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I'm starting our 4th of July celebration a bit early! Strawberry shortcake last night, and then some feverish sewing on the patriotic door quilt that I decided to start on Saturday night. (Yep, I'm a last-minute kind of girl!) Since that clearly isn't going to be finished for Wednesday, I thought I'd share a photo of the flag quilt I made for my dad a few years ago (2005 or 2006?).
I had just finished a bargello quilt and wanted to play more with the effect. My dad works for a flag company, so an American flag wall hanging seemed like the perfect gift. This was my first pattern-free quilt--I just kind of made it up as I went along (which of course led to a few tricky spots!). I stitched light cream/red and dark cream/red bargello loops, cut them into strips, and pieced them to create the illusion of a flag waving in the wind. I pieced a short section for under the blue square, and then used blue scraps to make the pieced blue square. I did a little of everything for the binding--blue by the blue, and alternating red and cream for the rest. And ironically, today I came across
this post, where Debbie at A Quilter's Table talks about the concept of a "matched" binding.
Even though I'd make it a bit differently now, six or seven years later, I'm still pretty proud of this quilt, and very happy that it still hangs in my dad's office.
Now back to my current project, which won't be done for tomorrow's holiday. Which, let's be honest, with a rose pink front door (on the to-do list to be painted this summer!), a red, white and blue decoration isn't going to look that great anyway!
Here are two "in progress" images:
I've really enjoyed "making fabric" for the Color Challenge over at
15 Minutes Play. I used that technique here, choosing blue and red scraps to make fabric. Rather than appliqueing, and worrying about the dark fabric showing under the white star, I made a 12-1/2" square paper pieced star using Carol Doak's
free pattern. I need to finish my red strips and then sew the red pieced strips and white solid strips together, add the star to the top, and get it quilted. But I'm liking it so far! And now I've got even more incentive (like I really needed it--a rose pink door?!?!) to get that front door painted. And the garage doors...
Linking up with
Quilt Story today for Fabric Tuesday, WIP Wednesday at
Freshly Pieced, and Can I Get a Whoop Whoop at
Confessions of a Fabric Addict.
Happy 4th of July!
p.s. Just curious...can anyone top rose pink as a front door color?
