HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY! Are your hot dogs ready for the grill? Sparklers waiting to be lit? I think we’re all in the spirit for a little celebration so to kick off your Fourth of July weekend take a peek at Daphne Stewart’s 13 Stars and 13 Stripes quilt, featured in Quiltmaker this month. She designed this quilt in EQ5 and presented it to Quiltmaker back in 2004! Quiltmaker jumped on the chance to show case the quilt and now we finally get to see it in 2009.

Here’s what Daphne tells us about designing her quilt:
“I remember I started with the idea of a horizontal quilt, sort of like a rectangular flag. I had sewn a small flag with one star and scrappy red stripes in the days before I had EQ and I thought I’d expand on that idea. In that file, I had about 18 versions of the 13-star segment paired with horizontal stripes and thought I was making progress. But as sometimes happens, a “better idea” took over.
~ Daphne Stewart

Well it certainly turned out great, Daphne! Daphne says in the Quiltmaker magazine;

“I liked the way a simple change of color in the small stars creates a frame for the big star. Red, white, blue and stars – That’s a happy combination for me.”We agree!