Red, White and Blue

You're a grand old flag, you're a high flying flag
And forever in peace may you wave.
You're the emblem of the land I love,

Home of the free and the brave...

by George M. Cohan

I wanted to make a hanging flag quilt for my dad who immigrated here in the 60's. He loves the USA! We love the USA. I wanted to keep it simple, use small pieces and try something new. This was the original drawing a couple of months ago.  That was the plan....

Then I got the Riley Blake, Stars and Stripes collection.

And everything changed from there! Look at these neat patterns and colors.... the pinwheels!!

I decided to fussy cut these, yes 50 of them, and alternate them with 49 blue squares for the blue part of the flag. The pinwheels are about 1 1/2 inches so the actual size when sewn is 1 inch. Perfect. 

It only took me 2 hours to cut all these tiny squares! Truly a labor of love...

Then I thought, how in the world am I going to arrange these? In what order? Aren't quilts supposed to have repeating patterns? Well, amazingly enough, while  "playing with the squares" a pattern emerged, actually a couple. VOILA!!  OK lots.  It was quite dizzying...

For the 13 stripes I planned to cut rectangles in the reds and also in the whites and assemble them in rows 1 1/2 by 2 1/2 inches. If you are going to quilt the "Grand Ole' Flag" you better get the details right! (Although mixing it up is fun too!)  Unfortunately, I cut all the little rectangles the wrong size and had to "re-invent" the pattern and there went the 13 stripes idea.

TIP: Never cut fabric when:

1. You are upset

2. Distracted

3. Annoyed

4. Sad

5. Frustrated

6. Emotional in any way.

But I think, considering the huge Faux Pas .... I managed to salvage the thing!

I quilted the "star" section in diagonals and the stripes part in "waves."

 My dad said "How will they know it's not Coca-Cola?" 

Very Funny.

I added 2 loops on the back with Grossgrain ribbon for hanging.

He was speechless, except for the Coca-Cola remark

and counted to make sure there were fifty stars. : )