Texas Flag quilt #19

Hi there! I will try to blog more in 2016. I guess that won't be too hard when I compare it to how frequently I blogged in 2015. 

So I made my 19th Texas Flag quilt over Christmas. I think this one had some really great quilting. It was king sized. 

I really like to combination of swirls and straight lines.

I think I will only make one more of these quilts just to round out the number. While they are very fun to make it is draining to "make" for others. I love quilting. It makes my heart sing, but I may be done making the same thing over and over. But looking at that quilting I just LOVE it. Of course I can do this to any quilt. It doesn't HAVE to be a Texas flag now does it?

Have a great day!
Tia

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 Texas quilt

 I have been making Texas Flag quilts lately. They are quick to sew up and great for experimenting on the quilting with my long arm. I am quite happy with how this quilt turned out. This one will be in my shop when I load it up.

 I also plan to teach this quilting as my beginning quilting project. It is a great size for either use as a quilt, or as a wall hanging. People either love Texas or hate it, but in either case they probably need a Texas flag quilt to represent their stay here.

 I had so much fun quilting this one!

 I am planning a quilting class for the first week in November. I would love to see you!

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

A Texas quilt

 Do you ever look at flags and think to yourself "Wow...that would make a great quilt." Well, I sure do. I bet you do too, because sewing is awesome! Since I now have another super power (the ability to quilt just about any size quilt in no time flat) I decided to whip out a Texas flag and then quilt it! It took me about 20 minutes to piece the top and that includes the time to figure out how to make a star really big with power point (the computer program) and then make it even bigger to make a template for the big white star. Which in the end turned out really easy.

 I am pretty happy with how this quilt turned out. It will be my go to baby gift for all babies (of friends) born in Texas. After all I can't make quilts for all babies in Texas. My super power is not that strong.

 I bet Betsy Ross was a quilter.

 I had a great time quilting this quilt. Quilting the quilt was the only reason I made it you see. I was out of junk quilts to experiment on, so I whipped this out. I am happy I experimented on this one because my Gammill HATES the blue thread I used. I had about 15 thread breaks. I finally just advanced the quilt to the part I could go back to the whitish thread. That thread was like butter, but the super fancy Prescencia was totally destroyed with my machine (well both of my sewing machines hate it now. Maybe it got old, because I have used it int he past with not too much drama). Who knew thread could make machines (and the women who operate them) so angry?

 The fabric I used in this quilt was just kona cottons. So overall this was a really inexpensive quilt.

 If you want to make a quilt like this one, just cut a 20 x 44 (selvage to selvage) piece of blue, and a 22 x 44 inch piece of both the red and white. The hardest part will be the star. But you will overcome that quickly by using power point to print out the biggest star you can, then make it 2.5 inches bigger with your straight edge. I just raw edge appliqued the star onto the blue fabric and quilted the heck out of it once the quilt was stacked. Too easy. Give all the Texas babies you know a Texas quilt!

 My wonderful Bernina 820 is kaput. I am so sad. It is going really really slow then speeds up of a second then gets really slow. It just doesn't feel good and needs to have a servicing. Now, I live in the middle of no where and I have to take it to the big city of Killeen to have it worked on. I never thought I would ever think Killeen was the big city when I lived there! Ha...

 So she is sitting down here until it is time for her appointment next week.

For now I will use my other sweet Bernina. She likes to feel special and important too!

Have a great evening folks!

Tia