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Flag quilt

    Making a Patriotic Chenille Quilt

    July 4, 2017

    Oh, yes, We tend to be a little patriotic in our family. Sometimes we get carried away… I mean, when my husband says lets hang our flag for the holidays……It’s quite an undertaking, bucket truck and all. This photo is actually from several years ago, but I still like to share it on Independence Day.

    And as I pondered a patriotic post I could write about today, I thought I’d give everyone a heads up on a treasure of a gift you can make your children (or grandchildren, as in my case.) I know you’re already thinking about Christmas in July (No? Well, it’s only 6 months away) so here’s an idea…you can make a Patriotic chenille quilt for a little boy. (or girl, but more on girls later….)

    I started making chenille lap quilts for my grandchildren about 12 years ago when my oldest was 4. Since then I have made one for almost all 10 of them….I have 3 more to go. The kids love them. They are just their size and they can use them watching tv or riding in the car. My 16 year old still uses her’s on her bed.

    Girls are easy. Boys…well, they’re a different story. I made my oldest grandson’s quilt the same time I made my granddaughter’s…they’re 16 months apart in age. And since he loves to spend time the farm with his Pop, I made a John Deere themed quilt. He’s 15 and still uses his, too.

    Now, I come to the patriotic quilt for Joe. I had several of Joe’s dad’s tee shirts and considered incorporating them in his quilt,  but then I noticed one of them had Joe’s birth year, 2011, and a flag on it. That was all the inspiration I needed.  

    I started keeping my eyes open for flag tee shirts with the date 2011. Old Navy came through for me. I found several in thrift stores and won some on eBay. Some were just patriotic that I thought added an extra touch.

    It just so happened that Joe’s mom decided to decorated his room in an Americana theme with Hilfiger flag decor. I didn’t tell them of my idea. It just worked out the way. What are the chances of that? Remember the Burlap Lampshade I made…it was for his room.

    I had the best time searching for flag tee’s. Rather than giving his quilt to him for his birthday, as I had normally done for the children…I gave it to him for Christmas. That’s why I’m telling you this now…so you can get started.

    I bought chenille in blue and red at JoAnn’s. And I found an adorable red, white and blue flannel bicycle fabric for the backing at Hobby Lobby. It was perfect.

    You’d be surprised how many flag tee shirts there are out there. Some of these are adult sized and some are toddler…The smaller flags had to have a border sewn around them to make the all have a uniform size. I used whatever I could find and just made sure they were all the same size blocks. When I had enough, I arranged my design on the floor (next to my sewing machine). From there I sewed each row of blocks together….then sewed the rows together…easy as pie.  You may or may not add a border around the sides, I did. I didn’t use any batten on the insides,  as a normal quilt might have, because I used flannel on the back.  You may, though.

    They don’t all have the date on them. One I like a lot says “Red White and Cool.”   That pretty much describes Joe.  

    The one in the middle is my most favorite.  It has the pledge to the flag and a scripture from Psalms

    “Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord, the people He chose for His inheritance.” 

    And we had one happy little boy Christmas morning…

    It’s never too early to teach patriotism to our children. I remember during the 1984 Olympics riding home from shopping excursion and teaching Joe’s daddy to sing the Star Spangled Banner,  along with an explanation of the words… And as it turned out Joe’s daddy grew up and married a girl related to Francis Scott Key. So having a flag quilt from his ‘NaaNaa’ is more than fitting.  

    Have you heard the story of the Star Spangled Banner? ~ I never get tired of listening to this.

    Training up proud Americans, one child at a time…..

    Now…Christmas….don’t forget…It’ll be here before you know it…….;) 

    Come back and I’ll show you what I did for the girls….