A patriotic wall hanging

A little over a month ago, I got a call asking if I'd be willing to create a wall hanging to be raffled off to raise money for a veterans group.  What could I say?

"Um, how big are you thinking?"
"Oh, approximately 3 by 5."
"Any theme?"
"Could you make it patriotic?"

Naturally, I said I would create one.

I've been thinking about it quite a bit, and on Saturday, I finally came up with an idea that I like.

Over the weekend, I bought some fabric and pre-washed it.  Last night, I started off with a stack of fabric and a vague idea:

Stack of fabric for a patriotic wall hanging

I started by cutting the various red and white fabrics into 2.5" strips.  Next, it was time to sew them together.

Two panels of red and white stripes

Tonight, I added some gold fabric to the top and bottom, and then sewed some stripes on to a piece of blue fabric.  Next, it was time to cut the strips into vertical strips with variable widths.  Then, I laid the strips out.

The original lay-out

The strips are now all sewn together.

The strips sewn together

Next up, I need to level out the top and bottom, and then add a slim border to the two ends.  After that, I'll add a border, and then it will be time to applique the center design.  So far, I'm happy with it.