Patriotic Blog Hop + {GIVEAWAY!}

UPDATE: 'Atomic Bloom' Block in three (3) sizes is now available for purchase in my Craftsy Shop!

Welcome to Day 2 of the Patriotic Palette Blog Hop!  It may not be the 4th of July, but it's never too early to start the celebration!  A Blog Hop for inspiration and a Giveaway!  Woo-Hoo!   

The instant I said yes to this Hop, I knew what I wanted to make!  The beginning of May I designed a paper pieced block called ATOMIC BLOOM , and this would give me a chance to play with the block, design and size for my mini quilt.

16" x 16"
Rockets Red Glare

EQ7 was invaluable for figuring out color and block placement.  The secondary design is always intriguing.  This mini quilt is a Kaleidoscope of red, white and blue...Rockets Red Glare, and gets you in a celebrating mood!

I was provided a bundle of fabric from the  Painter's Palette Solid collection and asked to kick off the celebration with a project inspired by the color palette.  If you know me, you know I love solids!  The Painter's Palette solids are amazing!  When I received my bundle, I couldn't stop touching them!  The quality and feel is just that good!  

  

We received three (3) blue, three (3) red and one (1) white fat quarter to work with.  These I can work with!

White, Patriot, French Blue, River, Claret, Crimson and Tomato

The first step was printing templates.  If I'm doing a complicated paper piecing project, I always color my template sections to match with my fabric choice.  It makes it easier for me to keep track of things.  My quilt will have 16 blocks, each one will be 4 1/2" unfinished.

And then there is cutting all the pieces!  For this piece alone there are 304 pieces!  I figured out the size I would need for each section before I did any cutting.  Even then, I still made a cutting error!  

All the parts and pieces came together pretty quickly!  There were no extra fabrics pieces or templates left over!

I added triangles to the sides and bottom of each block and trimmed all 16 squares to 4 1/2".  

I stitched four (4) 4 1/2" blocks together to make one 8 1/2" block, stitched the four (4) larger blocks to finish the top.  It made it a little easier to keep things lined up...as best I could! 

You know what the best part of this design and pattern to me is?  I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's the quilting.  With the shapes and lines of the block, I can quilt geometric lines with ease. It's almost like the seams are a quilting guide.

I like to plan out my quilting so that there isn't a lot of threads to bury.  I'll sit and trace my finger on a path until I'm satisfied I am making the best moves!  Is that weird?

Having the perfect thread colors to finish a perfect (perfectly finished!) project is the cherry on top for me!  I used Aurifil 50 wt in Lobster Red (2265), Delft Blue (2730) and Chalk (2026).   

I couldn't decide on one color to use, so I opted to use three!  It works...it's very patriotic! It can be fun playing with bindings.  So much work goes into our quilts why not put more into bindings once in a while?  Not all quilts, and mini's are a perfect way to scratch that binding creativity itch too!

  

I used the lightest blue for the backing as I couldn't work it into my design.  Each and every color in the bundle has been duly represented!    

The quilting detail!  I used my walking foot for this.  There was a lot of turning, but since the piece is small it still went pretty fast.  I think one day I'll attempt something like this using free motion quilting.  One day when I'm adequately relaxed so I can become one with my machine!!

In a way, these blocks in these colors remind me of bottle rockets.  When I was younger it seemed like we had hundreds and hundreds of bottle rockets.  We'd shoot them off all day and night for weeks before and after the 4th of July!  When I say we, I mean my brothers.  I was never a fan of lighting the fuse!  I was more of a sparkler kind of girl.  Drawing shapes in the dark with the sparks flying everywhere!

I had every intention of launching my 'Atomic Bloom' block pattern today, but I just couldn't pull it off!  I am working on it and hope to have the pattern available in my Craftsy Pattern Shop in the next few days.  There will be 8", 12" and 16" blocks in the pattern.  

UPDATE: 'Atomic Bloom' Block in three (3) sizes is now available for purchase in my Craftsy Shop!

Options for colors!  Of course I have some!

              

Before we get to the giveaway, here are the others blogs that are participating in the Patriotic Blog Hop.

6/22: Fabri-Quilt blog (@pbstudiofabrics)

6/23: Jayne of TwiggyandOpal (@twiggyandopal)  (YOU ARE HERE!)

6/26: Elizabeth of OPQuilt (@occasionalpiecequilt)

6/27: Stephanie of Spontaneous Threads (@spontaneousthreads)

6/28: Shelley of A Pigeon in Pungo (@shelleybrooksquilts)

6/29: Linda of Flourishing Palms (@flourishingpalms)

6/30: Cindy Wiens of Live a Colorful Life (@liveacolorfullife)

7/3: Stephanie of Peas in a Pod (@stephiepeterson)

There will be tutorials, inspiration, good clean fun...and they may have a giveaway going on too!

This Blog Hop and Giveaway is sponsored by PB Studios.  Thank you so much for including me in the challenge!  A huge thanks to Lisa Ruble, I appreciate all your hard work on putting this together!

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And now the GIVEAWAY!!  Wouldn't you love to win a Fat Quarter Bundle of all seven (7) of these Patriotic solids?!  Sign me up!

Leave a comment telling me what your favorite 4th of July beverage is!  If it's Rosemary Peach Lemonade ... then you must give me the recipe!

✩ I'll pick the winner using the good old Random Number Generator 

✩ U.S. residents only

✩ Giveaway ends at 6PM CST on June 27th

✩ If you are a no-reply blogger, please leave your email address in your comment

✩ I'll contact the winner by email on June 28th

UPDATE: 'Atomic Bloom' Block in three (3) sizes is now available for purchase in my Craftsy Shop!

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED!

LINKING:

Crazy Mom Quilts

Finished or Not Friday

TGIFF

Oh Scrap

Main Crush Monday

Freemotion By The River