July 4th Postmortem

We had a wonderful July 4th weekend with our children here for a visit. We did a lot of visiting, had a barbecue with lots of good food,  played cards, and watched a movie.  Last night after everyone had gone home, I sat out on the deck and sewed a few more yo-yos.  Later in the evening, I did my usual evening blog reading.  I saw some gorgeous patriotic quilts, table runners and place mats.  I looked around here and wondered where all of my patriotic quilts were.  I remembered a flag I made years ago.  This morning I looked, and there they were still in the UFO basket. 

This is from one of the Little Quilts books.  I know this one is a real oldie but goodie.  I think I was just beginning to quilt when I made this.  You can see some  of the basting stitches still in this one.  It is the size of a place mat - maybe 14" X 18".

Here is another little quilt made from the same pattern.  This one is quilted, and the binding is even sewn on.

And, here is a patriotic quilt top.  These were second Saturday sampler blocks from one of our quilt shops.  If you took your finished block back to the shop on the second Saturday of the month, the next month's block kit was free.  Of course, there were also fat quarters for sale that coordinated with the original block.  I made all 36 blocks that year.

One of the blocks even has the Pledge of Allegiance. 

This is one of my favorite blocks with a bit of the story of the moon landing in 1969.

I used the leftovers from the blocks to make these braid borders, but I think the quilt has enough going on without adding these busy borders.  I think I'll square these strips and use the solid blue and make a strip quilt instead.

This morning I also remembered these patriotic cupcake papers and the little flag decorations for the cupcakes.

I know I'm a day late remembering all of these things, but the good news is that I've got 364 days to get ready for next year.

Thanks for stopping by for a visit today!