Memorial Day Quilt

For the record, this quilt wasn't finished by the observed holiday.  It was made during the week of Memorial Day and has a patriotic theme.  This is a long post, since it compiles this week of sewing into one post.

This is a dancing nine-patch design.  You can find all the particulars about this simple block and quilt layout over on Quiltville.  Bonnie Hunter shares loads of patterns and like the majority of her designs this one is great for scraps.

I pulled out stacks of reds, blues and white-on-white fabrics for this one.  The blocks made up really quickly, which was nice.  I ended up cutting too many white-on-white strips, but nothing goes to waste around here so they are just going to be popped into the bin with the rest of the strings. 

I decided I wanted to try something very different with the quilting on this one.  My friend Cassie helped me out by making an easy to print file with outlines for my quilting.  I spent about an hour tracing the letters onto the quilt top before putting it on the frame.

I managed to pull the backing fabric from my stash.  I can't always do this, but it is so nice when I can.  I have so many smaller cuts of fabric, but few large cuts.  I quilted around each letter and used organic lines (this means no ruler was used for the lines) between and around the letters.  Around that, I used swirls, because I just love swirls.  

I also traced some stars and used the point-to-point quilting method with my ruler to make them more defined.  If I had to pick just one thing I really love about this quilt, it would be these stars.

I picked some blue thread and a leftover piece from the backing for the label.  Love that Magnifico thread from Superior Threads.

I decided to make the label match the wording on the quilt.  This is actually the second third label I stitched, not that I got very far with the first one (the second one stitched out all the way before I realized there was a problem with the first line of text).

While I love the idea of the words quilted into the quilt, I just didn't pick the best quilt-top for this type of quilting.  While the back is amazing, you lose all of that texture in the prints on the front.  I'm not giving up on the idea, just giving up on it working out spectacularly for this quilt.  That cold all change when I wash the quilt, we will have to wait and see.

Overall, this quilt is great.  The perfect size for the a throw quilt at 60" by 60" and almost everyone loves red, white and blue.  The binding is scrappy to match the overall theme.  The binding was attached completely by machine.  (I have a short tutorial on how I do this in an earlier post.)

Here is a shot of the back that I have manipulated so it is easier to read.  All I did was flip the picture around in editing software.  

I did all this quilting while barefoot.  Because creativity needs the freedom to dress as it pleases.

What helps you be comfortable when creating?