America's Anniversary Wall Quilt with embroidery

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America's Anniversary Wall Quilt

This tutorial shows how to make a small wall quilt to mark the 250th anniversary of the United States. The project combines embroidery, quilting, and sewing to create a hanging with stars in red, white, and blue, along with the words "250 years". You can follow the steps to finish the quilt top, add the quilting, and prepare it for display.

We used the designs from the 250 Years Anniversary Set.
The finished size of the quilt is about 16" x 19". It is about the size of a small wall hanging and works well as a patriotic decoration.

Sky blue quilt with red and blue star blocks and embroidery

You will need:

embroidery threads, either polyester or rayon;
about 1/2 yard of sky blue fabric for the main part with embroidery;
small amount of red and royal blue fabrics for the border and binding;
fabric for the backing;
light- to medium-weight cut-away embroidery stabilizer;
batting;
quilter's ruler;
rotary cutter;
iron;
#12 universal needle for piecing;
quilting threads of matching colors;
#12-#14 quilting needle.

Embroidery:

On the sky blue fabric for the main part, use the paper print-outs or the test stitch-outs of the designs to lay out the picture you are going to embroider.
Upload the selected files to the embroidery machine.
Select threads. Stabilize the fabric. Hoop tightly and embroider the designs one by one.
Press if needed. Remove the stabilizer around the embroidery.

Trim the stitch-out to a 12 1/2" x 16 1/2" rectangle.

Cutting:

Out of the sky blue fabric, cut several 1 1/2" wide strips across the width of the fabric. Subcut them into:

32 squares measuring 1 1/2" x 1 1/2";
32 rectangles measuring 1 1/2" x 2 1/2".

Out of the red fabric, cut:

3 squares measuring 2 1/2" x 2 1/2";
several 1 1/2" wide strips across the width of the fabric, subcut into 24 squares measuring 1 1/2" x 1 1/2".

Use the remaining red fabric for the binding.

Out of the royal blue fabric, cut:

5 squares measuring 2 1/2" x 2 1/2";
several 1 1/2" wide strips across the width of the fabric, subcut into 40 squares measuring 1 1/2" x 1 1/2".

Borders - Star Block:

Make 3 blocks with red stars and 5 blocks with blue stars.

Position a 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" sky blue strip on your work surface, face up. Position one of the red or royal blue 1 1/2" squares, face down, on the left end of the rectangle. Align the edges.
With a sharp pencil, draw a diagonal line to connect the upper right corner and the lower left corner.

Sky blue rectangle with a red square placed on the left end and a diagonal line drawn across the square

Machine stitch along the diagonal line.
Cut the excess fabric, leaving a scant 1/4" seam allowance.
Unfold the square and press.

Sky blue rectangle with one red corner triangle stitched and pressed on the left end

Repeat for the other side of the strip.

Completed flying geese unit with a sky blue triangle pointing up between two red corner triangles

Make 20 royal blue "flying geese" units and 12 red ones.

Star Block:

Sew two of the "flying geese" units to the left and right edges of the royal blue and red 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" squares.

Red center square with a flying geese unit on its left and right edges, the red corner triangles set against the square

Sew the remaining sky blue squares to each end of the remaining "flying geese" units. You will need 10 strips with blue and 6 strips with red "flying geese".

A row made of a sky blue corner square, a red flying geese unit, and another sky blue corner square

Sew these strips to the top and bottom edges of the central part of the block.

Completed star block with a red eight-pointed star on a sky blue background

Assembly:

Note: the seam allowance is 1/4". Press each seam immediately after you make it.

Sew the 3 red star blocks together to make the red star border.
Sew the 5 blue star blocks together to make the blue star border.

Red star border made of three star blocks joined in a horizontal row

Blue star border made of five star blocks joined in a vertical column

Sew the red star border to the lower edge of the embroidered part.

Embroidered sky blue panel with star motifs and the red star border sewn along its lower edge

Sew the blue star border to the left edge of the working piece.

Finished quilt top with the blue star border along the left edge, the embroidered panel in the upper right, and the red star border across the lower right

Quilting and Finishing

Now place the backing on a flat surface, face down. Cover it with batting. Spread your working piece over it.

Pin all layers together.
We quilted the whole piece with matching threads in a free-motion style. Start with the main part and echo-quilt the embroidery first, then quilt around it.
Quilt the borders in the ditch.

Press with steam. Square up the piece so that all angles are 90 degrees and opposite sides are the same length.
Finish the raw edges with the binding.