Denniele's Ribbon of Stars Border

Yankee Diary by Denniele Bohannon

58" x 70"

As soon as Denniele began thinking about last year's Civil War quilt she decided on this star border.

Her field of blocks measures 42" x 54"

Two plain borders finishing to 2-1/2"

One pieced border finishing to 3"

42" + 16 = 58" wide

54" + 16 = 70" long

It's a triple border, a pieced border between two unpieced strips. The inner and outer borders of blue strips finish to 2-1/2" (cut 3"). The ribbon of stars border finishes to 3"

Flag Quilt by Emma Jane Bullock Van Fleet, 1867

Yakima Valley Museum.

Her inspiration was a flag quilt with a ribbon of stars border made by 

Emma Van Fleet in Illinois right after the war. 

See more about this quilt at this post:

http://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2016/08/van-fleet-flag-quilt.html

The Van Fleet quilt also inspired Gail Bakkom to make this 

Veteran's Flag reproduction quilt in 1996.

Denniele appliqued stars cut from the pattern for Yankee Diary Block 12. Her red backgrounds: 2-1/8" finished squares. Here's her pattern.

Cutting a 3" wide finished border

Squares: Cut red squares 2-5/8".
17 on each side + 15 at top & bottom x 2 = 64 background squares.
 (You might want to cut these a little larger and trim to 2-5/8" after applique.)

Stars: Cut 64 navy blue stars from pattern 12. Here's the link:
https://civilwarquilts.blogspot.com/2017/12/yankee-diary-12-yankee-mourning.html

Triangles: Cut squares 3" and cut each in half diagonally to make 2 triangles.

You need 2 light or dark triangles for each starry square.So cut 64 squares (32 dark, 32 light). You need 128 triangles plus 16 extra dark triangles to square up the ends---so cut 8 more dark squares.

Sewing

Piece triangles to either side of the squares to make these units.

Alternate blue units with white units.

The sides require a strip of 17, the top and bottom 15.

Add the two triangles to square up the end of each strip.

And then according to Denniele's instructions:

"Add a blue piece to extend the border to the size of the quilt."

I'd cut these 3-1/2" wide and maybe 18" long for the sides.

She plans to add some more words in those blue end strips at the bottom---the date and her initials.

If 64 appliqued stars seems daunting go through your stash of star prints.

Maybe you could fussy cut a circle or square.