Stars & Stripes

I had another whole post planned and mostly written for today, but then I saw Kristen’s wonderful Independence post, and decided to be a copycat and share pics of my own Americana themed quilts. While they are in no way as awesome as her king size Service Star quilt, I thought you might enjoy seeing them today. I do have a very large soft spot in me for Americana-ish quilts, so I have to keep one room in the house decorated properly so they’ll fit in. At the moment, that room is the dining room, and ITMan’s display case with his Military medals and awards and the American flag presented to him on his retirement lives there too, along with most of my Longaberger baskets with red and blue weaving.

The oldest one is from 1997. A bit of back story: I joined the Black Forest Quilt Guild in 1995, and sometime that year, probably in June, the Block of the Month was Marching Band, in red, blue and tan fabrics. I won half of the blocks (there were so many that we divvied them up) and someone else got the other half, but I can’t remember who it was. The blocks sat around in a box for a while, because I didn’t really like them all that much. Sometime in 1996, I put it together with the sashing and borders, and I still wasn’t thrilled with it. In early 1997 I think, I wanted an Americana-looking quilt to use for decoration around the house, and I quilted it and finished it up. As soon as it was quilted, I fell in love with it, so I named it “Love at Last Sight.” The close up shot above is my favorite block in the quilt, made by Vivian, one of my first friends in the world of quilting. I just love all the scrappy prints she used. She no longer lives in Germany and we haven’t kept in close touch, but it’s wonderful to have these types of quilts full of blocks made by friends to remember them by.

I actually made two of this quilt. I made one for myself, and I made a second top to trade with Susan for one of her fusible appliqué quilts. This was a really cool pattern from The Block Book by Judy Martin, made up of only four really big blocks. The date on the label is 2002 (yes, this one really does have a label!), but I’ve no idea when I started it. Susan would know better than I, since she’d remember what years she actually lived here!

Oops! I almost forgot this little one! This is a little Quiltlet, one of a set of twelve that I made. It’s fusible applique, with beading, and the beginning of the Star Spangled Banner is written in the stripes. There’s a Quiltlet for each month of the year, so I at least have one seasonal thing to decorate with every month, if I remember to change them!

I have another Americana themed quilt knocking around in my head (some days it knocks more loudly than others), waiting for me to start putting the design to fabric. Thankfully, it’s a “borderless” design, so there won’t be any of these border design issues with this one, either. Days like today (when I finally remembered why my email inbox was so deserted—it’s a holiday and I can quilt all day!), it’s pounding on the door trying to break it down. *sigh* Must get through The Misery Quilt first. Hmmm, but if I started it now, it might be done in time for the next Independence Day…

As always, thanks for stopping by, and Happy Independence Day! How will you spend the day??

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