Texas Flag Quilt

My first grandson who just turned seven is a born and bred Texan.  Besides his two bicycles and legos, he loves his cowboy boots, goes to the Rodeo each year and has even participated in a mutton busting event.  Several months ago Levi told me his baby blanket that I made for him was too small and he needed a bigger quilt.  You can see the first quilt I made him here.  He also requested red since that is his favorite color. After thinking about designs for awhile I decided to make him a Texas Flag replica.  As quilts go, this is a pretty easy design, three large blocks of a solid color and a star.

The star is where the challenge came in.  I needed a big star and could not find a pattern that worked well.  I ended up making my own pattern using pieced together wrapping paper.  For my first attempt at the star I  cut out one large piece and machine appliqued it to the navy background.  I was not at all happy with the way it turned out.  There was too much puckering and the points on the star did not come out well.  For the second attempt I tried to piece the star together along with a few sections of navy material to get one large square block.  This was better but I still was not happy with how the star tips turned out.  On my third and final attempt, I just recreated the pieced square block but really worked on getting the points corrected.  It certainly is not perfect but it works.

I did the machine quilting in three sections using one inch masking tape to create sewing lines.  This quilt is large, a little bigger than queen size.  Even quilting in sections was challenging on my home sewing machine since the quilt was so large and bulky.  It sure made me dream of a long arm quilting machine…….maybe someday!

When it came time to bind the quilt I debated if I should use the navy, red or white fabric as binding.  I decided to try and use binding that matched each section of the quilt.  I had never done this before so was not sure how it would work but I really like the results.

I already have at least four more quilts lined up to make…….plus I just found out I am having a new grandbaby so make that 5!