The Betsy Ross Quilt • Quilt Finish for America250

June 28, 2026June 27, 2026 Elizabeth E.14 Comments

It’s a big, fancy year for the United States, this 250th celebration of those men in white powdered wigs slaving through the heat of Philadelphia in 1776, trying to figure out how not to have a king, but something else. As Honest Abe Lincoln described it 87 years later, we wanted a government “of the people, by the people, for the people.” The three documents that were eventually crafted, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights are known collectively as the Charters of Freedom. And so we celebrate this beginning.

We’ve done this celebrating before.

The first one I remember was in 1976, and it was the summer of the Bicentennial (200 years). This is about all I can recollect: a picnic with my toddler.

This year, the Semiquincentennial (250), that son will be celebrating the 4th with his family of five in another state, and hopefully they will remember more than a picnic.

When starting a government, or a marriage, or a school, or any great endeavor, there might be some failures. According to noted historian, Joseph J. Ellis, author of The Great Contradiction: The Tragic Side of the American Founding, there were “two unquestionably horrific tragedies the founders oversaw: the failure to end slavery, and the failure to avoid Indian removal” (Kindle, p. 8). Ellis’ book discusses these contradictions, and we are still grappling with these today. Between 1500 and 1800, while “five times as many Africans as Europeans were carried to the New World” (ibid., 13), only a small portion of that diaspora was carried to North America, making us a predominantly white nation of interlopers on the Native Americans who lived here.

Those aren’t the only mistakes we’ve made.

Thomas Jefferson declared in The Declaration of Independence: “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness.” This year, we celebrate that, but I do keep wondering: are we moving towards that beautiful idea, or away from it? And with all the examinations and navel-gazing, maybe we can acknowledge that we aren’t perfect as a nation, but that we generally are pretty amazing?

While I try to hold all these disparate thoughts in my tiny brain — for this 250th celebration, I made a quilt.

My childhood nickname was Betsy, so of course I loved this panel for the back.

This is Quilt #317 and many of the details are on the label. I actually had a different title, but this week decided I wanted to call it The Betsy Ross Quilt. So I made a new label and took off the first one:

(Photography location scout and quilt holder is my saintly husband.)

So this year it will be probably a more contemplative celebration, given the tensions in our national dialogue. I like people on both sides of that dialogue, but my overriding desire is to see how we can care for each other — the people — rather than just going for power or for ruling over the populace. There’s a reason why those Founding Fathers eschewed the idea of a king, and I kind of think they knew what they were doing. The dialogue — fraught as it may be — will continue.

Samuel Adams, 250 years ago this year, was on to something:

Freedom of Thought and the Right of Private Judgment in Matters of Conscience, direct their course to this Happy Country.

While I don’t have any great answers about how we make our way to that Happy Country, I just know I want us to keep trying. As a quilter, I honor that spirit of making mistakes, recognizing them and unpicking a few stitches in the process, so I’ve put out all my red, white and blue quilts around the house to jolly things up over here. To celebrate well.

I hope you do too.

Happy 250th Fourth of July!

Information on some of the Quilts

• The large quilt with EPP circles is I Hear America Singing. Most of the circles patterns are free here on the website.

• Tiny Star free download of pattern (and instructions) found here: https://opquilt.com/2018/07/03/happy-fourth-of-july-2018/

• The post about Betsy’s Creation, my version of the flag quilt, talks about America (of course), with a link to free download and instructions to make the quilt.

• Blog post about the star quilt (with flags in jars on top), has instructions and free download for that mini-quilt.

Monuments and Sights in Washington, D.C.

My husband once had a year-long sabbatical with the Department of State, and I got to know that beautiful city well. Here’s the George Washington Monument in November, when the late fall sunlight turns it golden, taken from the World War II Memorial.

This quote, on the side of the Supreme Court, gets at that delicate balance between just being right vs. recognizing that our liberty needs to be guarded by justice.

My favorite memorial of all was the Lincoln Memorial, especially when I could catch it at odd times, when all the tired tourists had gone home.

Below are some paintings on the ceiling of the Capitol Building (in addition to the Samuel Adams quote, above) that remind me how we stitched our country together:

300 and Beyond · 300 Quilts · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Red, White and Blue · Something to Think About

Quilter Micro-Seasons • Aerial Beacon Quilts

May 31, 2026May 30, 2026 Elizabeth E.11 Comments

I read recently how Japan has multiple micro-seasons, not just our talked-about four. Some of the micro-seasons are East Wind Melts The Ice, or First Cherry Blossoms, or Great Rains Sometimes Fall. Devon Peticolas has worked out that New York City has 12, and one of my favorites is what he calls “Hell’s Front Porch.” (photos by my DH and I)

Apparently, one of my quilting micro seasons is Make Something in Red, White, and Blue. I know people who have this season year-round (Carol, I’m looking at you), but mine just comes around about every May, right around Memorial Day.

Here is The Kid Sister to Aerial Beacon, a quilt finished some time ago, but the when the Computer Ate My Homework (aka, my Patterns), it took me two more years to redraw and re-write to get the pattern out.

But now I have.

The pattern, Aerial Beacon, is now my PayHip Shop.

But there’s another there, too: Santa’s Night Ride, which was published in Simply Vintage Magazine, December 2023. The copyright restrictions are now past, so now you also can get this in PayHip, my online pattern shop.

Why didn’t I combine them? The publisher wasn’t interested in the larger quilt, but did like the smaller version, so I wrote that up and it was published. When I went back to finish up the original Aerial Beacon quilt — because I included so many photo illustrations and variations of the pattern (FPP, EPP and regular piecing), as well as three different border treatments — the page count became quite large, and I didn’t want to freak anyone out with the size of the two combined. But I’ve got them both on sale for a couple of weeks (no coupon needed) and combined it’s about the price of one pattern. (So you don’t have to choose, if you don’t want to.)

If your quilty micro-season is calling out for a red, white, and blue quilt, here’s my recipe for this one. Make the four blocks, then add a 1″ border. I added cornerstones in that border.

I tried a new-to-me half-square-triangle method when I found a small baggie of already cut blue and red/white print triangles, cut off from some other project (I have no idea what). I had recently purchased the Quilt in a Day Triangle Square Up Ruler, and I laid the 2 1/2″ marking on the stitched line, then trimmed. Then I pressed to the dark side, as always, and trimmed the dog ears. I was only lacking 7 half-square triangles for my outer border, showing that truly, I am in the right micro-season and the red, white, and blue gods are smiling down on me.

I had a bit of fabric leftover from making these center blocks, so I used that fabric in the corners of my two outer borders.

I’d originally made these red, white and blue blocks to test the Aerial Beacon pattern using the cut-out-the-pattern-pieces method, rather than using the foundation-paper-pieced method. I do think it’s easier to do the FPP method, but take your time with the first block to get the hang of it.

But since school is out in some places, and going-to-be-out-soon in others, maybe you are in your Go To The Beach micro-season, and need something seagreen and sunny. Then maybe make it up in these colors.

All three together in the garden, showing their relative sizes: 26 1/2″, 36 1/2″ and 65″ square.

I’ve been trying to think of other micro seasons for quilters. Certainly the Sew Until You Are Too Tired To See Straight could be put on the calendar somewhere around October and end the night before Christmas. There’s also the New Fabric Lines Drop, which happens right after quilt market. I can think of also think of seasons for Make a New Tote Bag (right before a trip somewhere), Clean out the Stash to Make Room For More (when you see a new group of beautiful fabrics). And I just noticed ads pushing holiday quilts: I detect another micro-season heading our way!

Whatever season you are in, savor it–

Some Real Aerial Beacons

I wrote about Aerial Beacon here, if you want to read about the genesis of it all, and here, for the early signposts, the large concrete arrows, and how airplanes navigated once upon a time (scroll down in the post to get past the Ladies’ quilt). Here are some more images.

From Underwood Archives: UIG5450625 Chicago, Illinois: July 13, 1928
The new Chicago central aerial beacon atop the Roanoke Tower will begin operation on July 15th. It will be lit by the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Aeronautics, and will be visible for 100 miles in every direction from LaSalle & Madison Streets in Chicago.; Photo © Underwood Archives.

This one is in the hills overlooking St. George, Utah.

Yep. I planned those airplane contrails in the background.

300 and Beyond · Quilts · Red, White and Blue

Houston, We Have a Quilt Top.

April 9, 2026April 9, 2026 Elizabeth E.13 Comments

It started here.

I sewed as I watched and listened to the Artemis II crew do their moon flyby, thrilling me and everyone here on earth. This quilt is supposed to be paying homage to our Constitution at the ripe old age of 250, but now the red, white and blue also now honors these four astronauts, and will be linked in memory to this wonderful week. And that lower right photo? That’s at the Goldstone Deep Space Center in the high desert in California. We visited there last year, and were happy to find out that Goldstone was assisting with the tracking.

I did Yvonne’s trick (aptly her blog name is Quilting Jet Girl). When she slices the quarter-square triangles again, she carefully aligns the ruler with the seam to get a perfect perpendicular slice at that point. I followed this tutorial, a link courtesy of Carol, but there are many hourglass tutorials out there. After seeing Carol’s rendition of this quilt, I purchased a digital version of the pattern here.

Meanwhile, I keep watching the NASA Artemis II feed from Mission Control Center in Houston:

And sewing.

And watching, and sewing.

Finished the quilt top today, one day before the landing over here on the West Coast. Yes, I’ll be watching not only the live NASA feed, but also the skies to the West to see if I can see anything. I’m hopeful.

Stained glass view. It’s about 72″ square.

View from inside the house towards the arbor where I photograph a lot of my quilts.

Happy Landing, Artemis II. Godspeed!

200 Quilts · 300 and Beyond · 300 Quilts · Patterns by Elizabeth of OPQuilt · Quilts · Red, White and Blue · SAHRR 2026 · Sawtooth Stars · Shine: The Circles Quilt · Tiny Quilts

Time Flies Whether You Are Having Fun or Not

February 27, 2026March 3, 2026 Elizabeth E.12 Comments

250 years have flown by, to be exact.

Because I’m a traditional American, a put-out-my-flag sort of gal on the 4th of July, with maybe adding a rootbeer float and maybe a hot dog to go along with it, I’ve been thinking about how I want to celebrate the 250th of our founding of our country.

And yes, I want to make another quilt, and thought I’d throw out a couple of red, white and blue ideas for you and your 250th celebration.

It’s a long story, but this is the red, white and blue version of my EPP quilt, made during covid. The title is I Hear American Singing and references all of us, our differences and how we all sing the song that is America (minus the bad guys, of course). Most all of the block patterns are free here on this blog, so have fun downloading them. The page that has all this info is An EPP Quilt: Circles. Each pattern has a corresponding blog post that’s a tutorial, if you need it.

This hot mess was a Friends Quilt, but I like the idea of a bunch of stars. Very cool background, I must say, but this was in the days when I thought a bunch of random blocks equaled a quilt. I mean, it kind of does…in a way.

This is a better example of what a quilt of many blocks can/should be: Carol Gillen’s Sacajawea quilt; pattern by Minick and Simpson.

Carol’s pup on a red, white and blue: pattern is This is Land That I Love, by Amy Smart. If you can’t tell, Carol’s kind of my go-to for red, white and blue quilts.

My friend Susan designed a star quilt using blue and white stars, called Under Southern Skies (she’s from Australia). She has a free tutorial, if you’d like to make it.

I also like wee red, white and blue quilts. The free instructions are on this post.

Free Pattern and How-Tos

Two links on this one: Head here to get the Free Worksheet to make the quilt, and a look at the final quilt finish: Betsy’s Creation.

I have two quilts for this 250 Celebration I’m dithering between:

I saw this at Carol’s “Celebration Station,” a little display she changes out every month. It’s from Timeless Traditions, and is titled Flag Day. It finishes at 36″ square, so not-too-big. And I already have the pattern!

Another idea is just making a ton of star blocks in different sizes and arranging them.

Erica Jackman just did a Quilt-A-Long on this last year, another pattern I already have.

Anja showed this on her blog, and I love the randomness of this, as well. You can read about it here. If I were to do this, I might throw in a few of my Sawtooth Blocks from my pattern, as I like the different centers:

And of course, there are millions of Quilts of Valor designs out there on the web. I also plan to read a book in tandem with my historian sister Susan, someone who can guide me through understanding about just what our Founding Fathers were trying to get to. The one we’ve chosen was featured in an interview that Judy Woodruff from PBS did the other night.

There are many good books to read about our early history, and of course plays to see, parades to go to, quilts to stitch up.

But another aspect of How Time Flies has to do with the SAHRR 2026 quilt-a-long I’ve been a part of. As always, thanks to the organizers and hosts!

We’ve reached the last prompt, and it was “Quilter’s Choice.” I think Anja has experience in these, because Prompt #6 was just what I needed after a mad smash to get all the words created and stitched on to the four panels surrounding the quilt.

My choice right now is to rest, and get ready for the Top/Quilt reveal on March 25th. I have a couple of simple borders in mind to tie everything together. I am so happy you all encouraged me to keep going, go forward in stitching down the words. I love how they look!

The Stay At Home Round Robin 2026 schedule:
*January 14: Center Blocks, led by Gail and shared by each co-leader
*January 21: 1st Round: Brenda @ Songbird Designs
*January 28: 2nd Round: Kathleen @ Kathleen McMusing
*February 4: 3rd Round: Emily @ The Darling Dogwood
*February 11: 4th Round: Wendy @ Pieceful Thoughts of My Quilting Life
*February 18: 5th Round: Gail @ Quilting Gail
*February 25: 6th Round: Anja @ Anja Quilts
[An asterisk* means that prompt has been posted.]

This has been a sprint, but to think that just six weeks has passed since we started and there are so many lovely quilts to be seen. I’ll include the final Linky party when my quilt is complete, but for a taste, here’s a couple I loved:

Left is Emily, from The Darling Dogwood, and on the right is Wendy from Pieceful Thoughts. Many more, later.

Until then, maybe give a wee thought about how you will celebrate the 250th celebration of our country? Part of it I will endeavor to work to ignore the noise and chaos generated artificially by pronouncements or tweets or truths or influencers. I will think about what I love about being an American, and how living here has shaped me, changed me, helped me. I will think about ways I can help others to see the beauty and joy (and work to change the things that are ugly or that make me angry).

And I will quilt!

This belongs to the quilt at the top of the post. Pretty funny to see what I wrote, since it was during our current president’s first term. I guess turmoil and chaos goes with his presidency!