Patriotic Quilt Challenges

This quick and easy scrappy patriotic quilt is coming along nicely even though I've had a couple of challenges. 

The first challenge was finding enough scraps in the scrap bins to make (4) identical red star blocks and (5) identical blue star blocks.  Below shows what a normal variable star block looks like.  Sharp outer and inner points.

After cutting the large center square I knew I would be short enough of this fabric to make the star points.  I had a decision to make. 

1. Pull a new fabric from the larger fabric stash.  

2. Use a different fabric for all of the star points. 

3. Cut individual triangles for the points instead of doing flippy corners.  

4. Reduce the size of the star points for the flippy corner method and cut off the sharp inner point.

As you can see, I chose option four.

I took the chance, and I lost.  I needed two more squares and all I had was these small pieces.

 

Where there's a will, there's a way.  Quilting is all about patchwork.  So, I sewed the scraps together and cut them into squares.  It worked out perfectly.  Even I have a hard time finding the star points with the seams.  Winner!

Now to dig through the yardage stash for quilt borders, binding and backing.  I'm pretty sure the backing is going to be two or three different fabrics.  Well unless I find a good sale on 108 wide backing fabric.

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Quilt Therapy

Why did I need quilt therapy on the 4th of July?  Long story short...my neighbor asked me to feed her dogs while she was out of town this weekend.  While playing outside with them in the afternoon one of them took off on an adventure.  Two hours later and a lot of driving I found the dog.  I managed to keep my wits about me while looking for him, but horrible things ran through my head.  Upon returning home I broke down and let the bottled-up emotions out in tears.  After calming down I knew I needed some sewing therapy. Quilting on the frame won't cut it today.  I need to cut some fabric!   Something quick and easy to get a shot of dopamine (feel-good stuff) to my brain.  Since it's the 4th of July, might as well play with the red, white and blue scraps.

Rummaging through the scrap bins took the edge off of my stressed brain but the real hit of feel-good hormone didn't kick in until cutting the fabric.  Sigh...it was just what I needed.  I love red, white and blue.

I was as good as new by the time the fabrics were sorted into stacks for the blocks.  This was a good stopping point for the day.  Time to recharge my batteries with a good night's sleep. 

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Middle Of The Night Sewing

 Last night was the second night in a row a very little sleep.  About 4 hours of here and there sleeping each night.  Nothing on the internet or TV worth watching so I had to find something to do that wouldn't wake up Mr. Podunk.  As you know I've been quilting up old UFO quilt tops.  The Strawberry Shortcake quilt is still on the frame, but my quilter is kind of loud, and Mr. Podunk is a light sleeper, so I opted to sew at the sewing machine. 

The lights came on in the sewing room at 1:32 a.m.  As I stood in the middle of the room considering my options I spied the two tin boxes above my pressing table.

One of them holds my pin stash.  The other is full of pink and green squares of fabric.

These were cut about a few years ago when I took a notion to cut all my scraps into usable sizes.  After a couple of days of cutting I realized it was a bad idea.  Most of the fabric cut was added back to the scrap bins.  I'm not sure why I put these in this tin.  Anyway, the 1.5" squares were just what I needed.  My first thought was to sew them together as is but y'all know how I like white background fabric. So, the plan changed.

Under my quilter is my white scrap box.

The white scrap box is overflowing so this is the perfect time to use up some of the overflow.  

In the mess under the quilter, I found a fairly good size piece of backing scrap.  Using the larger piece of scrap makes cutting the background fabric quicker.

Within no time I had my assembly line set up and it was pedal to the metal time.

By 2:34 a.m. I had used up all of the background fabric, and I was starting to feel a little tired but not tired enough to go to bed.  So decided to edit these pictures and write the blog post.  While writing the post for today I started thinking about what to do with what I had sewn.  Writing the blog post came to a screeching halt and put off until this morning because I needed to use EQ8 to draw up a plan.

At 3:17 a.m. I started playing in EQ with ideas.  The plan is to keep it simple and big.  You know I like big quilts, at least 90 x 90.  So why not just make a four-patch quilt?  This will require a lot more four patches.  

I'm not sure how many two patches I made last night but I can tell you for this layout I'll need 1,089 four patches.  Whoa! That's a lot and I love the plan!  Here's a close up that looks a little better.

Then I started playing the what if game.  That's pretty much how I roll all the time when designing quilts.  The new plan is... Instead of using only green fabrics I could go super scrappy and use all the colors and low volume fabrics for the alternating block.  I love it!  By this time, I'm sleepy.  At 3:38 it was finally time to go to bed.

It didn't last long....awake at 5:58 a.m.  Fed the dog, made decaf coffee, read e-mails, watched some news, surfed the internet, and decided decaf isn't going to be enough for today.  It's errand day and sunny outside. 

 8:30 a.m. I'm drinking full octane coffee, writing this post I'm praying for a better night sleep tonight. If not, I may start cutting for the quilt above.

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Bumpkin Baskets And Strawberry Shortcake

Over the last couple of months I've been working on small projects.  It's been a fun ride and there's plenty more small projects to finish but I'm ready to move onto a larger project.  My Bumpkin Baskets quilt has been waiting patiently for about two months.

The backing was loaded to the frame. Then the quilting design plan began. I spent many hours over a few days working on a quilting plan.  Drawing designs, erasing designs and not having any fun.  At the end of the day three or four (I lost count) it was time to toss in the towel, put this gal in the UFO storage and find a different quilt to finish.  The problem is I LOVE the Bumpkin Baskets quilt top.  This LOVE of the quilt top puts a lot of pressure on the quilting design.  What I need is a quilt top I don't love and don't care if I love the quilting design

A quick dig in the UFO quilt tops and.... a Strawberry Shortcake quilt top is perfect. I'm not a fan of novelty prints or the color purple. She's cute but didn't make my heart go pitter-pat.  I'm sure some little girl will love having her on their bed.

 

How old is this quilt top?  13 yrs old.  The top was started on April 21, 2012 and finished on April 24, 2012.  Wow!  That's a quick quilt top!  Obviously, I had more time and energy 13 yrs. ago.  

At the time of making this quilt my youngest child had just finished high school, and my fabric stash was a small bookshelf that was 24 x 32.  All of my fabric stash was Walmart fabrics and Goodwill sheets.

  The fabrics in this quilt were free.  Even the white muslin background.  It was gifted to me from an 81 yr. old quilter (a friend of my mom) who was happy and excited to share her years of stash building and quilting knowledge with a younger quilter, me.  She changed my quilting life with the gift of a 55-gallon bag of fabric and a bolt of white muslin.  All from her fabric stash.

 I may not love the prints in this quilt, but I do love its story.  I feel a little pitter-pat as the quilting begins.💗💗

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