Baby You're a Firework

Okay so this pattern is actually called Firecracker but I couldn't resist the Katy Perry quote because I hear my kids playing it on Just Dance so it is stuck in my head!

This pattern is by Julie Herman of Jaybird Quilts and I am a long time fan of her blog and I even saw her in person at Quilt Market this fall but couldn't think of anything cool to say to her so I didn't introduce myself. We are carrying a few of her patterns at the shop and they all use they Lazy Angle Ruler by Creative Grids(*love*).  

It was an easy to follow pattern and it uses fat eighths so you can really do it from your stash if you have a bunch of brights. I want to try it with a different color way next to see the different effects.

I quilted it with a simple meander but with some hidden things in the quilting like a sun,

 and some stars, hearts, a car, spirals, a triangle etc...

I played with some freehand "circle in a circles" in the stripy boarder (seen in above pic)-- some were more "ovals in ovals" but I am just gonna let that go. First time trying it and all that....

For the outer border I played with one of my arc templates that I bought at the quilt show. I noticed when working with the arc on the French Braid quilt that if I did arcs on opposing sides I would get these pointed ovals shapes alternating along the edge so I thought I would try that on here:

I learned with this quilt that I could buy 24 different fabrics that I really didn't like, put them together and get a quilt that I actually do like. Go figure! Even my husband and kids said they didn't were surprised at how cute it came out!

 It photographs well

and is kitty cat approved!