92 years ago today The Great War, the War to End All Wars, official ended.

Twenty one years later, the second World War started, and horrors even greater were seen and experienced by soldiers and civilians alike.

On May 26, 1954, President Eisenhower officially changed Armistice Day–a day to honor those who fought in WWI–to Veterans Day, to honor all veterans.

Five years later, the Vietnam War would begin, and the American view of military service would change profoundly.

Of all the war memorials in the US (not including Arlington Memorial Cemetery) I believe that the Vietnam War Memorial is the most profoundly affecting.

Because the war was so controversial, and because so many veterans were treated shamefully upon their return home, that I find The Wall so affecting. It is if, as a country, we suddenly woke up to the wrongness of our actions. To me, the Wall, and the listing of the names of those who died, is in part an apology to each soldier listed there, it makes them individuals remembered for their service that was so unappreciated at the time.

For the current wars, we have digital memorials that are updated daily, remembering those who have died with more than just names. And these memorials are deeply affecting. But nothing compares to standing at the wall and seeing name after name listed. The sheer magnitude of the loss is almost overwhelming.

On Veterans’ Day, we should remember the individuals who have served, but in remembering the individual losses, we should not lose sight of the vast number who have given their lives in their service. We should remember not just those individuals who served and the sacrifices they made, but also the loss to the country of so many of our sons and daughters.

American Military Service from the Civil War to the First Gulf War
U.S. Military Service During War 41,891,368
Battle Deaths 651,030
Other Deaths (In Theater) 308,800
Other Deaths in Service (Non-Theater) 230,279
Non-mortal Woundings 1,431,290

To those who serve, past and present, thank you for your sacrifices so that we may remain free.

Inter Arma Silent Leges
-Cicero

If we let people see that kind of thing, there would never again be any war.
– Pentagon official, on why US military censored graphic footage from the Gulf War

It is well that war is so terrible; else we would grow too fond of it
– Robert E. Lee

A man’s country is not a certain area of land, of mountains, rivers, and woods, but it is a principle; and patriotism is loyalty to that principle.
– George William Curtis

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.
– Martin Luther King, Jr.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.
– Thomas Jefferson

Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves.
-Abraham Lincoln

They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.
– Benjamin Franklin

We must be free not because we claim freedom, but because we practice it.
– William Faulkner

And today’s word is: Post Oak

Tom has been playing with leaf shadows, so I’ve been looking myownself on my walk home at leaves and shadows.

I’ve seen lots and lots of fascinating shadows, but haven’t seen anything specific (like his Arc de Triomphe) but then I decided just liking the shadows should be enough, since (to me at least) they are fascinating whether they look like something to me or not. (I always sucked at the game where you have to figure out what clouds look like.)

I’ve been missing making bread, and since I wanted something just slightly sweet, I decided upon a loaf of challah. Today’s fail: counting. I added three eggs (plus on egg yolk) instead of two (plus one egg yolk). The extra egg was extra small, but I was still annoyed with myself.

Turned out fine despite me.

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Today I (hopefully) finished up the green squares.

I might have been able to start on the purple, except that I ended up repeatedly ripping out seams because the tension was screwed up. (This was not actually my fault: I played with the tension, stitch length, changed the material, changed the bobbin, and then finally discovered the thread was miswound and that was screwing up the tension. BAH.

But, it’s the process, and with that in mind I didn’t get frustrated. (YAY ME!)

Here’s the process so far:
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Cooked down six pumpkins today, to give us a total of 15 cups of pumpkin.

Hopefully, this will last us–last winter we ran out of pumpkin in February.

I made lots of mistakes today (as you can see by the top block in the picture below), but I was expecting to make mistakes, and it was nothing serious, so I didn’t worry about it. I worked just with the green, since that’s the color that’s going on the edge of the quilt (best to have the biggest mistakes along the edges, rather than the center of the quilt).

Here’s the end of the day progress:

I made a Flickr set so progress can be tracked in one place.

It’s 40 and raining, and the ducks were paddling around like it was 80.

But they were happy, so who am I to critique?

Today I spent time creating my design and ordering the blocks.

I found a design I thought would be a nice one to start with in one of the quilting magazines I found, but I wanted to modify it some, so I started playing around on Excel, and came up with someone quite different from what It thought it was going to be. But that’s good, because I like this a lot better.

Then Michael helped me figure out the math: how wide to cut my strips, how big the resulting blocks will be (taking 1/4 inch seams into account) and how many blocks make what sized quilt, and then rearranging the design once again to work better with the final quilt size I wanted.

It is completely out of character for me to plan this much ahead of time for ANYTHING, but I want to do it right, and figuring everything out was kinda fun actually.

Since I want to work with gradients, I also organized the fabric into lights, darks, and mid-colors. You can see a hint of the pattern I came up with on the screen of my laptop. (Let me tell you, for something like this, the format painter is TOTALLY your best friend.)

And that’s where we are this evening. Depending upon how things go, perhaps tomorrow I’ll start cutting strips.

Sad Kit is sad.

She totally misses Anne.