Stars and Stripes

When I saw Camille's Stars and Stripes quilt, I knew I had to make one. And I knew that it had to be scrappy. Little did I realize how scrappy it would end up being! 

I pulled fabric, knowing I'd do the "stars" and red stripes scrappy because, well, I have enough scraps to make at least a dozen of these quilts. But I was torn on whether to go fully scrappy and include a variety of low volume prints or to stick with white. In the end, my scrappy heart won out...with a compromise. I did each block with a different low volume print. 

Some of my favorite blocks.

This was such a fast and easy quilt to piece. Once I'd cut the fabric, it only took about an hour to piece the top. 

 Basting:my least favorite step...though it did force me to sweep and mop my kitchen floor so...

I had a couple hours yesterday while my youngest son napped (whom I lovingly refer to as the threenager). Would you believe I ran out of thread with this much left to quilt? 

This morning dawned wet, cold and gloomy (yes, It's June in Seattle). So after the gym, I stopped at the quilt shop to grab more fabric, I mean thread. 

It quite literally took 3 minutes to finish quilting. 

Tula Pink Freefall in lipstick. This fabric is so light and perfect for a summer quilt. Plus, who doesn't love giant dots? 

My FMQ is still definitely a work in progress, especially the uniformity of my swirls and stitch length (my Betsy bernina 1008 has no bells or whistles and especially no BSR!). But I love working on my FMQ and knowing I can do it! 

So, when I said this ended up being a truly scrappy quilt, I mean it. Scrappy fabric, scrappy binding, and even scrappy thread! I had a bunch of half full yellow spools and bobbins and I used them all up! For the binding, I used two half full bobbins of different shades of navy. Even the batting is pieced (frankenbatting, anyone?) 

I really think this might be my new favorite summer quilt. I think I might need to make at least a couple more and probably some placemats! There are three weeks until the 4th? Plenty of time!