Appa Valley

I am attempting to make a rag quilt in the shape of an old colonial era American flag, but my issue is that I honestly don't know if the blue square is actually a square or more of a rectangle. The finished width (I'm considering the width to be from top to bottom) of the blue block for the rag quilt will be about 32.5 inches. The only reason I figure that is because I'm making my rows for the stripes to be a finished 4.5" wide. And the quilt will be about 76-78" finished in length. I just don't know what my length should be for the blue block. OH, and my seam allowances are 1/2".

ragamuffin

I would draw it out on graph paper. Draw your red and white stripes first. Check a picture of the old flag first. The position of the stripes will determine the size of the blue field. I will go look at the old flag and come back to you. Okay, I checked it out. The red stripe is at the top and bottom. At the end of the 4th red stripe is where the blue field will end. It looks like one third of the width is the blue field. If you are finishing the stripes at 4.5", that x 13 is 68.5" making the blue field 18", to end with the bottom of the fourth red stripe. You mentioned the blue to be 32.5" x 3 gives you a width of 97.5". So that gives you the blue field at 18" x 32.5" which I feel is too long. Your finished flag would be 68.5" x 97.5". I checked my book and the height of the flag is called the "hoist", and the width is called the "fly". It says the fly is 1.9 times the hoist, which would mean your flag should be 130.15". I think I would change the 32.5" of the width of blue field. If you want me to re figure it, please pm me.

Appa Valley

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer. I'm so sorry for replying late. I think I've got a good idea of the measurements now. Thank you!