#starsandstripesquilttravels

Hi!  I'm Jen from The Smitten Chicken.  I am sew excited to be sharing this project with you today!

This quilt started as part of a regular quilt along and ended up going on an epic journey!

 

When I was finished making my quilt, I had to take it out for a photoshoot. I live outside of NYC and thought it would be fun and a bit patriotic to take it to the New York border for a picture.

This picture is what started it all!

My family and I love to travel!  When I am not sewing, we are traveling or planning our next adventure.

We made the goal to take our six kids to each of the 50 states.  Last summer, we decided to take an epic road trip across the U.S.  And after taking the New York picture we decided to bring the quilt with us!

 

 

Anytime we would drive through a new state, we would stop and take a picture at that state line - just like we did in New York!  

We would then have a documented picture of being in that new state. Indiana was a new state for all of us to travel through. By the end of our trip, our one-year-old had been to 25 new states!  

It was so amazing to see the great variety of the United States - from large cities to rolling hills and mountains. This country is so beautiful and rich in diversity.

 

 

We also love going to National Parks.  

We had never been to Badlands National Park, so we stopped while driving through South Dakota.  It was so beautiful!  

We were able to do a little hiking with the kids and, of course, took the quilt around for some breathtaking scenic views.

 

 

This lookout seems to go on for days! We were glad there was a fence around this lookout as it is a pretty steep drop-off.  

My husband was standing right outside of the picture...in case the wind blew!  No quilt was harmed in taking this pic!

 

 

While in South Dakota, we also stopped at Mt. Rushmore National Memorial. We had never been there.

It is so amazing to come around the corner and see the mountain come into view.

It is HUGE!  

 

 

We made the kids take pictures with the quilt too. They put up with their mom's quilting shenanigans.  

 

We also headed to Yellowstone National Park on our epic road trip.  You can visit my Instagram to see all the places we stopped in the park.  

I actually grew up in West Yellowstone, Montana - just outside of Yellowstone National Park. This place is near and dear to my heart. I had to share a piece of my childhood with my kids.

We loved our time spent in Yellowstone!

 

 

As we headed south, we stopped at Arches National Park. (I told you we like National Parks!)

Delicate Arch is the most famous arch in Arches National Park. It is even on all of the Utah license plates!  

We packed up the quilt in a backpack and hiked with all six kids to the top! This breathtaking view needed to be documented with my Stars and Stripes quilt.  

I am totally that crazy quilt lady who takes my quilt on a hike!  

 

 

We continued south to visit with friends and stopped in the beautiful state of Texas.

We went to the beach and visited the Alamo. The quilt made an appearance there as well.  

 

 

Home Sweet Home!  

We made it back to NYC! We loved visiting so many places across the U.S.A! It was so fun to see this patriotic quilt represented in so many places across the country.  

 

 

We had so much fun documenting our trip with this quilt!  

Since we do travel a lot, we have decided to take this quilt with us where ever we go! (So stay tuned!)

We recently returned home from a trip to Washington DC.  We love going to the monuments in D.C.  The Lincoln Memorial is one of my favorites and I was thrilled to take pics of the Stars and Stripes quilt there.  

 

Thanks for going on this epic road trip with me!  If you would like to see more of what I'm up to (and more places this quilt will pop up) follow me on Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and subscribe to my new YouTube channel!

Chirp Out!
Jen