Hey guys!
I'm so thrilled to join in on the fun for the Sew Americana Blog Tour hosted by my adorable friend, Katy, of
Wild and Wanderful.I signed up weeks ago, because I was working on this adorable American Flag quilt and I wanted a reason to kick it into high gear and get it done for Independence Day.
I absolutely LOVE how it turned out. It is based off of this
Missouri Star Quilt company tutorial and I did use their tumbler template to cut out all the shapes. All 260 of them!!!
I've been planning this quilt for a long while now. It took me several months to collect that many different red/white fabrics. I didn't mind having some of them repeated, but I really wanted it to be scrappy looking. The problem is, I'm so new to quilting, I have to purchase all my scrap fabrics. lol
I've been much better about adding labels to my quilts lately. The trick for me is just not getting too fancy. For this one, I used a cute little pre-printed label that my Mom shared with me and wrote on it with one of those
pigma pens. It doesn't look as cute as my hand embroidery, but it's done and tells a story.
I had it machine quilted in town at Jana's Quilting. I haven't started trying to machine quilt yet. I'm still scared.
Originally I chose stars, but had been considering the baseballs and stars. When I told the Mr. that, he said, "I wish you would have picked the baseballs." So, the next day I called Jana up and asked her to change it. I'm so glad I did. The boys really love this quilt and most of the ones I make are pretty girly.
I picked one of those large backing fabrics from
Connecting Threads from their Patriotic Mini's collection. It looks so cute and I was happy not to have to piece the back. I'm lazy like that. ;)
I don't know, once I've pieced the top, I'm just really impatient to get it quilted. When I have to piece the back, too, (which I've had to do a LOT), it feels like I'm making two quilt tops.
This is the first quilt I've purchased a backing fabric for, but I love the ease of it. I chose this simple blue and white star for the binding. All done by machine (if you're wondering). I'm way too in a hurry to hand sew the binding.
It was so hot the day we took pictures of this quilt and it's actually the biggest quilt I've made to date, so the kids weren't really having fun helping me with the photo shoot, but Ella is so good about it. That's why she's my go-to. Plus, she looks so adorable wrapped up in my quilt. You can't even tell it was blazing heat. She's such a trooper!
I'm absolutely thrilled with this quilt. I see it getting lots of use over the years and hopefully passed down for many generations. Also... it's the FIRST quilt I have actually finished in time for the holiday it was made for... YAY!
I'm not sure we'll be snuggling up with it on the 4th of July, but it sure will look great draped over the living room couch!
It looks pretty cute with these feet poking out from the bottom, too. :) They had to reach up really tall to keep it from hitting the ground.
And some outtakes of Ella's hair messing up and William helping her.
I wish I had a video of it. William is so soft hearted and sweet. He's such a good big brother.
Lucy was helping, too. She was the quilt holder. We had 5 to photograph that day!
Check out this amazing line-up for the Sew Americana Tour!
Take a look at the AMAZING lineup for the Sew Americana tour!
Monday, June 27
Tuesday, June 28
Wednesday, June 29
Thursday, June 30
Friday, July 1
As a special bonus for our readers, use the code ' SEWAMERICANA ' and enjoy a 20% discount at www.THREADandGRAIN.com You'll find a ton of maker-inspired goodies! (All created by your tour guide, Katy, from Wild & Wanderful.)
