getting ready for summer...

Here I am, blogging again when I should be working. But sometimes this is needed. Besides, I know how much you want to make flags like those above. It would be wrong to deprive you, right?



On Friday, I pulled out some fabric that has been sitting in my cabinet for like, two years. I bought it without a plan, and to tell you the truth, it isn't the type of fabric that I am usually drawn to. So, I'm not sure what my thought was. Patriotic primitive-ish? Maybe I only wanted some of the prints.

Anyway...I cut the stripes into strips about 1.375" wide. I cut the others into pieces about 3x8". I didn't really have a certain number of pieces in mind.



All of the strips were pressed in half.



Then I pinned all of the flag pieces in place in the folds of the strips. I left about 3.5" between each flag. When I came to the end of a strip, I overlapped two pieces and pinned it. And then I started sewing.

In one long run (except when I ran out of bobbin thread...and didn't know...grrr), I sewed the flag strips with straight stitch on the sewing machine. The edges are all left raw, because I want them to fray.



They are going across our front porch which is about 40 feet long, so I wanted to have at least 50 feet so I could swag them a bit. But I apparently got a little carried away, because I made it as long as my materials would last. All said and done it is about 72 feet long!



When they are actually hanging on the porch, I'll get more pictures. They sort of remind me of a cross between prayer flags and rag curls. Strange combination, I know.

Now the amusing back story. The other day I saw this photo on Flickr, and commented that it seemed like a great way to make flags. Turning*Turning chuckled and informed me that the "flags" were actually quilt pieces. Duh! Why didn't I see that the first time? But it inspired me to make these (although they are a little more complicated than what I first saw). And now, those lovely pieces are a quilt that Turning*Turning is giving away! Head over there and check it out. It really is soooo cute! And who knows what it might inspire you to do!