Patriotic Palooza on a Slow Sunday Stitching...

So perhaps one or two of you are wondering..."where in the heck have you been the last two weeks?" ...well, I've been right here in my stitching chair ... needle in hand but too lazy to post... but today I shall rectify that situation and show you all the patriotic palooza  I've been working on... let's start with the wall decor as that's what motivates me to change the rest of the doodads, knickknacks and stuff...

I have been wanting to make a patriotic quilt  for a while and I've eyed the little flag one that has been popping up all over IG but I didn't get my butt in gear...and then I remembered this quilt... I made this one a long long time ago...so long ago that I actually quilted it myself and sewed the binding down by hand... but it didn't look like this back then...it was wider and longer and had a border of that double bunting all the way around. Soooo... I cut it ...yes I did... I cut off the sides and I cut off the top and I re-did the binding and the sleeve which I salvaged and it will be this size forever more.  If you make the pic bigger you can see that the eagle and the 13 stars are blanket stitched appliqued by machine.  All the fabrics are Debbie Mumm...Debbie does patriotic very very well!!

As for the tray...

lots of bits and bobs mostly from Hobby Lobby... I want to add some small cross stitch to this and I have 2 started...hope to get them in there before the month is over.

Now onto the display shelf unit...

My theme here is patriotic/Americana/Debbie Mumm/birds...all  with a touch of yellow... very inclusive... shall we look a bit more closely?

From the top... Welcome Summer by The Drawn Thread...

Again if you make the pic bigger you can see I matted it with a navy grunge fabric and fastened that to a piece of picket fence like wood...the wood piece came from the craft aisle at Target...it was unfinished...cost $6.99 and the proportions were great for this piece. I painted it white craft paint. I will use it again for some other seasons, but I'm going to get another one to paint black or some other dark color for the Halloween Welcome I want to do.

Here are some close ups of the piece...it had quite a few decorative stitches...

I'm not a fan of backstitching but those vines and tendrils add a lot to the piece...

That flag took quite a while... and the bee skep is done in satin stitch...the little bees were little pains in the butt...I ended up stitching each one at least twice but in the end they were worth it...

The flowers in the pot are little Rhodes mounds... they pop right off the linen... very dimensional. I think this is one of  the prettiest pieces I've stitched in a long time. I'm happy with the 32 count linen I painted and my floss conversion...the piece is charted for silks... I looked at the conversion charts to Gentle Arts but didn't always like their suggestions so I rummaged through my thread stash and came up with my own choices.  I'm looking forward to doing the Autumn and Halloween versions of this Welcome...already ordered them from 123 Stitch.

Moving down...

  

That second shelf has a sparkly hat spouting sparkly fireworks ...Hobby Lobby ...couldn't resist...and the God Bless America sign was an unfinished wood piece from HL too... I colored it  with a Copic marker... maybe a little too gold but it works  for me...as for cross stitch...

Prairie Schooler July... I stitched this years ago and it has languished in a box...glad to free it... the frame was from Kohls...loved the color...it had a clip at the top that didn't work for me so I took it off and cover the hole  and filled in the rest of the space with wood painted stars from my button stash. This frame is a good size for these monthly pieces. The frame is a shiplap clipboard frame... I got it in 4 colors...this barn red, white, black and a turquoise... that should cover all my bases.

Next shelf down has more sparkly stuff...those firecrackers came  from Michaels...there was a definite glittery sparkly vibe to lots of the patriotic decorations this year and I'm a sucker for the shiny stuff...

On the cross stitch front there are two pieces....

this little bird from Blackbird Designs. It was in the booklet Souvenirs of Summer which I think is OOP. I added a #priscillafied touch with burlap and a button.

And we have one of my newest finishes... Birds of a Feather Liberty...

another enormous flag  that was so worth stitching... that ribbon was in my stash for a while and the porcelain button is at least 25 years old... glad I keep this stuff around...LOL

On the bottom shelf is another piece by The Drawn Thread... Free & Brave...

more Priscilla-like touches with a Debbie Mumm teapot ... 

Overall I'm happy with my display...this is the most I've ever had for Independence Day...I plan to leave it all up till the beginning of August when some of the stuff I had up will return and perhaps some new stuff will get mixed in.  Changing it around motivates me to keep stitching and cruising the aisles of Hobby Lobby, Michaels and Joanns... which is perhaps not great for my pocketbook but it does help the economy and that is doing my part as a productive patriotic citizen, right??? Yeah, I can BS with the best of them...LOL

So I'm thinking wherever you are you are HOT HOT HOT... I'm mean the temperature is hot, not your persona... right now it is in the 90's with  high  humidity so it feels like 100 degrees...no kidding...that's what the weather app says. And it is forecast to be this way for at least a week... I almost had a heart attack when I opened my utility bill this month...I'll be sure I'm sitting down when next month's  bill comes. The flowers seem to be doing okay...of course I've been watering regularly (and my water bill showed the results of that...sheesh)... but no one likes wilted petunias so I continue to go out just before sundown and water. According to the  local weather guy last year we had 11 days all year that were above 90...so far this year we've already had 10...and that was yesterday so we've reached that mark and will exceed it for this year...oh joy...now I don't want the sub-zero weather but I'd like it to be a bit cooler... I hope it averages out and August is more like June should have been.

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts today...and if you want to see what  I'm up to in between posting here check me out with this link to Instagram... carolfun53  

Have any plans for the 4th?  My younger son and I are joining my older son and his wife and going to her parents for a cookout...need to make marinated tomatoes and pasta  salad as my contribution. Younger son is making patriotic cupcakes...should be a good time...

Hope your summer is coming along nicely...hard to believe the year  is half over... the older I get the faster it flies by...

happy stitching-

carol fun