Quilt of Valor-The heartbeat of America

Welcome to my day, day 1 of the QOV Blog Hop and hopefully you enjoy my quilt as much as I enjoyed making it. Thank you Island Batik for sponsoring the hop and donating fabric from the Freedom Collection.

fortheloveofgeese, paperpiecedquiltpatterns, patrioticpaperpiecedquiltpatterns. quilting

My original plan for the hop was to remake this design I created in April, I had it all planned out.

It went something like this…

Arpil 17- Fabric arrived

fortheloveofgeese. islandbatik, islandbatikambassadors, aurifilthread, hobbsbatting, paperpiecedquuilt, accuquilt, paperpiecedstarpattern, paperpiecedstarquilt, quiltsofvalor, patrioticquilts

My fabric arrived via UPS from Island Batik packed with care and I gently opened the box (who am I kidding, there may have been some box ripping involved).

After viewing the fabrics I decided to give the design a little more thought. My planned design would do but I wanted something a little different.

A flag, quilt style. For me that usually means flying geese are involved.

Flying geese are nothing more than triangles set into a rectangle but they are my favorite quilt block to make and look at. The top point of the geese seem to glow.

April 30-The design

Designs come to me in various ways but this time was a little different. Now I am going to get a little personal here, this design came to me in the shower. The thought process has been going on for a little over a week now and every time I closed my eyes I had a different idea. Flags, flags everywhere flags. On this particular day as soon as I closed my eyes while washing my hair (lol) I saw this flag and knew exactly what I had to do. No pictures of this process though, you’re welcome.

May 2-The design has been created and the templates printed and marked for fabric placement.

The method I used for making the quilt is paper piecing. There are some designs you just can’t create without the assistance of paper or a base layer of fabric for a foundation.

Paper piecing is a bit like paint by number. The fabric is your paint and paper your canvas. The paper is then removed once the quilt is assembled prior to quilting.

May 12-Blocks complete.

paperpiecedquilt, patrioticquilts, redwhiteandbluequilts, islandbatik, islandbatikambassador

A lovely stack of color. All templates pieced awaiting squaring . This all went pretty quick except for the top and bottom rows. To get the wave I had to piece each geese separately then join them together in rows.

The light blue (Bluebird) fabric looks a little out of place in the photo but it ties it all together in the end.

May 14-The star background

paperpiecedblock, quiltsofvalor, fortheloveofgeese, islandbatik, islandbatikambassador

It’s a little plain right now but it will come to life soon.

May 18th-The stars

After trying distorted stars (3 different drawings) I decided on a plain ole pentagram. Using Ricky Tim’s stabilizer and Elmers glue stick I folded the seam allowance under then trimmed the dog ears.

First I drew grid lines on the background 5″ apart for the 5 rows of 6 stars. Then machine appliqued the stars with a zigzag stitch to their background. Of course I played with their placement for some time before deciding on this layout.

As always, once the piece hit the floor for a photo Enzo came running. I promise I do not bribe him with treats or any special treatment for posing. If it were staged believe me I would brush his beard beforehand.

He isn’t very happy with me right now since I have him walking around naked but he will appreciate it as the temps continue to rise outside. He still comes running at my heels though when he sees a camera or a project hit the floor.

May 20-Construction complete

I began this day with anticipation, the top was finally going to be completed. All of the blocks were squared and the star section was complete. The only thing left was joining the blocks and adding a border. Remember what I said about plans changing? There was not enough Bluebird fabric to extend the border and I didn’t like the idea of adding a different color.

As usual I couldn’t wait to take a photo so I ran outside for a quick shot.

If you scroll up and down the geese look like they are flying. Don’t do it if you suffer vertigo.

Quilting May 25th

islandbatik, islandbatikambassador, heartbeatofamerica, 1950chevyonetontruck, patrioticquilt, quiltsofvalor, flyinggeesequilt, paperpiecedquilt

Finishing up the quilting. Using Hobbs Batting 80/20 cotton I decided to do a loop de loop all over, kind of like a spiral. As you can see I am all hand guided and I like it this way.

I wanted to use a gold thread but my machine didn’t want to play nice with SoFine 50 on this day.

May 25th-The heartbeat of America-our veterans, the flag and old Chevy trucks.

When you read this it will be a month old. I really wanted to award the quilt Memorial Day weekend and I pulled it off but before doing so I had to snap these photos. Chevrolet prides itself as the Heartbeat of America but the true heartbeat is our veterans. The flag represents home and freedom and well…you just can’t get more American than a Chevy truck draped in an American flag. Oh but you can. See the proud American Veteran below.

heartbeatofamerica, 1950chevyonetontruck, patrioticquilt, quiltsofvalor, flyinggeesequilt, paperpiecedquilt, islandbatik, islandbatikambassador

heartbeatofamerica, 1950chevyonetontruck, patrioticquilt, quiltsofvalor, flyinggeesequilt, paperpiecedquilt

May 26th- In it’s new home

quiltsofvalorrecipient, fortheloveofgeese, islandbatik, islandbatikambassadors,

Meet my friend Rich who I first met nearing 20 years ago when he moved into the subdivision we lived at the time. Rich is a proud American Marine. Until this day I never realized how patriotic he was until I witnessed all the flags inside his home. With that being said, I couldn’t have chosen a better recipient for the flag quilt, my first QOV.

When I asked Rich if I could take his photo with the quilt his response was, “let me get my Corps hat”. It was not my intention, but somehow I cut the top of his head off when taking his photo. So if you are reading this Rich I am so truly sorry.

It felt really good to give a quilt and have it appreciated as much as this one was.

Fabric

For the downward flowing geese-IB Wavy Dots Cherry

For the upward flowing geese- IB Swiss Red

Geese sky-IB Sprinkles

Star background-IB Navy

Flag border-IB Bluebird

Stars-IB White Solid

For piecing I used 40wt Aurifil thread

Quilted with Signature thread.

Would you like to win some of this gorgeous Freedom Collection fabric?

Visit the hop host Jennifer Strauser aka Dizzy Quilter and enter for a chance to win.

Oh I almost forgot, for the binding I used the AccuQuilt GO! 2 1/2″ strip die. Have I mentioned how much I love that die? And I love this truck!!! And I LOVE this quilt. I LOVE the Island Batik fabrics. I LOVE our veterans, especially those in my immediate family. And I love you all for reading this far down. Keep going, there’s more. You will find the other participants in this hop so be sure to visit them and the lovely quilts made for our veterans. Below the hop list are the linky parties I participate in every week. Have a safe and happy July 4th.