GOOD NEWS FROM THE OREGON STATE FAIR!!

I decided to enter these 2 quilts in the Oregon State Fair.  I figured - why not? When I went to the fair last week, of course I wanted to see if they won anything.   I was surprised to see that I got a blue first place ribbon for both quilts!  Flags of the Revolution was in the "machine appliqué" category and Dear Jane was in the "mixed techniques" category.

Flags of the Revolution

Dear Jane's Journey

Below are a few of the quilts that I liked best at the fair.

Below are the quilts that were awarded Best of the Show.  They are well deserving of that award.  I just wish they would have hung them so that we could have seen the whole quilts.

Yesterday I had cataract surgery on my left eye (the right eye was done a month ago).  Everything went very well.

A FINISH AND A QUESTION

I recently finished "Flags of the American Revolution" designed by Jan Patek.  Lori had a Quilt-a-Long a while back (last year or the year before?) and I didn't make it then, but I bought the pattern and made it this year.  The blocks are large and pretty easy - especially since I used machine appliqué for it.  I love the eagle in the middle - so unique. 

Here's some close up photos of sections of the quilt.  The quilting in the center block is echoing the eagle.  The rest of the quilt is quilted with Baptist fans and I blogged about how I did that here.  You might  be able to see some of the yellow powder that I used to mark the fans.  I will get that off soon.  I really love how the fans look on a quilt.

I used antique buttons on this flag, which is the Bennington Flag.    I took Lori's advice and didn't get star buttons for the quilt because they make it very uncomfortable if you decide to take a nap on it.  These buttons aren't all identical and I like that about them also.  (BTW, the flags are replicas of actual flags that were flown in battle during the Revolutionary War.)

Below you can see the whole Bennington Flag.

You can see the quilting better in this photo below.  Pine Tree Flag is on the left sideways.  The pattern for this quilt is in a book and it has the history of each flag across the page from the instructions for each flag.

You can see the quilting on the back here as well as the fabrics on the back.

Here's my question.  Does anybody know the name of the block in this quilt and how to size the triangles? I saw this quilt at a quilt show at the Aurora Colony Museum on Friday and I really love it!  It is made with just 2 different triangles with no curves involved.   I would love to make this (as a long term project).  I have lots of CW reproduction fabric scraps left over from my Dear Jane quilt that I could use in it.

Here's a close-up of a block.  I think you can see the block pretty easily and see that you need 8 triangles in the middle and 4 triangles for the corners.

I'm sure someone out there knows!

MORE QUILTING AND ANOTHER FINISH

It seems like I've been quilting my little heart out these days, but there is a pause.  My sewing machine is in the shop, so I got my Featherweight out and was happily piecing some blocks when I noticed the tension was really bad.  I couldn't get it fixed no matter what I did, so when I get my Janome back,  I will take in my Featherweight!  In the mean time, I'm trying to get a little organized.

I had already finished quilting Mama's cross stitched Paragon quilt top and now I finished binding it, so here are a few pictures again taken outside with the quilt hanging on a clothes line.  The sun is shining through it some.  I bound it in a solid blue to match the flowers.  I had to fold the top over the clothes line so it wouldn't dangle on the ground.

Next project is quilting Flags of the American Revolution.  I decided to quilt it with large baptist fans except for the center eagle block.  I purchased the baptist fan template from Barb here.  It is perfect for this quilt.  Barb created her own large fan template when she couldn't find one this size anywhere.  I'm really glad I got it and think I will use it more often from now on.
 

Here's a picture of the template.  One fan measures 14 1/2" high and wide.  I'm marking it one fan at a time with a Clover roll on powder.  It works pretty well, except as you quilt, some of the powder rubs off and it's hard to see the lines, but this way I'm not using any sort of pen and don't have to worry about the marks staying in when they are not supposed to.  I guess I'm afraid to use pens.

I will be hanging Dear Jane's Quilting Journey at the Treasurers in the Attic Quilt Show in McMinnville, OR on Sept. 16.  It's at the Yamhill County Heritage Museum.  If you are in the area, I hope you can come by to see it and many other quilts.  You can also have some antiques appraised for $5.00 each.  If you come, look for me at my vendor's booth.

"FLAGS" TOP FINISHED!

I finished the top of "Flags of the American Revolution," which was designed by Jan Patek.  DH helped hold it up for a picture.  One side was clipped to the patio umbrella and DH held the other corner - it's a large quilt!  About 78" x 78".  It was windy outside, so it was hard to get a good picture.

This one is a little better, except the right side is behind the table.

Close-up of the eagle!

This flag right under the eagle will have 13 small round white buttons in the blue field.  The red and white stripe fabric looks like pink from a distance, but is really red and white.

I still need to embroider a tongue on the snake.  This flag was the U. S. Navy Jack during the revolution.  The snake was a symbol of resistance to the British.

The blue wool felt stars are all appliquéd on this flag.

The "76" will also have 13 small white buttons around it.  "Liberty or Death" is a slogan that the Minute Men wore on their shirts.  They knew that if they didn't win the fight for liberty, they could (and probably would) end up dead.

I'm glad that I had enough of this stripe to use for the border.

I'm going to fold this up  now and spend some time working on something else for a while before I baste it.  When I do baste it, I want to baste my round robin also as well as a quilt top that my Mom embroidered years ago.  

FLAGS OF REVOLUTION PROGRESS REPORT

Here is my "almost completed" top of the "Flags of the American Revolution" quilt (designed by Jan Patek) up on my design wall.  Not all blocks are sewn together yet.  

This block (below) is supposed to have 13 blue star buttons sewn on the tan field, but I have decided to appliqué 13 felted wool stars on it instead.  This is due to Lori's advice that buttons make it uncomfortable to lie on.

Here is a close up of the flag, is a replica of the one flown at the battle of Guilford Courthouse, which was a major turning point for independence.  FYI:  all the flag blocks have historical significance.

I think these stars will look as good as, or better, than blue star buttons.

Today I went to a garage sale and bought these "raggy" quilt blocks.  They were cut on one of those special "cutting" machines so that they have all the edges already cut, and they were put together with a piece of batting and a denim backing, but not sewn.  So, I sewed an "X" on each of the 36 blocks.

I also purchased some pieces of fabric, some Tupperware and some jewelry.  The house that the sale is at is loaded with craft items among other things and the Estate sale is next weekend!

Have a great weekend everyone!

CAUGHT UP WITH BLOCK HEADS!

Yea!  I'm all caught up with my Block Heads blocks!

Block 12

 I hand appliques this block.

Block 10

 This block from "Flags of the American Revolution" took all afternoon yesterday.  I machine appliquéd this one!

Here's my design wall with just some of the other blocks from the "Flags" quilt.  I did mostly easy ones first.

DH put up our flag pole yesterday just in time for Memorial Day.

Let's remember all those who served and especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice on this Memorial Day weekend.

WHAT? A NEW PROJECT?

Oh, yes!  Lori of Humble Quilts had a QAL (quilt a long) with this quilt last year - or was it the year before? - and I bought the book, but had other projects to work on so I didn't participate then.  So, last month, I started looking at this pattern again, and besides the eagle in the middle, it looked pretty easy - and I'm all about easy.

This is the whole quilt.

So, I thought I would get started with some of the easiest blocks.

Before I knew it, I had 12 blocks finished!!  All from my stash.  Of course, I'm machine appliquéing them, so that makes it a lot faster too.  So, what will I do when I get all the blocks finished except the middle one?  There's that eagle.  And he's a rather strange looking one at that!

My next post is my 700th!!!  I think I'll have a give-a-way to celebrate!  So be sure to check back in a few days.