Hey friend.  I've been meaning to share with you all of my 

red, white, and blue quilts - together in one place.  

Hopefully, if you're wanting to make a

patriotic quilt, you'll find some inspiration here!

First up is my Star-Spangled Pineapples quilt.

This is a free pattern that Amanda Niederhauser (@jedicraftgirl) 

and I created for our Five Fat Quarter Fun series a few years ago.

HERE is a link to the free PDF pattern and

HERE is a link to the original blog post with more photos and details.

Next up are my beachy, faded Stars and Stripes quilt

and my No-Point Stars quilt.

Both of these patterns are by other quilt pattern designers.

Stars and Stripes is by Camille Roskelly of Thimbleblossoms and it's available

in her shop HERE.  The No-Point Stars pattern is a free tutorial by

Allison Harris of Cluck, Cluck, Sew.  You can find it HERE.

I don't have blog posts up yet about my versions.

I want to share more details so I'll do that soon in another, separate post.

Another red, white, and blue quilt that I made

many years ago is my Scrap Jar Stars quilt.

This is a great stash-buster project!

This pattern comes with instructions for 4 different size quilts

and is available in my Etsy shop HERE.

I've also made my United quilt in 2 different color ways.  

It has 50 really simple flag blocks (to represent the 50 states) 

plus 5 stars and a heart block!  It's a fun make and very beginner-friendly!

United finishes at 78-1/2" x 87-1/2".

You can find the pattern in my Etsy shop HERE and

HERE'S a blog post with all the details about the navy one.

And you can see the low volume one HERE.

If you're looking for a really simple star/flag quilt

check out my Glory quilt HERE.

I share a free cutting chart & tutorial for Sawtooth

Star block sizes 3" - 20" plus all the details for this quilt.

Another option is a red, white, and blue Star Patch quilt!

I've made 3 Star Patch quilts (a colorful one, a red and white one,

and this one).  It was just screaming to be made up in 

red, white, and blue don't you think!?!

And for all you scrap lovers out there, I've got a tutorial

for this Firework quilt.  I made a baby-size but it

would be really easy to make it bigger.  A coloring sheet is included.

And if you're in the mood for some simple patchwork,

I've got this red, white, and blue Rough and Tumble quilt pattern.

It comes with instructions for 5 different quilt sizes and is great for beginners!

I think it would be cute to layer any patriotic quilts

with a simple red or blue quilt (like the ones that I made for my new book,

Quilt the Rainbow).

[Sew Delightful.  Photo courtesy of Martingale.]

[Patchwork Plaid.  Photo courtesy of Martingale.]

You can find both of those patterns in Quilt the Rainbow; available HERE.

I recently finished this

Checkered Spools quilt in red, white, and blue!

This is a 2-1/2" x 42" strip-friendly pattern with 2 size options.

Click HERE for the paper pattern or HERE for the PDF.

I feel like you can never have too many red, white, and blue quilts!

Do you have a favorite of the quilts I shared today?

I hope you found some inspiration here!

Happy Summer friends!

Heart & Soul Blog Tour

Good morning and happy Friday friends!

Can you believe it's December 1st!?!  I'm so excited!  It's apple cider everything around here and I'm just praying for snow!  I've really grown to love it and can't wait for the pretty flakes to start falling.

Today, I have a fun new fabric line I want to share with you!

One of my favorite designers from Riley Blake Designs, Deena Rutter, has just released a new line called Heart & Soul.  It features some pretty florals, geometrics and text prints in some of my favorite colors ~ coral, teal, gray and navy.  It even has some really cute panels:

I was lucky enough to be able to work with some of Deena's new line recently and decided 

to make another Scrap Jar Stars quilt!!!

They're such fun blocks to make.

PSA: Did you know that I have a free tutorial for these blocks that you can find HERE?

I also have a complete pattern with four different size quilts (so you don't have to do all that math!) that you can purchases HERE!  Plus, I simplified the block instructions in my complete pattern to take out a few unnecessary seams.  It's fat quarter friendly (OR a great stash buster)!

These fabrics are so pretty, don't you think?

Heart and Soul wasn't in stores when I finished this quilt so I decided to back it with this gray and white gingham fabric I had in my stash.  But don't worry, it's in stores now for all of you!!!  If I could've I would've backed it with the main floral print in blush.  It's my favorite.

These are the big jars I use to store all of my scraps (color coordinated, usually).  I got them at Walmart and I love being able to see what I've got.  Every once in a while I'll go through my scraps and cut them into squares of different sizes so they're ready for my next scrap quilt!  Hence the name for this pattern, Scrap Jar Stars.

I love that some of the prints in this line are faith based.  The panels include such sweet, uplifting thoughts and the text prints state values, such as "faith", "individual worth", "knowledge" and "virtue" just to name a few.

The modern loop quilting was done by Kaylene Parry from Lehi, Utah.  She has quilted a lot of quilts for me over the years and she is one talented lady.

One last picture for the road.  I hand-stitched the binding down on the backside while I was on vacation in California last week so I couldn't resist a photo shoot on the beach! 

Well, I hope you enjoyed this share today.  

Tell me, do you have a favorite color or print from this line?  I'm kind of dying to get my hands on one of the panel prints now.  I heard they're arriving in stores soon.  If you could, what would you make with a panel?

Stop by Riley Blake Designs to see the rest of the beautiful fabrics from Heart and Soul!
And click HERE to see my friend Andy Knowlton's Heart and Soul project.  It's so cute!!!

Have a great day friends! 

Stopping in

for a quick minute before we head out on another family vaycay.

We just got back from Montana.  And it was awesome.  Five days on the most gorgeous lake ever with my parents, siblings, nieces and nephews.

Some of the highlights included seeing the huge smiles on these kiddos' faces as my brother-in-law drug them around the lake on the tube:

Watching my babies get up on the knee board for their first time.  They loved it and I was a proud mama.

Soaking up the rays and enjoying a little R & R.

And last, but certainly not least, enjoying some good old fashioned bonding time with my family.  It was such a nice week.  We're off again this afternoon to hang out with my husbands family at a nearby cabin.  Things are busy, busy, busy around here but I'm trying to squeeze in some "work" (que the air quotes) around all the fun we're having!

On a quilty note, check out these Scrap Jar Star quilts that people have been emailing me about:

Midnight Mama

Pleasant Home

 Lisa Ann

Mary Val via Flickr 

Darlene

And of course, Leanne's.  When I was debating about whether to make mine a table topper or a big quilt, she inspired me to "go big or go home"!

Leanne

I love seeing all your projects using my patterns and tutorials so keep 'em coming!

Happy Quilting!

~ Amber

Scrap Jar Stars Quilt {Done}

I'm so happy this quilt is done.

It took many months to make, working on it a little here and a little there.

I set goals for myself and slowly saw it come together.

Until I had a little set back [which you can read about HERE].  But, all is well.  The little pink spots are now no where to be found.  Thanks to all of you for your good advice.  I ended up using an Oxy Clean Max Force [Pre-Treater] Gel Stick.  I let the gel sit on the stains for almost two weeks while it was quilted and bound. 

Now the only pink you'll see on this quilt is this single pink patch I added [for an unexpected surprise]:

And the little bit of pink on my backing [which is from the fabric line Millie's Closet by Lori Holt for Riley Blake Designs].  Can you see the little bit of pink around the red circles?  I am so happy I decided to go with this fabric for my back.  I debated about it for a while but I like how it is multi-colored [as opposed to just red and white or blue and white] and how it's cheerful without taking anything away from my quilt front. 

I love my binding too.  How could I resist this red and white polka dot fabric from Vintage Modern by Bonnie and Camille for Moda?

This quilt is big. It measures 81" x 93".

Honestly, I didn't think it would end up this big [guess I didn't have my thinking cap on for that one!]  It's a picnic, go see the fireworks or Real Salt Lake play soccer type of quilt.  But now I figure everyone and their dog will be able to snuggle under or sit with us on top of this quilt.  [GASP!]  I know.  I plan to use this quilt.  

And love every minute of it!

I know there have been many posts about this project.  Sorry if you're sick of hearing about it and wondering what the heck took me so long!?!  I promise there won't be any more posts about this quilt :) 

But if you want to make your own scrap jar stars quilt you can find my tutorial for it HERE.

Happy quilting!

~ Amber

Two steps forward, one step back

You may know that I have been working on my Scrap Jar Stars quilt for a couple of months now.  I made it a goal to work on it several times a week and just recently started to see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Since I was home with a cold yesterday and my kids were at school for a good chunk of the day, I was able to spend about six or seven hours working on it.  I was so excited with the progress I made!  I got done what would have normally taken me a week to do ~ in one day.  I am just about finished with the top.  I only have a few more rows to sew together.  Last night, I had it all laid out on our landing floor (just outside my sewing room) and told my family not to let our new puppy upstairs because I had a quilt laid out.

Well, I guess it wasn't the dog I had to worry about.

I woke up early this morning and decided I might have time to get another row sewn on before I needed to get my kids ready for school.  Upon arrival to the landing I noticed little pink spots all over several of the blocks. 

After much thought about how that could have happened and what I should do about it (and telling myself that crying wouldn't help :) I have decided that I will just carry on.  After a little investigation I realized that it's marker and I am keeping my fingers crossed that it will come out in the wash since it was diluted and washable.  You see, my daughter has this easel set up on the landing and my quilt was on the floor between the easel and the bathroom.  I think what probably happened was that she used a wet towel to clean off red marker on her drawing board and it dripped across the entire quilt on the way back to the bathroom.  About 11 blocks are affected.  It must have been a soaking wet towel.

So I saw this on Pinterest a couple of days ago and normally pass these babies by since they are WAAAY over used but lately it seems as if I've needed this reminder plastered to my forehead or something.  LOL.  Do you ever go through phases when everything seems to be trying your patience?

So today, I was calm.  There were no tears, no angry words to my daughter, no giving up on my quilt.  Just dealing with it.  I'm putting on my big girl pants and continuing to sew.  But if you have any advice for me about laundering this quilt I would love to hear it.  I'm not the best at getting stains out so all I'm planning on doing is putting in a few of my Shout Color Catchers and washing it in cold water.  Do you know of any good products to use to get the marker spots out?

Thanks in advance for any advice you can give me :)

Happy Quilting!

Amber

Cutting, Cutting and More Cutting.

Apparently I'm really lazy because I don't seem to make much headway on anything lately.  I've got lots of projects going and I really need to focus. 

Hmmm.  I'm always saying that, aren't I? 

Well.  I do the best I can.

Anyways, one project that I shouldn't be working on but that is towards the top of the list is my Scrap Jar Stars Quilt.  Leanne from the blog, Lizzie the Quilter, inspired me to go "all out" and make my red, white and blue table topper into a large throw-size quilt.

I had a little time the other day while my daughter watched a show and the boys were out.  I brought my cutting mat downstairs so I could be by her (and still feel productive).  I was able to get a lot of squares cut.

I did the math and it seems that I will need about 456 more 2" squares and 152 more 4-1/4" squares.  All this cutting is really putting a dent in my red, white and blue stash.  I like it :)

I will be making a total of (42) 12" blocks (only 38 more to go).

The quilt should measure out to be 72" x 84".

At the rate I am going this quilt will be finished in 2015.

You can find the tutorial HERE for my Scrap Jar Stars Quilt.

Have a good day :)

~ Amber