Color and Design! The wonderful creative play of quilting! Fabrics are my crayons and patterns are my coloring book pages. How about you?

When a holiday comes along we quilters make quilt pieces to decorate our homes to celebrate! And the 4th of July is just days away!

At Eye of the Beholder most of our patterns themselves are not themed so you can easily just remake a beloved pattern in appropriate fabrics and you’re all set! Maybe you want to choose themed fabrics or simply choose seasonally colored fabrics, like red, white and blue for the 4th of July . Generally that’s what I do.

The other day I was fooling around with some of our pattern designs in EQ8 and Island Batik foundation collection fabrics in good old fashioned Yankee Doodle red, white and blue! (What’s great about the foundation collection fabrics is they don’t go out of print, too.)

Here are some of the ideas I brainstormed. Some are good and some are”interesting”. I didn’t throw out the “interesting” ones yet, but I offer them to you to get your own creative juices flowing. And because I think it’s interesting to compare, I included pictures of the original design colorway of each pattern I played with.

The first one I played with was Yorkshire Pudding table runner (14” x 32”). The pattern includes directions to make placemats and reversible napkins, too. So you could make a whole set for your 4th of July table.

I had fun playing with Sweetheart Sorbet Medallion XII (26” x 26”), too. It has a Pennsylvannia Dutch/ Swedish Tolle painting feel to the original pattern.

Christmas RAPPing book, with its star patterns, goes patriotic for the 4th of July! I put together 3 of the 12” paper-pieced Stars of Light to create a few red, white & blue table runners and then did the same with the reverse applique Star of Wonder blocks. You could even re-create the Star of Wonder. Star of Light wall-hanging or the Starry Light table runner right out of the book in this July colorway. And while your making your 4th of July decorations you could get a jump on your Christmas gift sewing.

And our pretty little May Day (22” x 22”) gem that just came out sparkles in red, white and blue. Which is your favorite version?

Pacific Splash table runner X (25” x 49”) jumps on in, too.

And how about Chantilly Lace table runner XIV (20” x 60”)?

And last but not least, Midnight Explosion Quilt VII (95” x 95”) transforms your bedroom for the summer.

When we brainstorm, some combinations, of course, work better than others. Some should just be trashed. Some we know immediately are brilliant or we “like”. But as we play with combinations we often stumble upon a new way of seeing the familiar, and open up different doors of creative possibilities. The time to make judging evaluations is after we brainstorm. That would come next.

Now is the time to consider how one would make their own red, white and blue 4th of July pattern. Even if you hate all of my brainstorm ideas, what new creative possibilities opened up for you?

Happy 4th of July! and Happy Quilting!

Quilting is a creative act of hope.