Welcome to the Fly The Flag Quilt Along! We're going to take 5 weeks to finish this quilt. We're breaking up the project into manageable chunks each week that won't consume too much time. I'll be your accountability partner to help you finish and stay on top of the project. I'll also be sewing along with you!
If you follow along, you will have your quilt top finished by the first week of June - plenty of time to get to finished before the 4th of July, maybe even before Flag Day on June 14!
Before You Start
✂️ To make the quilt you will need the Fly the Flag pattern which you can find for 25% off here. It is available in PDF of Printed options. There is also a simplified version that is available as a PDF only and does not include any of the Star quilt block instructions.
This quilt is a choose-your-own-adventure quilt. The quilt pattern has 20 flag quilt blocks. The Star quilt blocks are optional - you can make stars for as many of them as you want! Or none at all. Totally up to you!
For the version I'm sewing I will be making 10 Star Blocks, one for half of my flags.
Bookmark this page as the hub for this quilt along.
I will update it each week with that week's assignment. You will also receive an email Tuesday morning through June 2 with that week's assignment and a link back here to answer any questions.
Week 1: Gather your Fabric and Supplies
This week your assignment is to gather your fabric. All of the fabric requirements are listed on the Fly the Flag pattern.
This is a great project for using you stash. The flag stripes are perfect for using precut 2 ½" strips if you have a Jelly Roll or leftover strips on hand.
The star fields - whether you keep them one solid block or pieced stars - are great for using a variety of shades of blue.
I'm using a variety of fabrics from my stash including my own past fabric collections Portsmouth, Albion, and Mary Catherine. For my sashing this time I'm using a dark woven fabric for a different look. (I was originally using Oxford Blue Confetti Cotton solid - which I love and have used for other similar quilts.)
Available Kits and FQ bundles
If you prefer to have someone else choose the fabric for you, I've found a few kits available online.
- Sew Crazy Happy, Patchwork Fabrics Co. and Sojo Fabrics have kits featuring the Independence collection from Riley Blake (below left)
- Gracey Lawson's Fireworks Fields collection is another great collection available this year (below center)
- Sojo Fabrics also has a darling curated "Beachy" (washed out color palette) FQ bundle here (below right) similar to the palette I used on my previous quilts
Week #2 Cutting Red, White and Sashing fabrics
The assignment for Week #2 is to cut all of your red, white and sashing strips. Cutting instructions are on page 2 of the pattern. That's it! Cutting fabric from multiple prints (especially if you're going for a scrappy quilt) can take time so this week that's all we're focusing on.
Helpful Piecing Tips:
One important step in this process is making sure that the strips cut across the width of fabric (from selvage to selvage) are straight. I share some helpful tips for cutting straight strips in this post under the header Tips for Cutting Your Own Straight Strips.
If you prefer watching a video I walk through tips for cutting straight Width of Fabric strips here .
Week #3 - Starting Star Field Blocks
You'll need 20 blue "Star Field" blocks. This refers to the 6" x 6" finished (6 ½" x 6 ½" unfinished) blue blocks were the field of stars sits on traditional flags.
This is the part of this quilt where you get to "choose your own adventure" and customize the quilt to your preference! If you want to finish quickly, you can just cut 6 ½" x 6 ½" solid pieces of fabric for that space. Or you can piece star quilt blocks using the pattern options on pages 10-17 of the pattern .
A) Decide how many pieced Star Quilt Blocks you want for your finished quilt.
B) Make ½ of the that number of Star blocks. Cut out the remaining non-pieced 6 ½" x 6 ½" blocks.
For example: I want 10 pieced Star Blocks and 10 non-pieced blocks fabrics. So I will cut my 10 non-pieced 6 ½" x 6 ½" blocks, and cut and piece 5 Star quilt blocks.
Week #4 Assignment: Finish the Blue Star Field Blocks
For example: I am making 10 pieced Star Blocks and using 10 non-pieced blocks fabrics in my finished quilt. This week I am finishing piecing my final 5 star blocks. I'm having fun with playing with blue and white fabric combinations!
Spoiler Alert: Week #5's assignment will be to piece all of your flag blocks so if you want to get a jump start on those, you can. 😉
FWIW: I've made the decision to use all 10 of my pieced Star Quilt Blocks for the flags that hang vertically.
Helpful Piecing Tips
I have a video here where I walk through the steps for piecing the quarter-triangle star points of the Ohio Star block option (pages 12-14). Start the video at 2:12.
If you're new to making the flying geese units used on the Sawtooth Star (pages 14-15) you can read about them more in-depth here.
The Friendship Star Block (pages 10-11) and the Pinwheel Star Block (pages 16-17) use a lot of Half Square Triangle (HST) blocks. Here is my favorite tip and tool short-cut for HST blocks.