Happy 4th of July!

[First of all, thanks to all 3 of you who raised your hand for the flannel scraps giveaway! I was happy to have any takers at all! Congrats to #2, Pam of Warm Hugs Design! Send me your address and I'll get those scraps in the mail to you!]

And now, another finish!! I'm only a little late on this one... It's a table topper that I started way back in July - a birthday present for my stepmom, Claudia. I'm so happy to have it done in time to hand-deliver it when we visit my family in Texas later this week. Claudia loves to decorate for holidays, so I think she'll really like it. My dad is a former Army guy, so he should at least appreciate the theme!

I'm so proud! It's really my first traditional quilt project, with REAL blocks, and sashing and cornerstones and everything! And I kinda love it - all the fabrics came from my stash, but they came together so nicely. Every bit (except the star points) has stars - even the cream has a tiny star print! The design (such as it is - it's pretty simple!) is my own - I just made it up as I went.

I liked it so much, I made a tiny version to go with it!

I considered giving them both away together, but I'm going to be selfish and keep the little one. I want to start a wall of mini-quilts, and this will be my first one. Yay!

I love the stars... I was going to go wonky at first, but I'm glad I kept it traditional. Well, maybe they're slightly wonky anyway... :-)

The quilting is just a free-motion stippling. It's been a while since I did any of that, so it was fun to get back in the groove. And nice to only have to do these small sizes! The mini is about 20" square, and the big one is about 36" square.

I thought about trying to make it dual-purpose by putting something Christmas-like on the back. After much mental debate, I settled on this snowflake print that matched the color of the binding, and did a plain back. I added little pockets on the corners, in case they want to hang it on the wall instead of using it on the table. I'm not sure it will work (I've never tried to hang a quilt before!), but I'd read about it somewhere and figured it wouldn't hurt to try! Hopefully the corners are subtle enough that the quilt can still be used upside down on the table at Christmas time.

So, it's a finish, and you know what that means - another giveaway!

How about a kit to make a little mini quilt of your own? Everything you need (except for batting) is included, and it's all cut to size and ready to piece. I'm not including any instructions for how to put it together, because I'm sure you can figure it out (you can always email me with questions). Oh, heh - I was just about to say that international shipping is okay, but duh! Oh wait, maybe some ex-pat would like a little reminder of home? Anyway, everyone is welcome to enter, just let me know if you're interested in your comment!