Flag Quilt & How-to Part 2

This is Part 2. Part 1 is here.

I made a complicated blue field of stars for this flag out of tediously small half-square triangles. It took for-freakin-ever. I will NEVER do that again. I'm going to show you how it was done but there are definitely other, less mind-numbing, ways to do it.

Cut a bazillion 2"x2" squares in dark blues, light blues, and whites. Seriously. A Bazillion. If you're not familiar with rotary cutting quick strips for your squares, see the video in Part 1.

Each star is made of four small quilt blocks. Each small quilt block is made of four half-square-triangles (HST's). Part 1 also explains how to whip those HST's out really fast.

For each small quilt block you need 1 hst that is dark blue on light blue, 1 hst that is dark blue on dark blue, 1 hst that is are light blue on white, and 1 hst that is white on dark blue. They go together like this...

The finished star block is 4 3/4" inches. Thank you, Wenchy W, for asking (she is going to make the flag quilt but with a different star pattern. A good idea because these were a tedious pain in the butt).

It takes 28 stars. Sew 6 stars together in a row. Then sew another row of 5 stars. Notice the short row has some dark blue hst's (2x4) at the beginning and the end so it will be offset next to the long row. 

When the blue field is done, sew it to one end of the short stripes (explained in Part 1). Then sew that to the long stripes.

The quilt top is complete. Make a sandwich with a back fabric, quilt batting, and the quilt top. Pin it all over; I use curved safety pins made for quilting. They are time-savers and frustration-savers.

Now just sew it all together in whatever pattern you like. I use my Granny's old Singer sewing machine so I keep it simple with straight lines. These go diagonally up the quilt.

I didn't want a border around my flag quilt at all so I turned the edges in and top-stitched it. Check the back to make sure you caught the fabric all the way down the edge.

If I were going to make another one, I might do the blue field exactly like the stripes (only in all dark blues, of course). It would take 7 rows of 9 blocks. Then I'd probably applique several medium size stars using various fabrics in shades of whites and light tans.

Here is a less complicated pieced star that would be a great option. It's a customer quilt (Debi P.) on QuiltingKat.com, a quilting service.

A Google search brings up a lot of great American flag quilts; many ways to go. I like mine best though : )

2016 update. Still putting the flag quilt out on holidays.

I might add a border one of these days; it seems like it needs one.