2016 QuiltsFree Quilt PatternsQuilt of ValorQuilts

Land of the Free

Last year I designed Land of the Free for Moda’s Piece and Comfort challenge. The challenge required the use of Moda’s Because of the Brave and Red, White, and Free fabric lines to make a quilt honoring a military member for his/her service. When I was done I was not totally satisfied with the result. Although I liked the pattern, it was not a good fit for the fabrics used for the challenge…it really needed simpler fabrics to make it shine.

Land of the Free - 2015 version

I also wanted to change-up the border. The stripes were nice but competed with the center and I wanted to eliminate the framing effect and add some additional small stars around the center.

Land of the Free - 2016 version

And last, because I am a dense quilter, I wanted to increase the top size to allow for the quilting shrinkage. My quilts tend to shrink 3-6 inches from the quilting and another 3-6 inches from washing as I do not pre-wash my fabrics. If you are using this pattern for a Quilt of Valor quilt and pre-wash your fabrics, you can eliminate the last 3-inch border to comply with QOV size guidelines. My quilt top was 78 inches when piecing was done, 75 inches when quilting was done, and 72 inches after washing. The maximum QOV size is 72″ x 90″. Mine finished at 72″ x 72″.

The pattern treats the center star as one huge nine-patch block. When you think of it in those terms, piecing goes together quickly. The pattern also includes techniques for making half-square triangles eight at a time, and flying geese four at a time.

Nine patch center star

For the quilting, I wanted to play with the divide and conquer method of free motion quilting. In the past I have always quilted each section using one design. This time around, I divided each section into subsections.

Quilting

I used fabrics from Moda’s Basic Grey Grunge line this time around. The pattern would also look great with any of the simple patriotic print fabric lines.

Land of the Free

Of course, no quilt photo shoot would be complete without one of my “kids” photo bombing my shot. Chloe decided she was tired of me pointing my camera at the quilt instead of her and plopped herself down in front of the quilt just as I was taking the shot. That’s my girl!

Chloe admires Land of the Free

If you’d like the pattern, you can download here: Land of the Free (Latest Edition: August 11, 2020)

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16 Comments

  1. Can you please confirm the measurements for B White are 7 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches as this seams a very deep piece compared to A white next to it is only 3 1/2 x 3 1/2 inches.

    1. Hi Ann!

      I’m making an assumption here that you are referring to the flying geese unit next to the white square next to it. The reason the cut size is more than double is because the pattern uses the quick method in Appendix A on page 9 to make all four flying geese needed for the block from the 7 1/4 inch block. When you have completed the procedure, you should have four flying geese units which will be a combination of B and C and they should measure 3 1/2 by 6 1/2.

      If you’re like me, seeing it in action helps. Here’s a link to Fons and Porter’s video illustrating quick easy flying geese: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVihSvaZ-2c and they happen to be making the same size flying geese. Hope this helps. 🙂

  2. As of today, the pattern has been republished to include a correction to Block 2 on page 2. If your pattern indicates a published date of 6 April, please download the 27 April edition.

    Thanks Suzanne for catching my mistake!

    1. Thanks for the suggestion. I really like this idea. Unfortunately, I’m working on several Christmas projects right now so it may be a month or so before I can get to it. More to follow…

      🙂

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