Three Cheers For the Red, White & Blue! --- Part 1

Well, I'm about half way through the month and for a change feel like I got a few things accomplished!  As the title notes, all the things are related to the color stash I'm working from:  Red, White & Blue fabrics.  I've been attracted to R/W/B quilts since I began quilting and have made a few quilts in that color scheme as well as a few tops still waiting to be quilted (and to see them, click on the "R/W/B Quilts" label on the sidebar).

When the QOV mission was founded, I just knew I had to join in both to contribute and for the chance to make more R/W/B blocks and quilts!  Years ago I donated blocks for MODA's "Just One Star" block drive and I already have one R/W/B QOV top waiting for quilting.  Well now I've got another:  "What Goes Around Comes Around" is a flimsy!

When I started this one (after seeing it on a post on the Katy Quilts blog), I didn't know its origin so I called it the "Garlic Knots QOV" because it looked like one of Bonnie Hunter's Addicted To Scraps blocks:

However, I eventually found out it was actually the pattern "Patriotic Patchwork" by Debra Finan from the Love of Quilting July/August 2012 issue.   I was pretty sure I had that one since I have a few other issues from that year (I had a LOQ subscription back then) and I saw another quilt in that issue that I recognized.  I couldn't for the life of me remember where I had put it until I finished the top and began looking around to see if I had any large backing pieces.  When I had started on this round of QOV work, I had actually gone through and organized all the  R/W/B stash.  I remembered from that inventory of the stash that I had a few large cuts of fabric and had also put aside some fabric bundles for potential projects.  So of course what's the first thing I find?  This bundle:

....with this on top!  This is the quilt I remember seeing when I had done a web search for the issue.  And sure enough, here's the original "Patriotic Patchwork" pattern in it!

So it turns out the design was right under my QOV nose the whole time and hence the quilt name!  I also had a whole lot of that stripe print in the bundle so some of it will become the backing for this quilt.  So now I have the three QOVs I wanted.

They all are now (approriately enough) stored in this bag:

It's one of the C&T Publishing Eco Totes that I got a few years back when they were promoting the Island Batik "Quilted In Honor" fabric line with quilts designed by C & T authors.  These bags are great for storage or carrying around at quilt shows.  They are eco-friendy too since according to the C & T site, they are made from recycled water bottles.

So now that I have a stash of tops and backings, I need to plan to get them quilted by September so I can offer them to the local VFW for distribution in November for Veteran's Day.  However, that was not the end of the R/W/B fun.  More to follow in the next post!