Stars and Stripes quilt

 I love the Stars and Stripes quilt by Thimble blossoms.  It measures 56" X 71", the perfect throw size. I made one last year, you can see it here.  It is currently in my grandchildren pile.  Some of my grand daughters are sure that our oldest grandson who is 16 years old will choose that quilt, lol!  I have been admiring the "faded" Stars and Stripes quilts for a long time and finally and decided to make one.  I used Kona Snow for the background and chose low volume reds and blues from my stash.  

I machine quilted it with a wavy stitch on my Bernina 750 QE, about 1/2" apart.

I opened an email from the Quilter's Lodge in Draper, Utah, called "what's in your wagon Wednesday".  I saw this Art Gallery fabric and knew it would be perfect for my faded Stars and Stripes quilt backing.  Don't you think they look like fireworks?  The fabric is really soft too.

My label is from Sweetwater, I really love it. ❤️

This quilt was going into the grandchildren pile but I decided to keep it! I love it that much!!!

Well, that's it for this week!  Next week Ill show you my progress on Lori Holt's red sampler quilt along :)

Stars and Stripes

This is the second and last quilt I made at the beginning of quarantine, I have wanted to make this quilt since it came out, maybe four years ago?

I love the process of going through my stash 

to find fabric to make a quilt :)

Luckily, I had enough navy blues, 

and now my red fat quarters are running low.

I had lots of Kona white for the background too.

The flags are coming together, 

this is such a fast and simple quilt to sew together.

I chose a Kona solid for the sashing which I think looks pretty.

I would have preferred an aqua with a subtle print but just didn't have any and was still happy with the Kona solid.

 Thanks for following along :)

Sew Together Bag - Thimbleblossoms

I made another sew together bag for my friend, for her birthday :)

My friend is an author and a playwright, so the typewriter is meaningful!

My friend always lets her light shine wherever she goes and with whomever she meets.

She was so warm and pleasant and friendly when I first met her, over 4 years ago, for the first time.

I'll never forget how thoughtful she was to me, when I first moved to California and didn't know anyone.

She treated me like a long, lost friend and I really needed that.

My friend is a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints, just like me!

I looked all over the internet until I found a cute zipper pull of the Salt Lake temple.

I loved making this bag for my friend, she's always so happy and so thankful!

My friend's name is Joni Hilton, and you can read her blog here, it's called Joniopolis.

Joni has a great sense of humor :)

This bag is a little difficult to make when it comes to attaching the sides, that's probably the hardest part.

The best part is choosing the fabrics and the zipper colors.

I chose Thimbleblossom fabric, because Joni loves turquoise and these are such vibrant colors, just like Joni's personality.

Each of the 3 zipper pockets has a houndstooth print, matching the colors of the zipper.

The sections between the zipper pockets are pretty roomy.

I thought of Joni the whole time I made this bag, and I knew she would love it.

I was right, Joni was so complimentary and looked at every single compartment of the bag with great care, and kept thanking me and making a fuss.

Who wouldn't want to make a sew together bag for such an appreciative person?

The bottom of the bag has a pretty print, and you can see my machine quilting in this photo.

I love making time consuming gifts for people who treasure them.

I'm so blessed to have such a good friend :)

Joni is also called the You Tube Mom.

She made all sorts of short videos showing how to do really useful things, I've learned a lot from watching them.

You can see them here.

Thimble Blossoms and Heather Ross

It's time to make another baby quilt for a little grand daughter who is due at the end of February :)

I perused my patterns and found this old Thimble Blossoms pattern.

I thought it would be a great pattern to showcase some pretty fabric.

 My cherished Heather Ross collection came to mind!

I really love Heather's fabric, and have the entire Far, far away line in my stash.

I adore this unicorn in her lovely field of wildflowers!
Just imagine how heavenly their scent is....

I pressed Wonder Under to the circles, which is so easy to work with.

I used a blanket machine stitch to attach them to the background.
Before I did that, I had to buy some more Aurifil thread to match the unicorn circles, yay!

I disected the unicorns in half vertically, for the half squares.

One of the halves has a unicorn head and the other has the unicorn's  behind! Ha ha!!!

I didn't know how else to do it!!!
Kind of weird because they're all chasing their rear ends....
What made me think of pairing Far, far away with this pattern in the first place, was how I could place the cute Princess and the pea images.

I tried lots of different sashing colors to frame the unicorns, this bright orange stood out the best :)

I love the outside border, pink with yellow polka dots which sort of gives a hint of orange.

Now which color rick rack?

I like the pink, but needed another opinion.

My daughter Lindsay liked the pink best, so the pink won!

I hung the quilt on my tree in the backyard for the best light.

The sun was shining brightly so there was a little too much light!

Did I tell you how much I love these unicorns?

Notice the strawberry fabric at the top?

They are from Heather Ross' Briar Rose line.

Yes, I have that entire line in my stash also :)

Here's the finished quilt, bound with yellow.

It's backed with really soft pink minky, I didn't use any batting.

This method (without batting) gives the quilt a silky drape.

The quilt is so soft and pliable, that it kind of ripples a little.

This  quilt will be perfect for swaddling babies.

I machine quilted this quilt with a wavy stitch which is apparent on the minky back.

I didn't design this pattern, but I did do a lot of designing in the way that I used Heather Ross' fabric :)

I'm going to make some matching burp pads with the leftover minky and more Far, far away fabric.