Recent Patriotic donations - fun with Red White & Blue

I have gotten involved in a local quilt charity through one of the guilds I attend.  The program is called Roll Call, which supports local veterans.  Originally, I had volunteered to quilt the tops which other quilters had pieced.  But I love piecing so much I decided to try out some patterns I had found, but using red, white & blue fabrics.  I asked the coordinator if she had any scraps left over from backings, etc.  And she dropped off several bags, including some yardage and 2 bolts of backing fabric.  Whoa!  Now the pressure is on.

I went back to one of my favorite authors, Kim Brackett and chose some patterns from two of her books. This first one is called Blessings from the Wood.  Kind of a strange name but I do love the pattern and have made it before in red/black/white colors.  I found out later that this was auctioned and raised $200+ for the Roll Call program.

This next is called Fireworks.  Definitely appropriate for a patriotic quilt.

This last Kim Brackett pattern called Scrap Basket Blues is one of my favorites and I have made it several times, including with novelties.  So fun and easy.  Like many of her patterns, the block is deceptively simple, and the sashing is built into the block.  When you put the simple blocks together, you get all sorts of great secondary patterns.  In this particular quilt, I mistakenly cut the trimmed rectangles going one direction for the blue ones, and another for the red.  Hmmm.  Which means the stars spin in opposite directions.  But no one will ever notice, and I even ended up with an additional detail that the sashing lines up and makes a basket weave pattern.  I had so much fun, I'm going to make another novelty version.

Last year at one of the guilds I attend we had a program by Krista Moser.  If you aren't familiar with her, definitely check out her blog & patterns (the Quilted Life).  Her "thing" is large diamonds and hexagons but used in very modern ways.  These next two patterns were free on her website.  The first one called Strips and Stripes was ridiculously fast and the result is very dramatic.  I also made a rainbow version for a baby quilt that I'll include in a later post.

This pattern called Ribbon Twist (also by Krista Moser and free on her website).  I discovered that I really have a mental block when the patches aren't symmetrical.  Krista's instructions are very clear, but you do have to read them carefully - and follow them exactly.  So, this one "grew" a bit when I cut a bunch of the blue strips backwards.  I also did this in novelties.

In the bag of scraps I was given, I found a stack of 10" precuts so I went looking for a fast pattern that used that size.  I found this one called Alter Ego on the Missouri Star website.  It was fast and fun to do, but it's a bit too scrappy for me.  Or maybe it's the muted colors and beige.  I'm not as happy with it as the others.  Maybe once it's quilted.

This pattern is called Hitchhikers' Star by Hunter Designs.  It was a well written pattern, but I did struggle with pressing as there are several places with lots of points.  I ended up pressing the column seams open in order to get them to lay flat.