American Flag Shirt Quilt

I started this quilt with my Guild group, way back in June or July. It’s a copy of one I saw on Jo’s Country Junction. We all collected shirts and cut them and sewed them.  The hope was to make a few quilts for Quilts of Valor and a few quilts for a few of us.  

The realization though, was that this was a lot of work!! I probably bought 20 shirts and others bought 20 more!  I know as of now we have completed 4 tops and are piecing 1 more.  Then started scrapping some of the leftovers to make what I hope is a few smaller nursing home quilts. 

Honestly, this quilt to make with shirts, takes a large variety of shirts and lots of cutting.  We did figure out early how to chain piece most of the blocks.  100s later, I am tired of them! 

This quilt is a really big quilt and takes over 250 of these little block sets.  That’s over 1000 pieces in total.  Sadly, we made a big mistake and did not realize in the beginning that the whites were directional or that the white stripes really needed to read as white.  So we had to buy and cut up a few more shirts!! 

Then it honestly takes a full day of seeing to lay out, piece and quilt this top. As in probably a full 12 hours. 

I used my new Sashiko machine to quilt the top. The machine mimics hand quilting.  I did one set of stitches down each row.  I originally thought I was going to do white stitches. But then there was red thread in the bobbin.  I decided I really liked it! So I finished out all the stitching in red! Love it! 

For the binding, I used some woven cotton.  This helped with the flow of matching the binding with the shirts in the top. Strategically planning where the red and blue was located on the quilt. This is my first time doing a split binding to match color sections on a quilt! It made me love it a little more!! 

Of course I am on the right track again with labeling all my quilts!! Love these sweetwater labels.  I may have to start writing the year on them! 

I usually don’t keep many of my own quilts. Truly, I give away about everything I make.  But I decided it’s time to decorate my house abd use some of them myself.  This year, I have kept more quilts instead of giving them all away!! 

So this is another Luthridge finish!! Now to get motivated at home!!

I thought this was the perfect cotton field quilt. The crips of America, picked blossom by blossom to firm our country. The shirts worn by the hard working men of our country!  I am so proud of the work of the men of the past! And I love the crops that built our land!