army surplus

My sweet friend had a baby boy and I asked her what type of image she wanted me to embroider onto a blanket.

"Do you want a critter, a person, or a vehicle?", I asked her.

She wanted a jeep.

"A jeep?", I questioned. I think I may have stared at her blankly for a second or two.

But yes, she was sure, she wanted a jeep. And her husband has a jeep.

So she was getting a jeep.

At first I was not sure what kind of fabrics I was going to use with this jeep.

Then I remembered that we had an army surplus store in town, and I had been wanting to go for a while now. This was the perfect excuse! Perhaps I could find some fun army stuff to go with this jeep.

I was very excited about my little field trip. I drove to the other side of town and pulled into the parking lot.

It was a little intimidating at first, because there were some interesting characters milling about, but when I heard the country music playing in the background, I felt a lot better.

There was so much fun stuff to look at. Old bags and such.

And then I found what I was looking for.

Patches. Oodles and Oodles of authentic military patches. I was in heaven.

Mr. Serious Sargeant-Pants stood behind the counter and politely asked how he could help me.

"Can I have that U.S. ARMY patch?", I asked, pointing at the display. He searched the bins and came up empty handed.

"There are no more", he said. Still serious as can be. No smiling here.

At this point, I was on complete overload and did not even know where to start. So I asked him to explain some of the patches--A request I very quickly began to regret, as he launched into a full-blown monologue on the history of each and every patch know to mankind.

And his soliloquy might have been very interesting, had it not been approaching the dinner hour(aka piranha hour) and John was at home watching 4 little boys.

I nodded my head and said "oooh and ahhh" and "how neat" like a total moron as he droned on and on. He claimed to have studied patches for over 30 years.

I asked to look at a few more patches and before I knew it, he was pulling down the "U.S. ARMY" patch from the display and let me buy it. I guess it paid to listen to his shpeel!

And no, I did not tell him I was using these patches for a baby blanket.

Nor did I mention that I was looking for a patch that had some rust-colored accents that would match the rust ric-rac I was using.

Shhh, that will be our little secret...

Back at home with my plunder(After embroidering his name and birthdate).

I had a lot of fun combining the patches.

Here is the finished product. I later found out that my friend's family had served in the military and so that makes this blanket a little more special!

And it was no trouble to slap a few patches onto a onesie. My kind of project, I tell you!

The set all together.

My head is still spinning with ideas for future projects.