From Janet Wickell,
Your Guide to Quilting.
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Patriotic quilts can be made by changing the theme of nearly any quilt to red, white and blue. Star quilts are always a good choice, but others work equally well. Try one of these patterns for your next patriotic quilt. Make extra blocks to sew larger quilts.

• Stretched Stars, with easy pieced sashing and star blocks in two sizes.

• Joyous Celebration is a wallhanging sewn with a Christmas theme, but its snowball and star block combination makes it a good choice for patriotic themed fabrics.

• Which Way Do We Go?. I can visualize this quilt in bold red, whites and blues.

• Janet's Ugly Quilt is made up of stars. Make additional blocks to sew a larger quilt if you like -- and I know your quilt will look so much better than mine.

• Around the Twist is a quilt that could have lots of texture and visual movement with the additional of striped fabric in its long rectangles.

• Mother's Fantasy Windows. Put flags and other patriotic items in the windows and make the sills from patriotic colors.

• Walk Around the Block is a miniature quilt with a pictorial center. I can see this little quilt with a vintage-looking patriotic scene at its center, surrounded by patriotic colors and small prints.

Make Something to Sit On

Spread our this soft, cuddly rag quilt when it's time to have an impromptu picnic or watch fireworks. Cut some extra blocks to make the quilt a little more spacious. Sew it in red, white and blue or use your favorite colors.

A Few Quilt Blocks

• Can't Stop Spinnin' is a stylized star block that would work nicely for a patriotic quilt.

• Evening Stars with Nine Patch Centers, a block that will showcase your patriotic fabrics.

• Double Four Patch Blocks are made in pairs, one with a light pathway of squares and the other its reverse, with a dark pathway. It would look incredible sewn as a patriotic quilt.

• Scrappy Floating Stars is a super-easy quilt block that's perfect if you want to make a very scrappy patriotic quilt.

If you're looking for a Fourth of July table runner, try my Christmas themed runner, but with different fabrics. Choose a patriotic border stripe and fill in with fabrics that continue the theme.

You can convert nearly any pattern into any theme you'd like by simply changing its fabrics.

More Free Quilt Patterns