My initial plan to release these Toad-spos at the start of the month, coinciding with the 4th of July, didn't go as intended. However, I'm still determined to showcase a unique approach to making a red, white, and blue quilt that avoids the common pitfalls of being overly flashy or cliché. Instead, I want to capture the essence of my cherished summer memories from the early 2000s: reminiscing about neighborhood BBQs, playing manhunt past dark with friends, sporting those classic Old Navy t-shirts, and sitting by the pool eating a popsicle.  Whether you are from the U.S. or not, I think this July quilt color palette embodies a sense of playfulness that plays well with many quilt patterns!

I chose this specific pattern, the Welcome Home Quilt, because of its firework-like effect. It just felt like the epitome of July and warm weather. I just want to grab this quilt and sit by a lake with a cooler full of freshly cut watermelon, cold beer, and sandwiches! 

If this is your first time seeing the Welcome Home quilt, *welcome*! This modern quilt pattern is one that I wrote a few years ago. The name 'Welcome Home' stems from the fact that my fiance and I bought a house together around the time of writing this pattern. After two years of living in the Washington area, we decided to make our country-wide transition a little more permanent by buying our first home together here in the PNW.

The release of this quilt pattern was also around the same time as the pandemic was calming down a bit and families were starting to spend time with each other again. I took inspiration from the state of the country feeling a little more 'normal' through the recovery of the pandemic. During the holidays in the middle of the pandemic, most families were celebrating over video-chats and/or deprived of traditional gatherings. It felt nice to finally be able to see everyone in person during the holiday season this quilt was release and feel *welcomed home*.

Our July Toad-Spo Welcome Home quilt was made entirely of Art Gallery Fabrics print and solid fabrics! On the top, we went with Pure Solids in the colors Heart of the Ocean, Royal Cobalt, Aero Blue, Sweet Macadamia, Apricot Crepe, and Terracotta Tile. This color palette pairs vibrant blues with more muted reds and peaches. The muted warm tones help tone down the blues making it feel a little less "in your face red/white/blue."

The Welcome Home quilt pattern offers three-different design options in regards to the number of tones to choose from. For our Toad-Spo sample, we went with design option 3 or the bonus colorway. This colorway option allows you to choose two different color groups to be used for the stars in this quilt. In our quilt sample, we have a blue star and an orange star.

 One of the biggest pieces of advice I would give to new quilters is to make sure you have a system for keeping your fabric organized throughout the piecing process. Sometimes pattern designers will provide labels for you to use. USE THEM! And sometimes these labels aren’t for you, and you have a different method that works better for your brain. That’s okay too! But I strongly recommend using a system that will help prevent you from making mistakes and causing yourself frustration.

At the very least, I like to label my fabric pieces according to what color or fabric they are in the quilt pattern I’m following. You’ll see above that each stack of fabric has a handwritten label with which tone they match up with in the pattern and what the name of the fabric is. This helps me make sure that, at the very least, no color goes in the wrong spot in the quilt. Which I mean, at the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter if the quilt isn’t perfect. But when you are learning a new skill, it doesn’t hurt to establish good techniques in the beginning!

The Welcome Home quilt is made up of a little strip piecing, a little flying geese making, and a little block building. Flying geese blocks are little rectangle-shaped blocks with a triangle in the middle. These traditional blocks can be made a couple different ways. My favorite is using the no-waste 4-at-a-time method! My good friend, Fran of Cotton and Joy, actually has a blog post that goes in-depth about this! You should definitely check it out. The process is a little funny - you end up with some pretty funny-looking shapes while sewing. But as long as you follow and trust the process, you’ll end up with perfect, crisp blocks!

The flying geese are used for the points of the center sawtooth star blocks. I really love to incorporate traditional elements in my modern quilt pattern designs from time to time. The Welcome Home quilt is no exception to that!

We knew that we wanted to go with a starry pantograph for this quilt! We had to incorporate the fireworks and stars common of July into the pantograph in some way. We went through a few options with the main focus being something that wasn’t too busy. We didn’t want to compete with the quilt design, so we ended up going with the Simple Snowflake 2 panto designed by Karen Thompson. It’s kind of funny that the panto wasn’t designed for fireworks at all, but it fit perfect for us!

The backing fabric for the July Welcome Home sample is this adorable Patchwork Revival print from Art Gallery Fabrics. I actually intended to use this fabric for a different quilt sample, but when I saw it in person, I knew it HAD TO go with this quilt! I love that from far away, it looks a little like a plaid print. This plaid, “red, white and blue,” and firework themed quilt would be perfect for a summer picnic! 

The binding is the Pure Solids Heart of the Ocean fabric that we used in the quilt top.

We absolutely love how this turned out! Aubrey and Ashley did an exceptional job making this Welcome Home quilt come to life. If you’d like to make this quilt, you can now grab the quilt pattern on sale through the weekend! Use the code WHJULY20 at checkout for 20% off theWelcome Home quilt pattern.

 If you’d like to make this quilt a reality, please contact one of these shops!

• Full Moon Fabric Company
• Pasadena Quilt Studio
• Lamb and Loom Fabrics
• Cottoneer
• Hawthorne Supply Co.
• Stash Fabrics
• Wyldwood Creative
• Blossom Quilt & Craft
• Piper Autumn Fabrics

 Our featured maker this month is Aubrey! She is from the Kansas City area and has been quilting since she was just 11 years old! With her mom being a quilter, she was able to learn by her side and sew with some of her scraps. She has a hard time picking a favorite fabric line because she loves them all! She thinks it’s akin to picking a favorite child, which seems totally true. BUT her favorite color is yellow, so you’ll see a lot of yellow used in her quilts.

Aubrey finds creative inspiration everywhere! She loves scrolling through Pinterest and Instagram and looking at everyone’s beautiful makes. She really enjoys finding a pattern she loves and then scouring for fabric that she thinks will complement it well! Or vice versa. She does all of this to work towards her goal of never growing tired of quilting. As long as she continues to make things she’s excited about or feeling creative with, the hobby stays alive! And of course, it helps that she’s able to spend time with her mother over FaceTime while they sew together.

Fun Facts:

• She has 3 sewing sidekicks: Elliot (husky/lab), Cooper (long-haired, red dapple, dachshund) and Sadie (cream, long-haired mini dachshund).
• Her superpower she’d love to have is to not worry - GIRL SAME!
• She’s slightly addicted to Diet Coke.
• She’d love to go back and see ABBA live in concert!

You all should go check out Aubrey on Instagram and give her a follow! You’ll find some really pretty pictures of her works in progress over there.

If you're loving what you're seeing and want to save this color palette for future use - don't forget to pin it by clicking the image below.