Happy 4th of July

Here is a picture of a quilt that I made from a friendship block exchange. It is one of the first exchanges in which I was a participant in a friendship group that I had joined. We received the blocks on Saturday. I went home immediately and sewed the blocks together, and had it basted the next day. I was so excited. I was going to machine quilt this sampler myself. Well, a few years later, I decided to have it professionally machine quilted. Genece Hoskin did a beautiful job of custom quilting my quilt. I wanted to get the binding on this week so that I could post a "finished" picture in this post. Well, it is the 4th already and the binding is not done, but I decided that I wanted to post the picture today anyway, so here it is. My block is on the top row. It is the large heart block. I worried and worried about this block. I did not know if the ladies would like it, or if my work was good enough, etc., etc., etc. Years later, I like my block as much now as I did when I made it. Our guidelines were: red, white (not beige) and blue colors that would work with a 12 inch finished scheme. Of course, my friend Monica's block is the large eagle block that is not on a white background and does not work into a 12 inch scheme (she loves to break the rules). Since it was such a beautifully appliqued block (and it was Monica's block), it holds center stage. I felt so special since I was the first one of the group to get my top together. Well, I am sure there are others in the group who have actually "finished" their quilt before I will finish mine, but this 4th of July it will be almost finished. I will sew on the binding this afternoon and start sewing down the backside by hand tonight. I will then take it to the July guild meeting this Tuesday evening and share it. That evening it will return home to be placed on our living room wall for display for the month of July, and possibly August. My bargello flag quilt will be joined by my patriotic sampler as one of my favorite quilts. I want to take this moment to send my thanks to all the soldiers and their families who have sacrificed so much so that my family and I can live in freedom. On this day I think about all the soldiers and all their families who have sacrificed so much over the years to keep our country free. I want to thank all of them from the bottom on my heart. I also wish every person in every country around the world could live in peace. Until that happens, I will continue to keep the words "World Peace" in my prayers. Happy Quilting

P.S. It looks like I have lost my paragraph spacing again. Sorry!