Stars on the 4th

We Australians have our own 'Australia Day' to celebrate the foundation of European settlement of Australia in 1788 - it is a bit controversial these days because of our acknowledgement of the aboriginal custodians of this continent - but we do not celebrate to the same extent as American Independence Day. We never went to war with England over sovereignty of rule. 

I am happy to finally share a great USA patriotic project that my 'Handmade Swap' partner, Jodie, got on Monday of this week - just in time for 4th of July celebrations.

I was excited to make this for Jodie after I saw her post about wanting a red,white and blue runner for her dresser. I have been stashing a small quantity of RWB fabric for just such a project (my nephew is US born). I made myself a great runner earlier this year and I wanted to do something similar.

So I called on my quilty friend Kristy from Quiet Play for suggestions of patterns that included stars and a charm pack. She came up with a brilliant link to a pattern called 'Charming Stars' in the Moda Bakeshop. It was easy to put together. The charm pack came from Keepsake Quilting and I used Kona snow for the stars. I used simple lines about 1" width for the quilting and hand quilted the squares of the stars. And you gotta love a stripey Seussical border!

I also wanted to make the runner double sided to take advantage of the situation and some great leftover pieces. I used French General's textured solid for the rest.

Then I had leftover small triangles from the cutting process and had to make something with them - perfect enough to make a RWB mug rug.

Also double sided. "Coffee Up" is an expression used by writer and swordboat captain Linda Greenlaw, in her book 'The Hungry Ocean'. My current reading book in my car.

Kristy was again helpful in sending me some Hershey chocolate bars to send as an extra sweetener. So this is the package that Jodie received - sort of two parcels in one really!

I am linking up with....