July Flags and Pinwheels Completed

For the piecing and assembly of the Flags and Pinwheels banner for July from Shabby Fabrics see my previous post dated 6/11/26. This post is about the FMQ, labeling, binding, and completion of the July banner.

Flag Blocks
FMQ on  flag blocks was wavy lines on the stripes to simulate the flag waving in the breeze. The wave is in every other stripe, namely the cram colored ones and also in the teal borders at the top and bottom of the flag. I used the deep wave side of my Handi-Quilter Wave F ruler.  The 4" wavelength worked out perfectly for the 12" width of the flag; I used the shallow 0.75" height as being the right proportion for the width of the stripes on the flag. For other info I have complied on Handi-Quilter wave rulers and their reissue under other names, check out my blog post for 10/1/25.

The sawtooth star section has straight lines set ¼" in from the outer edge seams. This offset seemed to bring out the star more than a stitch in the ditch would have and I like that the center seems to puff up.

Pinwheels
FMQ on the blades of the pinwheel blocks was inspired by Week 2 of a dot -to-dot video class by Angela Walters. On the outer edges I free-formed some curvy lines and vortexes to represent the airflow streams around a spinning pinwheel.

Sashing and Outer Borders
The gingham sashing between the flag and pinwheel blocks is FMQd with a simple zigzag echoing the 45° slant of the gingham. The stitching is not very noticeable but that's OK. For the outer borders I have always like piano key borders. I decided to modify this border by varying the spacing of the lines. The closer lines seems more like "stripes" when they alternate with the wider gaps. I got bored with doing these ruler-guided lines (¼" and ¾" apart) after the first side though, so I mixed it up. There is no rule all four borders need to be the same. 

Something different was needed for the top and bottom borders. What better goes with stripes in July but stars? I used the smallest 1½" star from my my Amanda Murphy star template set make stars on the top and bottom borders. 

I started in the middle and worked outward toward the left with just the tops of the stars, back inward toward the right with just the star bottoms, switching in the middle to continue star tops toward the right, then all the way left toward the middle to finish the star bottoms. No breaking thread, right! Except, I ran out of bobbin thread during this "continuous" process. Aargh! Photos show star border near completion and after it is all completed. In retrospect I wish I had used a heavier thread so the stars stood our more. The side piano borders have double stitching out and back. That may be why the stars look a bit weak by comparison. Oh, well, lesson learned and something to keep in mind for the future.

Labels
My tradition is to make my labels from grosgrain ribbon which I embroidered on my 20+ year old Pfaff. I have a stash of grosgrain ribbon of course, but it is not in a color or width I wanted. I miss JoAnn's. After a commando raid to my local Michael's I learned they did not have grosgrain ribbon. Seems like all the general population seems to want is wired ribbon or satin ribbon.  The clerk in Michael's did not even know what grosgrain ribbon was. I wound up having to order it from Amazon. Though not as convenient as a car ride away, I eventually did  get my grosgrain ribbon delivered the next day from Amazon. The assortment I bought was QingHan Grosgrain Ribbon 5/8 Inches 40 Yards (20 Colors x 2yards). I am used to buying Offray as a familiar brand name, but the quality of these ribbons was fine. I should be really set for grosgrain ribbon for quite a while. 

I embroidered my labels for the back lower corners, choosing navy for the ribbon color, even though originally I was looking for ecru. I embroidered them in ivory and set them on the diagonal in each lower corner. They read DIC_JULY_2026 and FLAGS_AND_PINWHEELS.  July stands for the theme month of the banner, not the month I completed it.

Completed Banner

This is the front and back of the seventh banner I have completed in this monthly themed series. I am just beyond halfway there to having an entire year of months represented. To preview how the July banner will look I snapped a photo and hung it outside my sewing room in a designated spot that I switch out monthly. I will change it back to the June banner, since the Strawberries theme has about a week of display time still due.

Here are my completions thus far for this series from Shabby Fabrics.

• JAN    Snowmen and Snowflakes (2/10/26)
• MAR  Shamrocks and Irish Chains (4/6/26)
• APR   Bunnies and Carrots (3/6/26)
• MAY   Roses and Pansies (9/11/25)
• JUN    Strawberries (9/6/25)
• JUL    Flags and Pinwheels (this post 6/24/26)
• AUG    Bees and Sunflowers (9/21/25)
  

July Flags & Pinwheels

The theme for the patriotic Pieceful Patchwork banner for July from Shabby Fabrics is Flags and Pinwheels, two of each. The color scheme is made up of navy, gold, muted teal, soft reds, and cream. The cream has writing on it, which is a favorite feature of mine. As usual, I cut out the fabric and organized the pieces in my tray with Alphabitties and Clover Wonder Clips. I used black Alphabitties for the pinwheels and blue Alphabitties for the pinwheels. I made up the two pinwheels first before I took the photo, and so the black letters are empty. Note the two pinwheels have opposite polarity, minimizing scrap generation.

Next up were the two flags, each with one Sawtooth star in the flag's traditional field of stars. The instructed method to make the flying geese for the star points was different from my usual method. This four-at-a time method wastes less fabric but precludes me from adding to the pinwheels I usually make from cut off corner scraps using the flip up corner method with rectangles. The trim down after the four-at-a -time method is a bit tedious, but it does make a crisp precise flying geese rectangle. It does require a bit of head scratching on placing those "A" squares if the fabric is directional such as a stripe. It was fortunate that both the gold and navy fabric with mini-stars is direction independent.

The red and cream stripes of the flag build quickly. They are simple, uncomplicated strips of fabric joined, so I took this opportunity to try out my new purchase of a cordless iron. I'd recently bought a

Panasonic Red 360 Freestyle Cordless Iron NI-QL2000R. Here are the basic units of the flag adjacent to the iron in its charging cradle. I studied reviews of the iron before buying and realize that any complaints leaned toward using it to press a large weekly load of laundry, but using it for piecing in quilting is very handy. The complaints refuted:

• It does not get hot enough ...
  — this iron is 1700 watts and I found myself using it on the medium setting, not high
  — the steam was adequate; the smaller water reservoir made for less weight
• It does not stay hot long enough ...
  — not a problem for pressing parts and seams within quilt blocks, not an entire garment
•  It requires more space for the cradle ...
   — no more space than the footprint of a larger corded iron encompasses
• Replacing it in the heating cradle is awkward ...
  — not having a "heel" to rest it on was initially something I had to get used to
  — but muscle memory quickly took care of that issue as I learned the new motion 
• Having no flat heel end is weird ...
  — the tip on this smaller iron (both ends) is better for getting into tight spots
  — it was exceptionally more maneuverable when pressing open ¼" seams

Here are the two completed flag blocks. Once I add sashing and join them up with the two pinwheels, I will be off to sandwich, FMQ, label, and bind. There is still time in June for me to get this banner completed for July.

Note: Both flags are the same size. My mediocre photography skills introduce a skew that I have yet to learn how to remove. I should have been more careful when lining up my cellphone camera parallel with my design wall.