A Quilt for Bill: Square in a Square Complete

Hi, I would like to share my completed patriotic Square in Square quilt that I finished quilting this week.

I plan to give this quilt to my Uncle Bill, who is a Viet Nam Veteran. This is a way to thank him for his service to our country and also in celebration that he is here with us to share Thanksgiving this year. Last year he was in the hospital for a heart operation and suffered a stroke afterwards. We are all very thankful that he has made a full recovery and back to his old ornery self.

We had fresh snow this week with more to come tonight and tomorrow, just in time to make holiday travels intersesting. It does make for a pretty backdrop when the sun finally came out.

This quilt has been very hard to get to show nicely in photos. The red and blue bars overpower the white patriotic print and tends to make it look blurry.

Here is the pieced backing and it shows my quilting fairly well. I did the horizontal double stripes and then stitched a presser foot distance away from squares to make the chain linked effect. I quilted the first set of horizontal rows with out my walking foot on and quickly put it on as it was shifting the design more than I wanted it. I used a poly batting was in my Mom’s sewing stuff. I have not used that in years, and it seemed to work nicely and makes a fairly fluffy quilt. The stitching turned out quite nice using it.

The red fabric was a bit heavier than the white and blue backing fabrics but I didn’t seem to have any trouble quilting through it.

Here is a photo of my other trusting quilting buddy. Abbey, my Lab/Shepherd. She was my photo taking assistant today.

And we can not forget Buddy, the cat. He helped hold fabric down and keep track of my safety pins. I am going to have to fight him for this quilt as he has been laying on it quite a lot today. It needs to go in the wash before it is gifted Thursday.

*****Update….Thankfully the quilt survived it’s trip through the washing machine and dryer. I washed it in cold with Woolite and used two Color Catcher sheets. The color catchers did change a light color of pink, so there was still some red dye that bleeds. Not a spot of red or blue dye any where to be seen anywhere it should not be. Yeah, me!! There appears to be minimum overall shrinkage. Probably less than 2 inches in both directions, which can be largely to quilting and should be minimial due to some prewashing of fabrics/some could be broadcloth (so not 100% cotton )and using poly based batting. The quilt finishes at 67 by 89 inches so a nice size throw to snuggle under.

I hope my Uncle likes his quilt as much as Buddy does or more. I will be linking up this finish with the midweek quilt linky parties. I am busy quilting on my Broken Frames quilt this week as well.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Sewing,

Shelley