Category: Projects

Every year I promise myself a red, white and blue quilt for the summer.  I’ve never made it happen – until now.  I’d like to introduce my Anthem quilt, a vintage-inspired star quilt that is a quick and fun project.

This quilt is inspired by a vintage block I came across a while ago.  I was drawn to the way the stripes rotate around the star, reminding me of festive pinwheels spinning at bike parades on holidays.  Given my love of the lone star block , I liked this variation and decided to try it out.


I chose to play with color just a bit, using both navy blues and royal blues, as well as different reds, to create a slight secondary pattern with the nine blocks.


These blocks come together very quickly (strip piecing and no Y seams) and provide big impact.  I designed the blocks to be large and they finish at 22″.  Nine blocks will make a quilt that measures 66″ square.

The Anthem quilt pattern is for sale in my Etsy store .   Download the pattern now and have a finished quilt top before you know it!


I love history, particularly American Revolutionary history.  These colors are precious to me; I have loved them as long as I can remember.  They stir my heart and I yearn to be better.  I made this quilt to capture those feelings.


I chose simple wavy lines for the quilting to give the impression of stars waving in the air like a banner.  For the backing I selected a multi-colored plaid I’ve been saving for years.  A navy scallop print frames the quilt as binding.  And I end where I began… I finally made myself a red, white and blue quilt!


What will you make with this pattern?

Purchase a copy today. Happy Sewing!
Jennifer

Life is a funny thing – it brings such unexpected twists and turns.  It’s brought a lot of that our direction lately, and these blocks are the sum total of my sewing for most of May and June.

I haven’t done much English paper piecing; my tiny hexagon beehive was my first try a few years ago, and a few months ago I made my first block for this ice cream soda quilt.  My subscription for this project comes with paper pieces to make eight blocks each month.  I now have five sets of blocks.

I am very slow at this.  I feel like I’m pretty fast at hand applique but epp has been slow going for me.  I learned about something called flat back stitching, a method that keeps all the stitches on the back of the block so you don’t see them, and I’ve been intrigued by the idea.  I tried it on these two blocks.  The block above was my first try, and my biggest challenge was learning how to hold the blocks and keep them properly lined up.  I feel like I messed up a lot of points in that block, which could mean that I don’t know what I’m doing with this technique, or it could also be a result of stress.


I decided to try it again and see if I get the hang of it, and this second block turned out a little bit better.   Once again, how to hold the pieces together was my biggest challenge, but I made fewer mistakes.  I will probably try it a few more times to see if I get the hang of it.  If not, I’ll go back to stitching them the way I learned, by putting right sides together and stitching along the edge.  I’m finished with three of the forty blocks I should have done, so I do need to get faster.

The interesting thing about being so slow is that as I look at these blocks I think of all the places they went with me:  the block with green in it waited in doctor’s offices while my daughter recovered from a automobile accident related injury.  I will always think of those weeks when I see it.  The block with a pink center has accompanied me while camping and watching my kids at the pool and tennis lessons.  It reminds me of summer.  The block with columbines in it reminds me of being with my son at his State science fair competition.  Lots of memories get stitched in with my hand sewing.


My biggest goal for this project is to practice more fussy cutting, and to create blocks with good contrast. I hope to improve my skills along the way.  Do you like English paper piecing?  What methods/tips have you found most helpful?  I’d love to hear!

Jennifer

Hand sewing is here to stay, I think.  I did not think I would still be doing so much of it when I first started my Aerial Grove quilt last year, but I’m totally hooked.  My current project is yet another Carolyn Friedlander  pattern, the Collection quilt.


It’s divided into nine sections and I’ve completed the first two.


The first was fast and simple; the sections are designed to become more difficult as you go.  I chose to use three prints instead of two, and enjoyed sewing with the very soft color palate.


The second section was fun too – four long strips with little arches.  Once again I used more colors than the original quilt and I enjoyed working with colors I don’t use often.  I haven’t planned this quilt out; I’m going to let it evolve as I go.


It’s nice to have started this pattern that I’ve been intimidated by for so long!  Now to prep section three!