When my kiddos were little and let me get lots of quilting projects done, I found this super cute panel that was flags in primary colors that spelled out “happy birthday”. I thought it would make a great birthday celebration decoration piece!
The only problem was, I wasn’t sure what to do with it, and frankly the triangle piecework was a little intimidating. I would pull it out and stare at it to get ideas, and then I’d put it away and work on something else.
Eventually I stopped pulling it out and it sat in the storage bin for years.
When lockdown started, this was actually one of the first projects I pulled out. I immediately started cutting out the triangles of the banner and planning out how to piece it together.
Things were going alright until I ran out of the black fabric I was using, and was struggling to find more. Black is one of those colors that has a ton of shades so I had to look in the stores for the right ones. It meant I had to put it aside until I could get back into the stores for the hunt.
I was finally able to get more black fabric to finish the project but by then I’d started other projects and it sat once again… Until now… It was finally time to finish this bad boy. My kids are going to be moving out before I get this done.
I finished the black piecework and then added a slim red border for framing. Finally, I added a black confetti fabric for a final border. I briefly entertained adding more to this, like a row of presents and a row of candles, but in the end I decided it was time to be done with this project. I really wanted a banner, not a quilt.
For the backing, I admit I have a lot of baby quilt type fabric I’m trying to use up. This particular one had primary colors that went along with the birthday banner front so I went for it.
I wanted to keep the quilting simple, so I outlined the banner flags and then did a meander in black all over the rest. It really helped make the flags pop out a bit more. If I had thought of it before, I would have added more batting to make more of a trapunto style on the flags.
I finished with a black binding and we had a birthday banner just in time for my son’s 12th birthday. It only took 10 years, ha!
Another fun finish! Now I’m ready to move to the net project. Yeah!
