stars and stripes lap quilt

so this quilt had been on my "to do" list forever, and when it came up that julia with red rainboots handmade was planning to do a sew along, i was all about that!  i easily had blue and red scraps in my stash, and bought the perfect backing on clearance a few months prior, so i just knew i had to jump on in and do it!  plus, this would FINALLY be a quilt for me again.  which had a whole lot of pros, but a few cons as well.  well, just the one con being that it tended to fall down the totem pole as far as priority goes...  more on that later!
i like the idea of seasonal quilts to have for couch sitting and TV watching, so having a little bit of summer time good ol' american spirit was the perfect vibe to have.  plus, we current have a red couch in our living room with my teal accented stuff all over the place, so it was clearly a match that was meant to be!
like i mentioned before, i had the fabric bits for the flags already (just needed a good white since i chopped it all up for another project) but while i was out shopping for the background fabric, i found the adorable tic tac toe fabric as well as the red with white polka dots.  clearly, it was meant to be!  i booted some red ones i wasn't 100% sold on, which made me end up liking things so much more anyways.  the blues were all pulled from my stash, 100 blocks quilt as well as the stash from my fussy cut sampler.
i was hoping to find that super cute tic tac toe again for binding, but when i went back they didn't have the yardage anymore.  i do like the simplicity of the red/white to tie in to the quilt without being super IN YOUR FACE as if it were a striped print.  the flags remain the focus all over, as they should be :)
the downfall of this all came by being a quilt for me when the sew along had ended.  i kept up with everything down to the very last finished top post (i think mine was quilted even by that point) but i just could NOT get the binding on in time for whatever reason!  i was easily prioritizing other projects, which made this one sit and sit and sit some more.  i made and attached the binding at a maker monday, got it all completed, and then for whatever reason, burying the broken threads from quilting it just didn't happen.  i probably had a stack of three quilts waiting on binding alone (which FINALLY two of the three are done.  FINALLY) but i definetly missed the time frame of which to have this thrown on the couch for the 4th of july.  it is now nearly pumpkin quilt season!  but much like the pumpkin quilt, being completed after it's "season" just means it will be ready for next year, right?  which is something i've been saying about my christmas quilt as well... oops.
once everything was purchased for this quilt, it went together SO easily that i could definitely see myself making this quilt again if someone asked (or if i felt obligated) to do so.  i feel like sometimes i play safely "by the rules" so my colors were all as listed on the pattern (but lets be real... they're SO GOOD) but it was so fun seeing the different variations of this quilt done on instagram.  there were pride flags, blue line flags, traditional flags and more!  maybe i'll take a little risk the next time i make it?  who knows!
pattern information: stars and stripes by thimble blossoms (camille roskelley)
quilt count: 122