Alaska Flag Quilt

 Hey there. I sure hope you are doing well. It has been pretty busy around here with my family visiting, but I wanted to pop in to show you one of my latest finishes. I designed this quilt around the Alaskan Flag. I decided to make the stars a bit more liberated than the 5 pointed stars that are actually on the flag. As I finished this quilt top, I knew just how I wanted to quilt it.

 I bet most everyone is familiar with Vincent van Gogh's Stary Night painting, right? I love the swirls that he painted into it and I have always loved taking that to my quilting. So I did it again here on this quilt.

 I also quilted the names of each star. Don't you think star names are funny?

 The second star of the big dipper is actually 2 stars. Did you know that? Well, you do now. And the stars are named Alcor and Mizar.

 Polaris is up in the top corner of the Alaskan flag. I love this quilt and I can't wait to wash it. I am giving it as a gift (late Christmas) / swap with my friend Sharon. She has been making me some wonderful paintings. She misses Alaska terribly, so now she has a quilt to remind her.

 

The smaller stars have circles around them...I think it looks a bit like star dust. I used some more of my favorite Presencia cotton thread for this quilt. I will be sad when I run out of it that is for sure. 

I hope Sharon likes this quilt!

xo,

Tia

Another Quick flag quilt tutorial

 Would you like to make a quickie quilt? I bet you might. I like making quick quilts. I made this one for one of my bag customers and I was so happy with how it turned out I decided to write up a quick tutorial for it. I know it only has 9 stars and that bothered me too...so just quilt more stars in the blue when it comes to the quilting part.

The Basics

You are going to need to make 9 liberated stars. These are really easy to make.

2.5 inch squares x 72

3 inch squares x 72 - but these white squares you are going to cut in half diagonally to make the rays of the stars.

And you will need 9 centers for your stars. I used some ACU fabric from the uniform I was cutting, but you can make them all white.

2.5 inch squares (for the star centers) x 9


HERE is my favorite wonky/ maverick star tutorial. Ignore the sizes she recommends, just follow her method.


After you have your 9 stars finished you need to make your stripes. I just took some reds and whites from my stash and cut a couple strips of varying widths (from 1 inch to about 2.75 inches). I did cut selvedge to selvedge, so I had about 44 inches of fabric of each strip. I decided that would be a pain to sew together and it would get boring, so I cut each strip in half = 22 inches of fabric and that was much better.

So, after you have pieced your strips together, just put some to the right of you stars and the rest down below.

For the stripes to the right I cut a 6 inch section...I can sketch this out for you if you like. My husband set my bamboo up again so I can doodle. Just let me know if you want more guidance or maybe you can figure it out on your own because you are awesome. You are awesome, you know.

This is how I quilted the blue part. Stars mixed in with stippling. Pretty simple huh? Ok, let me know if you make one! I would love to see it. I also have a little easy Texas flag quilt instruction a couple posts down.

xo,
Tia

15) My own Star Quilt

 This is my 8 to 8 quilt from 2009. I was in a wonderful Online quilt group formed through Flickr. It was named 8 to 8. The group was made up of myself, LauraJ, Sarah (Krommama), Lynn (little red hen), Katy (I'm a ginger Monkey), Beth (maddieandme1) Lisa (upstatelisa), and  Tine (Sodeste). 

This is a great group of quilters. Currently I am on my 3rd quilt with this same brilliant group of ladies. Well, not all the same, but mostly the same. Some years one of the ladies is too busy (heaven knows how busy we can all get) so another shining star steps foreward. Last year we were Row 10, and they made me rows of wonky red crosses. This year (2011) we are Bee FF and they made me applique blocks in the Baltimore Album fashion. I am pretty sure I went too far asking them to do this. But I love it and I am hand quilting each block.

Each month would be for a different quilter. When it was my month, I wanted to have wonky stars, just like the ones I was working so much with in the Bush Fire Quilt Project. Each block consisted of 4 stars and each lady would make 2 blocks.

I wanted the quilt to be red, white and aqua. I love this color combination.

I quilted the quilt with simple organic lines and each block shines. I love this quilt so very much. It is always out in my house. Either in the living room or one of the kids takes it to sleep with at night. It is certainly one of my very favorites.

I love the back of this quilt too. I dyed the aqua fabric myself.

Here is a bit more of the quilting.

14) The Bush Fire Quilt Project

 This quilt represents 130 quilts my quilt club and I made for the Victorian Bushfires in 2009. What a time that was. I received quilt blocks from all over the world to make quilts for the people of Victoria, Australia who had lost their homes and possessions. I naively reached out via the Internet and blogs and Flickr to see if a couple folks would send me a block or two so I could make maybe 3 quilts for the Bushfire victims. I received, literally, thousands of blocks and quite a few entire quilts and quilt tops. I still have the spread sheet on my computer with data on all the blocks that were sent. Such an outpouring of love and support. I put aside especially wonderful block so I could put them all into one special quilt. I quilted it with a very dense swirling design that has become my signature. I wanted it to be raffled or auctioned off to raise a bit of money to transport all the quilts from Alice Springs to Victoria. Anyone who has ever run a quilt drive or charity of some sort knows that no matter how good your intentions are you have to have some money to support your operation. This quilt was going to be a way for us to raise some money. My husband and I had already poured our own money into the project by buying batting and backings for some of the quilts and my quilt club pitched in money and batting as well. Two of the ladies quilted over 80 quilts on their frames. I quilted a ton on my Bernina too.
 

By the time all the quilts were quilted, bound, boxed up and ready for transport to Victoria our own movers had come and gone. You see, my own little family was in the midst of a PSC (Permanent Change of Station) back the the USA). I was so pleased with how this entire operation had gone down. And relieved. So very relieved that all those quilts were on their way to their new owners. I pray to this day that they are still bringing comfort to the people they were given to. Anyway, all we have left in our house is our suitcases and our plane tickets, right? Well, a couple ladies show up from the qult club and say they have something for me....It was the quilt I had given them to raise money with! They wanted me to have it so I could remember all that I did for Australia. I really don't think I did anything much for Australia...and I certainly just gave the wonderful quilters of Alice Springs a ton of work that they would not have had to do without me and my idea. I truly adore this quilt and all that it represents. This quilt is all that is good in the world...all the love, all the wonderful thoughts and prayers, all the hope for a better tomorrow. This quilt does not get packed with the rest of our household goods when we move, it gets packed in with our suitcases or it covers the kids in the back of the van and is one of the first quilts to keep us warm and give us comfort in each of our new houses as we move each time. For a while I felt guilty about having this wonderful quilt, but now it is one that I am the very most proud of.

You can read more about the Bush Fire Quilt Project on my other blog HERE

and you can see pictures of the quilts we put together and collect HERE and HERE


I still LOVE this liberated star. It is one of my very very very favorite quilt blocks.