Merdeka Quilt, Patriotic Quilt

Another quilt done and bound. This is my first patriotic quilt. We don’t usually decorate our house with patriotic things, but some of us do. An even if they do, it is normally just outside their home. I’ll share some of those when August comes.

As Malaysian, we celebrate our Independence Day in the month of August. 31st of August will be the date we were free, in Malay we called this Merdeka. This year of 2022 will be our 65th Year of Independence.

Hence, I’d like to call this my Merdeka Quilt.

If you’re wondering why the colors are the same as the American flag (Americana colours) except for the yellows, you can read more about the colour choices at the beginning of making this quilt HERE>.

America’s flag and the Malaysia flag is very much the same isn’t? Which is lucky for me because next time, I can also make the same stripes from lots of patterns available.

There are plenty of Americana Quilts Patterns out there that I can use too which makes it a lot more fun.

Patriotic Quilt

As with all the sampler quilts, this one was definitely an enjoyable one to make.

I get bored when piecing or cutting 100’s of the same size units, hence sampler quilt is my go-to quilts.

You can seee some of previous Sampler Quilts in my previous post below:

This time, I took the time to get some more Drone Photos just like when I did with Sewcialites Quilt! It is always exciting to get to do this and I ought to do it more often. Looking at quilts from far above is quite a view.

There are affiliate links within this post from which I may earn a commission from. Read full disclosure here.

Riley Blake Design Block Challenge

Riley Blake Design ran a quilt along that has ended (from Jan 4th to May 17th) but you still can get the free patterns available. The quilt along is called the RBD Block Challenge which I suppose is perfect for the challenging blocks they have for this sampler quilt.

You can click here to get the free patterns for all the blocks.

You can also join the Facebook Group here to see lots of blocks being made in various fabrics by quilters from all over the world.

Fabric Choices for a Patriotic Quilt look

I chose to make mine in patriotic colors from an older collection by Riley Blake Designs. Absolutely love the floral goodness with the deep colors of this collection. I decided to add a yellow Blossom by Christopher Thomspon for Riley Blake Designs for the alternate Irish chain block in between the sampler blocks.

You can get a similar vibe with the newer collection HERE>

I changed the layout slightly, using two less block than the layout provided by Riley Blake. The Irish chain setting blocks were made easily and quickly by strip piecing. This is super easy when you have the Stripology Ruler! I absolutely love this ruler. You can see the video embedded below in the previous post HERE.

Quilt Top and Backing Layout with Quilt Label

We were supposed to add one more block of our choice and complete the top with 17 blocks altogether. I decided to not make the extra one block so I have 15 blocks. I only used 14 for the quilt top so I placed one block on the back with my label.

This is a fun way to use any extra block you made for a quilt. Use them on the back.

As usual, I picked one of the Label I printed from Quilt Label Wizard and pieced in with the backing.

You can learn the exact way how I do this in Quilt Label Wizard, all you need to do is simply change the text to your name!

Cotton Poplin for Quilt Backing

The backing fabric is a yellow little floral of a cotton poplin fabric. I bought this from a local shop and it is way cheaper than the quilting cotton.

I have used cotton poplin many of my quilt and have never had any trouble with it. They are much thinner, but with the three layers of quilt and not many seams, it works just great.

I try to save here and there when making, you can also check out some more ideas to quilt on a budget HERE>

Free Motion Quilting Woodgrain

Funny story is that I actually wanted to do wind look textures. It is very similar to the woodgrain, except that the swirls are more rounded and supposedly wind textures will go horizontal instead of vertical like woodgrain look on the tree bark.

But…. I didn’t double check the orientation of my quilt before quilting, and when I realised that I wasn’t going to turn back. It is what it is. A woodgrain look.

The texture is great on this quilt, and not overwhelming for the sampler quilt.

It was also quick to do, I took about 5 hours in total spread over 5 days to quilt this on my domestic machine. Mostly this was done early in the morning and sometime before dinner.

Quick All Over Quilting Design using Domestic Machine

Allover quilting does not take too long on a domestic machine, and by scaling the size of the design, it can be pretty quick. Denser quilting are easier to handle under domestic machine but they can take so long to complete.

With simple wonky lines design like this, you can cover quite an area in little time. and it is very forgiving! No lines are too wonky, no worries if they do overlap here and there.

Remember, I am not making a quilt for a show here. If I was, I would probably put more time into it.

I quilt for my home and gifting to friends and family, and I am sure they wouldn’t even notice the little flaws.

So that will be the same advice I’ll give to those who want to start quilting on their domestic machine. Don’t be too hard on yourself, let go and just quilt away to the finish line.

If you want to learn how to tackle this design and many more, I would love to invite you to join Free Motion Quilting Bootcamp! We have over 700+ students in the Bootcamp getting more confidence to quilt at home!

Join Free Motion Quilting Bootcamp HERE>

Or join our free mini lessons for beginner Free Motion Quilting HERE>

Stripy Binding

I didn’t have any more fabrics from the bundle I started with to make the binding, therefore I had to shop my stash to see if any would match.

There were few selection, and I asked in Instagram for your opinions.

Many voted for the Navy Stripy Binding. I was drawn to that too. Stripy binding can never go wrong right?

Love the diagonal stripes. The fabric is from Shine On by Bonnie and Camille. Whenever I see a stripy fabric, I always want to stash on them especially if there were on sale! They always makes good binding. 1/2 yards is often a great size enough for binding a decent size quilt.

Fun Drone Photos of the Quilt

So, I’ll end this post with more drone photos! And you can also check the short video on Instagram.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Amira – Quilting And Sewing (@amira_littlemushroomcap)

Tools I love using for this patriotic quilt project

Diagonal Seam Tape. This is a game-changer when it comes to making lots of HST. No more marking on the fabric, and they work perfectly great. Tape it to the machine, and keep an eye on the tape to guide the fabric through.

My new 14″ square portable boards. You can read more or find the tutorial about that here>

Stripology Squared Ruler – this is so easy to use for trimming the many HST’s we have in these blocks. I use this to square up all the units that are larger than 2.5″ square.

Seam Roller. I used this a lot for piecing the units together. This helps to cut time pressing the seams. I press the block with a hot iron only when the units are large or when the block is all done.

Seam Ripper! A sharp and ergonomic one makes a whole lot of difference, I did use this seam ripper a lot for this quilt.

My trusted workhorse, Janome Horizon Memory Craft QCP8200
Sets of Trimming Rulers (small rulers makes a difference when you need to trim small units)
Mini Rotating Mat (mainly used to trim the units before piecing them together)