.

The four lobed emblems on the fabric are the Maltese Cross, some in red with flames around the outside and others in black, both with a scramble in the center. A "scramble", I learned, is "a group of fire symbols on the center seal of a firefighter's badge that represents preparedness. Scrambles can include a ladder, axe, helmet, fire hydrant, or pike pole." The Maltese cross is known around the world as a symbol of the fire service. The History of the Maltese Cross is quite interesting and I have repeated it here in this post.

The Badge of a Fire Fighter is the Maltese Cross. The Maltese Cross is a symbol of protection and a badge of honor. Its story is hundreds of years old.

When a courageous band of crusaders known as Knights of St. John fought the Saracens for possession of the holy land, they encountered a new weapon unknown to European warriors. It was a simple, but horrible device of war. It wrought excruciating pain and agonizing death upon the brave fighters for the cross. The Saracens weapon was fire.

As the crusaders advanced on the walls of the city, they were struck by glass bombs containing naphtha. When they became saturated with the highly flammable liquid, the Saracens hurled a flaming torch into their midst. Hundreds of the knights were burned alive; others risked their lives to save their brothers-in-arms from dying painful, fiery deaths.

Thus, these men became our first Fire Fighters and the first of a long list of courageous Fire Fighters. Their heroic efforts were recognized by fellow crusaders who awarded each hero a badge of honor — a cross similar to the one fire fighters wear today. Since the Knights of St. John lived for close to four centuries on a little island in the Mediterranean Sea named Malta, the cross came to be known as the Maltese Cross.

FMQ is a challenge for me so I selected my pattern with ease of execution in mind. Non-contrasting black thread would provide texture only and not distract color wise from the panel itself. I quilted diagonal straight lines between the stars in the upper left corner of the flag and quilted vertical lines along the flag's stripes.  Unable to decide an all-over filler pattern for the two outer strips, I chose a combination of straight lines that avoided cutting though any words and accentuated the emblems by stitching around them. Although the FMQ does not show up on the front, the stitches show up very strikingly on the back, forming some unique geometric interest. This batik from my stash just screamed FLAMES to me for the backing.

This wall-hanging measures 40½" wide by 43" tall and is a gift for my son-in law who currently works as an Assistant Fire Marshal in the safety office of Oklahoma University. It was supposed to be smaller, narrow enough to hang on a door, but as with many projects, it grew. I fussy cut the binding so that the words are repeated and do not drift. I sewed on the hanging sleeve and readied the quilt for wrapping before I ever made my final decisions on the quilting motifs for the broad red border and the graphic black of the fireman's coat. Perhaps a flame motif in fireman's coat...? Spirals? A simple meander...? Internal echo-quilting of the silhouette...? I will use black thread on a black background. The quilting will barely show and I know I am overthinking this. Maybe stars in the red frame... ?  In red thread...? Once I've decided the pattern, stitching it should be straightforward.

Jeremy opened this gift as a Christmas present even though it was not 100% complete. I'll get my daughter Robin's input and finish the quilting before she and her husband return home to Oklahoma with my two grandchildren, Autumn and Isaiah, right after New Year's Day.