Patriot Quilt

Some of my quilt designs are original and some are variations of patterns I've found in a magazine or online. I really do prefer to design my own quilts. That is the fun part for me and I don't make quilts just to make them. However, adapting an existing design has it's own challenges that can keep the process from getting boring.

Today's wall hanging quilt is a variation of the Three Tours quilt by Tony Jacobson that was featured in Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting magazine in the March/April 2012 edition here. 

The original has seven blue stars and fourteen double stars with some difference in the color choices and the finished size is 70 x 78 inches. In shrinking and reducing the design I had to draw the entire design out and figure out the relative size of each piece. The process was not unlike the logistical stage of an original design, and therefore, interesting.

This is my version. The finished quilt is 26 X 36.5 inches.

 

There are five of the blue and white stars,

 

 and ten of the red, white, and blue double stars.

Each finished star square is 5.5 x 5.5 inches and each red stripe is made from two or three strips of the two red fabrics for dimension. The white stripes are not pieced and alternate between the solid white(from an old sheet) or the printed white.(Which is unfortunately very hard to photograph.) Each finished stripe is 1.5 x 19.5 inches.

 

There are two red, two blue, and two white fabrics included. I try to only use fabrics from my stash whenever possible and was able to keep from buying anything new for this quilt. In fact the backing is a blue waffle knit left over from another quilt. I have no qualms mixing knits with woven fabrics if I can get away with it without too much distortion in the design. This knit was fortunately not too stretchy to use.

I could hang this quilt for every patriotic holiday, but last year I just had it up from Flag Day through the end of July.