4th of July~ Craft Of The Day(with video)

~Bear by Prim Folks By Judy~

 Happy 4th of July to all my American friends~
Today's Craft of the day: make a large, primitive, colonial, American flag :) This flag is "cheater"-quilted, with a primitively-appliqued blue panel, with embroidered stars~

Time needed: an afternoon.

 Here I am pinning the red striped fabric face to face with the white backing fabric. I used a high thread count crisp cotton for the backing, so the flag would have that snap to it.

1.Cut out (with a good extra allowance), a "flag sized" piece of striped fabric.  My flag has 1 " stripes, and so  my flag will be 22" long, (not counting the 1/4" seam allowance on the sides which would make it 22 1/2".) Cut (roughly) an even larger piece of white fabric. (You will trim all pieces later.) Iron together, smooth WELL, and pin together, tauntly, (right sides together).

If you want this as a table runner, make it as long as you wish :)

2. Count your 7 stripes, the edges of those stripes will be the horizontal sew lines. Square off the sides using a large triangle. Draw those lines, those will be your vertical sew lines.

3. Sew up all around, leaving a 3" opening for turning right side out. Try to leave the opening in the corner where the blue patch will go. Trim. Clip across the corners. Turn.

You will now have a pillow case. Leave opening for now.

4. Plunge into a bucket or bowl of ICE COLD walnut ink. (having previously mixed 1 tsp of powder for 1 cup warm water) Cool in the fridge- this will help keep the red from running into the white. Place onto a metal baking sheet, and blowdry until it no longer drips, the flag is just damp. This will set the ink. Then place the baking sheet in the hot sun to dry.

5. Iron well, poke out corners and edges again if needed through the opening, as you iron, so that the seams are ironed exacly along the edges of the top and bottom red stripes. Sew opening closed.

6. Pin everywhere, smoothing and keeping taunt. Time to quilt the flag~

7. I placed a piece of paper on the flag, and folded it to the desired size for the blue patch. (at 4 red stripes) The Perspective length of the blue patch: you know it is the right length if it "could" fit 2 1/3 times the width of the flag  itself.  My blue patch is roughly 8 1/2" by 6 1/2" (not counting the 1/4" seam allowances all around.)Trace around paper onto doubled blue fabric, right sides together. Sew all around, and make a slit in the back for turning. Dye(repeat step#4) in walnut ink. Iron and  pin to flag. Sew on primitively.

THE STARS:
8.Find the lid of a pantry box that will fit nicely in the blue section. (above) Trace the lid onto a piece of paper. Cut out. Measure all around the edge of your pantry box lid with a measuring tape. Divide that #, using a calculator  by 13. Now on your paper circle, mark 13 dots all around with a pencil, measuring as you go, using that calculation . This will evenly space your stars. Transfer the paper circle to blue patch. Mark points onto the the blue patch. This is where your stars will go.

Place in an embroidery hoop, and sew your stars with 5 stitches, starting with an upside down v.  I used a thread in a butterscotch color.

You will love how this will turn out, and it will bring you joy for many Independance Days to come~