Celebrating Independence Day with Quilts of Valor

~ Jen Strauser

I confess. This was my master plan all along – sharing a patriotic quilt on the Fourth of July. I lured all of my blog buddies into joining me, too! Thank you, Island Batik, for making all of this possible.

Emily and Joan are sharing their Quilts of Valor today along with me. Visit them, and then come back and read about my project.

Emily Leachman — The Darling Dogwood
Joan Kawano — MooseStash Quilting

In case you didn’t see them (65 times already), these are the fabrics I was given to work with. They are amazing. The colors are so rich and saturated, and I just adore how the depth of color varies over the surface of the fabric.

I found the perfect pattern for my quilt in the March/April issue of Pre-Cut Patchwork. Pre-cuts are my favorite thing to work with, especially 10″ stacks. They are a nice big chunk, and I still get a scrappy quilt. They are also more affordable than fat quarter bundles, but a more reasonable size than 5″ charm packs. The pattern I’m using is “Good for the Gander” by Scott Flanagan.

I like that his pattern displays how the 10″ square is to be sliced up. The best part is that I was able to use two different dies from my AccuQuilt Go! to cut some of the units. That made cutting those little pieces so much faster and more accurate. I’m getting better about using my Go! Cutter whenever possible. I find that I speed through my least favorite part of quilting and get to stitching much faster.

The pattern calls for 35 colored squares with the remainder of the fabric being white. My Freedom Stack had 34 colored squares and 8 white/lights. I cut an extra square out of the yardage fabric that was included from Island Batik and used the lights in along with the white in the flying geese for some sparkle. All of the sashing is the solid white batik.

The blocks came together quickly and easily. Since I cut the triangles for the flying geese with my Go! Cutter, I saved a lot of fabric. This project called for cutting squares then trimming down after stitching. I do have some blue and red triangles left from the base rectangles, but I have some ideas for using them up later. When I have free time.

I quilted it using an edge to edge pattern that came with the computerized quilting unit I have added to my Gammill. You can watch it stitch out for a minute. I always find videos of others quilting entrancing.

Here it is, in all of it’s splendor. This quilt will get handed off to my local group and be gifted when there is a recipient identified. I hope it brings comfort and joy to the veteran who receives it.

Quilt Specs
Dimensions – 66 1/2″ x 88 1/2″
Pattern – Good for the Gander by Scott Flanagan
Fabrics – Freedom Collection from Island Batik
Batting – Quilter’s Dream Wool
Thread – Aurifil 50 Weight – grey for piecing, white for quilting

You can enter to win your own Stack of Freedom fabric through my RaffleCopter widget.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don’t forget to check out all of the quilters who have been participating in the blog hop this week.

Participants
July 1
Becca Fenstermaker — Pretty Piney
Denise Looney — For the Love of Geese
Gail Sheppard — Quilting Gail
July 2
Pamela Boatright — Pamela Quilts
Anne Wiens — Sweetgrass Designs
July 3
Bea Lee —Bea Quilter
Carla Henton — Creatin’ In the Sticks
July 4
Emily Leachman — The Darling Dogwood
Joan Kawano — MooseStash Quilting
Jen Strauser – Dizzy Quilter
July 5
Steph Jacobson — Steph Jacobsen Designs
Leah Malasky — Quilted Delights
Anja Clyke — Anja Quilts
Maryellen McAuliffe — Mary Mack Made Mine

34 thoughts on “Celebrating Independence Day with Quilts of Valor”

  7. I love flying geese! This patriotic version is perfect for QOV. Thanks for bringing us together to support such a wonderful organization, and pay our respects to our veterans!

    Reply

    1. I enjoyed quilting Fall’s Canadian version, of course 😉
      Creative way to still use the blue!

      Reply
  8. Pingback: Artsy-Fartsy with Aurifil Thread | Quilting Gail

  11. Wonderful quilt and wonderful blog hop. Terrific idea and you got to do what you wanted – yay!!! Happy 4th and I’m sure happy knowing the ambassadors have sent so much comfort to the brave men & women who served.

    Reply

  14. Beautiful quilt! I like the quilting design you choose to quilt this one with. I like Quiet Shades.

    Reply

  15. I am so loving your patriotic quilt using the perfect fabrics!
    I really like the Graphic Gems line…those purples make me swoon!
    duchick at gmail dot com

    Reply

  18. I really like the patriotic fabrics you used for your QOV. My favorite bundle from Island Batiks is still the Twilight Chic line. Something about it just makes my heart sing. I’ve really enjoyed the posts on this Hop and am working on my second QOV for a Canadian chapter. Thanks for the inspiration!
    Carol Andrews

    Reply

  19. I almost forgot; Electric Desert is the line I am looking forward to getting my hands on (and Bluberry Parch, and Graphic Gems) 😉 Carol Andrews

    Reply

  20. I’ve always loved flying geese and really like this layout. The colors are gorgeous and the quilting really finishes the quilting nicely.

    Reply

  21. I was admiring this quilt earlier today somewhere. It came out beautifully! What a grand idea, to have a QOV blog hop! I’ll bet IB jumped all over that! I like the Graphic Gems line the best.

    Reply

  23. Hi Jen! I’ve enjoyed this blog hop so much, and thank you for sharing everyone’s links each day. This is a gem of a QOV quilt. I just find watching the quilting video so relaxing – I could have watched the entire thing being quilted. ~smile~ Roseanne

    Reply

  24. Your quilt is beautiful! I like the kaleidescope the best! Enjoy your day!! angielovesgary2 atgmail dotcom

    Reply

  26. Hard to choose from all those scrumptious fabrics! Blueberry Patch, Electric Desert, & Enchanted Forest are my faves!

    Reply

  28. What a beautiful patriotic quilt, always love flying geese!!
    My favourite fabric is the enchanted forest line.

    Reply

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