Patriotic Palette Blog Hop: Modern Flags

HI Everyone!

Well, it's been a while since I blogged.  So sorry. But I'm back...at least for a moment!  (Please make sure you read to the end of the post for a giveaway opportunity!)

I was recently invited to participate in a blog hop with Paint Brush Studios fabric.  I was really excited, because I love their solids.

I don't know if you have tried their solids yet, but if you haven't, you should!  They have a very nice hand, kind of silky.  I really like how they feel, cut, and sew.  Therefore, I was delighted to participate in the blog hop.

These are the fabrics I received:

The colors are:  French Blue, River, Patriot,Tomato, Claret, Crimson, and White.

Hmmm....so, now, what to make?

I have been working on trying to sew some of the patterns I already own or to sew from books I own.  I recently purchased this book:

There are so many patterns in this book that I want to try, and they all pretty much use solids.  If you are wanting to give solids a try, this would be a great source of inspiration for you.

Inside this book is this pattern:

The pattern is called Sweden, by Brigitte Heitland.  I love it.  I decided I would make a smaller version of this quilt with the fabrics Paint Brush Studios sent me.  I decided I'd do all red stripes, but throw in a blue stripe in each block, placed randomly in the block somewhere.

 And here is my completed quilt:

I'm calling it Modern Flags.  I had a lot of fun piecing it.  I quilted it with lots of straight lines in the white spaces.  It was really hard to quilt long straight lines on my longarm.  I started by by using my channel locks so my longarm would only move horizontally. This was  great for making a perfectly straight line, but if your sewing wasn't perfectly straight (and believe it or not, mine wasn't...lol), it was very obvious.  So, I switched to using rulers instead.  I had a hard time keeping those straight, too.  My ruler kept sliding on me.  So, my lines are not perfectly straight or perfectly spaced.  I just gave up on that and let it be very imperfect.  I decided it looks okay, as long as you are riding by on a fast horse.  LOL!

My neighbor was gracious enough to allow me to use her beautiful fences and chicken coop to do the photo shoot. I did a scrappy binding.  It is mostly the darkest blue, but with shots of the medium red thrown in.  In part, that was because I didn't have enough blue, but also because I wanted to have shots of red in the binding.

I am not sure if you can tell from the photo, but I joined the red binding to the blue with a straight seam rather than a diagonal seam, like you usually do when joining binding strips.  I did that because I thought it would be more in keeping with all the other straight lines in the quilt.  I thought a diagonal line would be very out-of-place on this quilt.

We share a driveway with our neighbors, and I love the bunting my neighbor hung on our gate.  I had to get a photo of the quilt there, too.  I'm using this quilt as a decoration right inside my front door.  It gives a nice patriotic feel to the house as soon as folks walk in, which is great, because we have out-of-town guests arriving today for the holiday.  We are so excited to see them.

I hope you like what I did!  Thank you to Brigitte Heitland for writing such an awesome pattern, and thank you to Paint Brush Studios for allowing me to play with their fabrics.  I just love them.

GIVEAWAY TIME!

This wouldn't be any fun without a giveaway, now, would it?!  How would you like to win a set of 7 fat quarters from Paint Brush Studios?  They have been so gracious to provide a set of these 7 fat quarters as a giveaway.  If you'd like to win your own red, white, and blue fabrics to work with, please leave a comment here on my blog telling me what your favorite way to celebrate the 4th of July is.  Leave your comment by midnight on July 6, 2017.  I'll draw a name on Friday, July 7, 2017 and announce it here on my blog as well as on my Instagram account.  (Check out my account....you'll find me @stephiepeterson.  You don't have to follow me to win.  I don't like giveaways that require that, myself.  I only want you to follow me if you like what you see.  If you do, I'd love it if you followed me.)

EDIT:  THIS GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED.  THE WINNER WAS KATHY H!  CONGRATULATIONS, KATHY!  I'VE SENT YOU AN EMAIL.  PLEASE SEND ME YOUR MAILING INFORMATION SO I CAN MAKE SURE YOUR PRIZE GETS SENT OUT TO YOU!

Good luck, and Happy 4th of July!  I love America...I love all her strengths and warts alike.  We live in a great country, and I'm proud to be an American!

Until next time,

Stephanie (AKA Mama Pea)

Comments

[Sharon]

We love getting away in our rv with friends for the holiday. Your patriotic quilt is very nice.

[Jen T]

Love your take on a patriotic quilt! We celebrate 3 birthdays during the July 4th holiday so my day usually involves lots of family and friends (plus cake too!) My favorite part is that my dad always says that all the fireworks are celebrating his birthday (which is July 2nd) instead of our nation's independence. Got to love dad humor ;)

[Mary on Lake Pulaski]

Great Wall hanging Stephanie! My favorite activity on the 4th of July is Sitting on our deck watching the boat parade and the water ski parade.

[Candy S]

We usually have a cook out with family after viewing the parade, of course!

[Leslie Jaques]

Stephanie! This turned out amazing! Nice job. I,too,often end up with perfectly imperfect straight lines😊 It would be fun to try out PB Studios solids. Congrats on a great project & thanks for the giveaway. Happy 4th!

[Leslie Jaques]

Oops! Of course, in true MN fashion, we love to be "up North on the lake for the 4th!

[Lisa Brown]

Beautiful quilt, Stephanie! Our favorite way to celebrate the Fourth is our annual Brown Family Reunion! Lots of love and fun with family. This year it's at a local city park.

[Kathy E.]

I do like what I see and I love your patriotic quilt! Nice idea to give the binding a straight edge connection with the colors to follow suit on the design. My favorite 4th of July tradition is watching the grand fireworks over the Mississippi River! duchick at gmail dot com

[Beth T.]

As a kid, we used to have a big family gathering, and I loved that. Now, our extended family is much smaller, and our holiday is quieter, but the memories make me happy.

Love your quilt! I've been looking for a way to commemorate a dear in-law's family history trip to Norway, and your quilt's design has given me ideas. I think I'll go from there with my own version--their flag and ours share the tri-colors, so I'm quite motivated this weekend. :)

[Sharon]

Stephanie, love your quilt! Making a red, white and blue quilt has been on my list for a long time, as my birthday is on flag day!
I really like painters palette fabric. Did you know that Bernina is now carrying that fabric?
I like spending 4th of July at Pine Lake with friends and family and sometimes we go to Red Lodge, MT to my daughter's house. Red Lodge has a rodeo and a huge parade!
Happy 4th to you and your family!
Sharon

[Rosalind Gutierrez]

Love to celebrate with a BarBQ with family & fireworks in the evening.

[Bee Dyer]

I didn't know you had a blog. I love the pattern you adapted for your project, and the solids are perfect. Usually, I celebrate my birthday.

[Karen @runsewfun]

4th of July has always been at the lake for our family. Different lakes over time but all fun memories! This year we have stayed in town to welcome our first grandson and it's the BEST one yet!!!
Love your quilt and i may copy it! I've had the exact same struggles with straight line quilting on my Handiquilter as you've described here. I've wondered if part of the problem is that I'm not loading it straight enough. Next time I plan to spend more time focusing on that.
Happy 4th!!!

[Shelly]

I'd love to win some solids! Your quilt came out so cute! Happy 4th of July to you, too, and enjoy your company. See you in a couple weeks -- EEEeeeee!!!!!

[Janna]

Spending time with my family.

[Cindy Dahlgren]

My favorite way to spend the 4th of July is to have friends and family around, and do a big barbecue! Jadahlgr at Yahoo dot Com

[Kathy h]

Love your quilt. I have problems with the straight line quilting too. But I love the look of it. For the fourth we will go listen to our community band and watch the fireworks afterwards.

[Quilting Tangent]

Nice quiet day at home, maybe quilting.

[Donna W]

Watching the fireworks.

[Rochelle]

I stay home and walk down to the end of the block when it gets dark to watch the fire works. It's a little more challenging since the freeway went in and some trees in the neighborhood have grown tall.

[Teri]

My favorite way to celebrate is to spend the day with family. Thank you for sharing your patriotic project.

[Mary Jo Uhen]

We love to spend time with the family at our lake house camping swimming and eating! We take the pontoon boat out to the middle of the lake and watch all the amazing fireworks 💥 shel over your quilt and would love to try some new solids.

[Janie M]

We enjoy a family picnic with everyone bringing a dish to pass and then we wait for the fireworks. Have a great holiday!

[Dixie M]

Love to spend the day with family/friends & watch fireworks, of course. Thanks for inspiring project ideas & the chance to win!

[Deb]

So good to see you bloggng again! Really like the new quilt and the pictures, beautiful backgrounds. We made our first trip thru Michigan last month - we stayed in Minominee on the west side of the lake and Petoski on the east side. What a beautiful part of the country. I thought about you while we were there. We are going to have a cookout with family on the 4th.