Mismatched Stars and Stripes featuring Century Solids by Andover Fabrics
Mismatched Stars and Stripes is a modern quilt pattern inspired by one of my favorite holidays, the Fourth of July. This pattern uses the traditional sawtooth star quilt block combined with a modern, unbalanced stripe. I love how this quilt design combines the traditional and modern.
Mismatched Stars and Stripes is available in my shop.
Inspiration
Mismatched Stars and Stripes came was inspired by the idea of creating an image similar to an American flag using the sawtooth star and a striped block next to it. However, this is a pretty basic idea and as I quickly learned has been done before very well by other quilt designers.
As I was designing the quilt I was thinking of other ways of designing a stripe, that could be strip pieced, and could also use fat quarters for the star and stripes. Mismatched Stars and Stripes came out of that idea. This modern quilt pattern is so simple and yet so eye catching at the same time.
Century Solids
This is my fourth version of this quilt. But this is my favorite. Why? I just love the colors used in this version. I was first inspired to make this version of Mismatched Stars and Stripes after I saw this Century Solids fabric bundle. Century Solids is the line of solid fabrics produced by Andover Fabrics. I had never used Century Solids before this quilt. However, I am now a huge fan! It is considered a bit of a higher end fabric, think maybe a notch above Kona on the solid fabric spectrum.
Century Solids has huge selection of colors and I loved the texture of their fabric. It is very soft, yet also keeps it shape. Maybe it's because I had previously worked with some woven fabrics that frayed like crazy, but these fabrics were so easy to work with. No fraying and I have since washed this quilt and had no color bleeding.
I chose their bright white background color because I really wanted the solids to pop and have a nice contrast. It was the perfect choice.
Mismatched Stars and Stripes is a relatively quick pattern. But then again most of my patterns are. I don't love tedious patterns. I have four kids and homeschool and most of the time can't even remember what I was doing the moment before. So tedious quilts are not my jam. Modern, quick, fun quilts are my jam. The stars on this quilt take the longest time. The stripes are strip pieced. So those babies just fly by. Once you make the sawtooth blocks this pattern is a cinch.
If you have read many of my other blogs or done many of my other patterns, think Red Fort of Agra, then you know I don't really like planning ahead with laying out the blocks for assembly. It's not that I don't think this is a fantastic idea. I do! I just do not have the space in my house/flat. And I do not have a design. So I like a quilt where you can randomly sew the blocks together and it still looks awesome at the end. This quilt however, is probably not one of those.
I had my kids help me lay all the blocks out from this quilt on the living room floor. They like organizing and rearranging them with me. The stripes are supposed to alternate and be random. So it's good to kind of plan the randomness if that makes sense.
The backing was fun to choose. Right around the time I was making this quilt Andover released a whole line of modern yarn dyed cotton fabrics by Alison G
lass. So I decided to stay in the Andover family and bought fabric from the Alison Glass collection Kaleidoscope - Stripes and Plaid. It was hard to choose which print I wanted because they are all such a beautiful mix of colors. I landed on Plaid in Marmalade. I liked the orange hues and thought it went well with the front. This fabric is a yard dyed cotton and has a great texture. I am super happy with it.
I decided to do straight line quilting on this modern quilt. I started with quilting two inch lines across the whole quilt. Then, I filled in those gaps by quilting one inch in between. Ultimately I decided to fill in those gaps by quilting 1/2 inch lines vertically across the quilt. I just love the affect it has. I like how modern and simple it looks. I chose a brick red color from Century Solids for the binding fabric. It framed the quilt perfectly.
This quilt will be entered in the 2021 Sisters Outdoor Quilt Show. It will also be up for sale. So be watching or reach out if you are interested before then.
Make sure to grab yourself a copy of this fast, modern quilt pattern in my shop. Also, check out Century Solids for yourself. You won't be sorry.
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