Lucy Boston

Saturday, June 21, 2014

Quilt Crackers, of the patriotic sort

I recently needed a wedding shower gift and
could not think of a single quilt pattern that
was 1) fitting for the bride-to-be, and 2) quick.
(Oh, I knew the shower was coming, and I could have made this gift eons ago,
but I like to think I work better under pressure :)

SO, me being me, and on the perpetual time-crunch,
I remembered that I had recently come across
the block pattern called Crackers
from the early 1900's, that I just loved.
Though the 'cracker' reference is probably
from the staple of flour-crackers sent to soldiers during wartime,
I liked the patriotic spin of 'firecracker'
so I made the vintage block in red, white, & blue.

Here's the finish, ready to head to the shower:
The table topper, unfurled:
It measured about 34" by 42" after washing.








the 'Crackers' block
I quilted with a variegated (King Tut) red/white/blue thread
on my Sashiko machine.
and here's the back:
(I always like to look at the quilting from the back of a quilt.
Do you also?)

Here's my pattern for
my Patriotic Firecrackers:
2 1/2 inch by 6 1/2 inch strips, and
5 inch squares cut in half diagonally for the corners (these are a little over-sized for squaring up).
(I do pre-starch (Best Press-unscented is my fav!) all my fabric pieces that are going to be cut on the bias, so there is less stretch apt to happen when piecing.)
I made my blocks all from scraps, with about 15 different cream fabrics and 12 or so each of the blue and red fabrics.  Though scrappy, I did still keep each block of the red/cream strip-sets with blue corners, and all the blue/cream strip-sets with red corners.  I think if you wanted, you could really mix it up and have a beauty of a quilt.
Pretty, simple, and a great stash-buster!!
I LOVE how it turned out, 
and so did the Bride-to-be.
Now I want to make another for myself!
Maybe I can squeeze it in right before the wedding quilt?? :)

Happy Stitching!

2 comments:

  1. NICE! I really like that vintage block also! Good luck with working Cracker quilt in for you to keep! TinTx

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great block pattern! I've seen it before but never invisioned it in red white blue. Now I might have to make one too!

    ReplyDelete

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