Hurrah for the Red, White, and Blue!

Happy 4th of July for all you folks who are celebrating. I've always been a sucker for most things Americana.  I keep finding red, white, and blue quilts that inspire me, so I thought I'd share. And I realize it's a little late to prepare for the 4th this year, but you can always save this stuff to Pinterest for later, right? 😉

Probably my favorite new quilt this year: my Land That I Love patchwork flag medallion quilt in my Gingham Girls fabric.  I'm still wanting to make it again in just red, white, and blue - maybe even Civil War reproductions (I'm feeling inspired by our trip to Gettysburg.) We'll see!

I've been itching to do a red, white and blue patchwork quilt for a while now. I pulled this stack of fabric a few weeks ago, but haven't had time to do much. (I'm lucky because our state holiday is July 24th so I tend to keep up the red, white, and blue decor for the whole month. Hence, I could possibly still start a project. But let's be honest, I probably won't do any more than start this year. Which is how I usually roll when it's a "just for fun" project. I pull the fabric when I'm in the seasonal mood one year. Start cutting the next year, and possibly finish something by the year after that. Maybe. lol)

I did use this stack to make a few more Orange Peel blocks to take on our trip last month.  It was fun to add Gingham Girls in the mix. When I started this project 6 years ago, I never would have dreamed that I'd be sewing with fabric that I'd designed. SO there's a reason that UFO's (UnFinishedObjects) are maybe not a bad thing...

A little more red, white, and blue inspiration: I'm in LOVE with this scrappy trip around the world quilt made by Emily of Simple Girl Simple Life. I covet it. It's on my to-do list for sure. (And isn't that picture the funnest? You can find Emily on Instgram.) Emily used Bonnie's scrap tutorial here. (Also - how cute are those festive Woven Pear socks?!*)

Holly of Maker Valley just published the pattern for this fun, scrappy-patchwork American Flag Quilt. (She also published flag patterns for Norway, France, Switzerland, and Germany.) They are all so cute! You can see the Maker Valley flag quilts here.

If you're looking for a smaller project that you could actually finish by the end of the day, check out this cute, free pattern from Pretty Little Quilts.

If you're looking for other red, white, and blue inspiration, I've got a Pinterest board for that! I love these combinations - they truly never go out of style!

Once again, this year we have lots of out-of-state family in town, so I'm off to swim, watch-fireworks, and pig-out as patriotically as possible. And you can bet we'll be using the good old 4th-of-July patchwork quilt.  When I posted about this quilt last year, I knew that Gingham Girls was in the pipes, but not able to share yet. It's been fun to tell the story of this quilt and watch the fabric collection it inspired come to life. I've loved seeing what so many of you are doing with it! Long live the 4th of July quilt!