Reporting in on the July NewFO

Well it's August and the summer is now officially winding down.  I had planned to spend July working on items from my list of 3rd Quarter Finish-A-Long UFOs but instead I just couldn't let go of the Red, White & Blue phase I was in for all of June.  I had hinted at it here and now I can present another patroitc NewFO for this year:

 

This is my version of the "Liberty Hall" wallhanging that was featured in the Summer 2008 issue of Fons & Porter's "Easy Quilts" magazine and also now appears in their compilation book "The Best of Fons & Porter: Patriotic Quilts" as (just) "Liberty".  I made mine a little smaller than the magazine version to fit the space I plan to hang it in.  Even better it was all done from stash! 

 

After the top and back were finished, the ensuing debate has been over the quilting or actually the batting.  I thought the elements in the center panel would look good done in the trapunto style.  I know how to use two layers of poly batting and prep for machine trapunto but the amount of detail would make doing that difficult.  But after looking at the description for a free-motion quilt class, the supply list sent me in a new direction:  using wool batting to get the "puffy" look I want.  

 

Fortunately it just so happened that I had some wool batting scraps leftover from my "Merrimac Dresdens" project and I was able to "Frankenstein" enough together to make the batt for this earlier in the week and finally got the layering and basting done last night.

And while I don't want to sit on this too long, I know I really need to get back to the Finish-A-Long projects so we'll have to see what wins out. 

The print I used for the center has many elements that to my mind symbolized "bountiful"  so my name for this wallhanging will be "Sweet Land of Liberty" from the song "My Country 'Tis of Thee".  As quilting serendiptiy would have it, the Summer 2013 issue of Primitive Quilts and Projects magazine had a small wool project called "Let Freedom Ring" (you can see a peek of it on the right in the picture).  Wool has become one of my interests and the project name happens to be the last line of the first stanza of the same song so I'm hoping to add this little project to the R/W/B list too!

Want to see more NewFO goodness for July?

Head back over to Barbara at CatPatches and see what other quilters fired up in July!