Patriotic Palooza for a Slow Stitching Sunday...

 Hello -  yes I have been gone for a while from here... I did attempt to post last week but I could not for the life of me get my pictures to upload, so I gave up... I think things are working better at the moment... and I have TONS of pictures ... in fact I have so  many pictures I think there is going to be a rare Monday post too... today I'll concentrate on the patriotic stuff and tomorrow I'll do quilts... my sewing mojo has returned and I'm getting some quilts done... we'll talk about that later... ok?

WARNING Will Robinson... this post is LOOOOOOONG.... 

Patriotic Paloooooza... I had fun getting all my stuff out of the plastic bins... love the older stuff I have and love the new stuff I added this year... a couple of knickknacks, another flag quilt (I'd like to add another next year) and several cross stitch finishes some of which were stitched eons ago but never got FFO'd.

Lets start with the room view...on the back of the sofa is my newest flag quilt... this came from the book County Seat Quilts... lots of great patterns in this one... I made mine using my vintage Debbie Mumm collection... Debbie did GREAT Americana... 

Debbie did GREAT Americana... which is evidenced by the quilt on the wall which is also all Debbie Mumm fabrics... I made this years and years ago and cut off the top & side borders to make it fit on this wall ... I like it better this size... I saved the borders I cut off because that bunting print is fabulous and I made 2 table runners with it... very thrifty, dontcha think?  LOL

Here's a larger pic of the new flag quilt...

And a close up of the quilting... I love how the variegated thread pops and blends...

Here's a look at the back ... 

I love this panto... Delinda used another version on the winter village quilt I did back in January...  it has great motion...

In the tier tray I have some old cross stitch and some new cross stitch and 2 new knickknacks... 

Zoom in for a minute and check out the adorable Lady Liberty in the chair... got her at Micheals... and the flag piece on the bottom shelf is my newest Jim Shore piece...   and the flag waving gal is a snippet from Pineberry Lane... she's one of the half dozen newly FFO'd pieces... I'll insert them here...

You'll see them as we go along... from the top, a freebie I stitched eons ago from Samplers & Santa, you can find it here... Marly has some great freebies... below that is another freebie, this one from La-D-Da called Flag City... you can find it here...  I left off where it said Flag City and stitched in more stars... and next to it is the snippet from Pineberry Lane's Hurrah ... I added the USA part...  and the trio at the bottom are from With Thy Needle & Thread booklet Red, White and Bloom...  I really like them on the yellow background... and yes I dyed that with Lemon Yellow Rit dye ... and I painted the fabric for the Flag City and the Pineberry Lane snippet....  oh that was a tangent... 

Back to the decor... here's the large display shelf unit...

At the very top I have a few new pieces... USA came from Hobby Lobby and the firecracker from Micheals...working down...

I like the little house with the starred roof - Michaels ... it pairs well with the truck that came from Hobby Lobby ... I tucked one of the WTN&T pieces in the bed of the truck... the July stitching from Prairie Schooler is one of my favs...

Flag Folk from Pineberry Lane... I stitched this last year on linen I painted with Lemon Yellow & Evening Blue... oh the little Uncle Sam shelf sitter was another Micheals purchase... I went in to get the firecracker piece and came home with a bunch of other stuff I didn't know I NEEDED...but I did!!

Lady Liberty from Heart in Hand and the freebie from Samplers and Santas... I think that chenille is a nice way to finish the edges... I just bought some more different colors from 123Stitch...

Other side of the shelf ... a snippet from WTN&T's Liberty Dwells and the full version of Hurrah from Pineberry Lane. 

One of my now becoming vintage Longaberger baskets and a snippet from a Sheepish Design called Betsy...

And a patriotic pair from WTN&T ... they look good together and were a perfect fit for that tiny tier tray from the Dollarspot at Target... I got is months ago and almost forgot that I had it ... 

Moving around the room, next to the large display... the flag quilt from last year on the chair and...

Another Jim Shore piece... red white and blue birds... love them!  A Lady Liberty from Chessie & Me... I subbed in a chicken for the cat she always includes... and below Blackbird Design's Summer Song. 

Continuing around the room... are you dizzy?  Sorry... as I warned you... LOTS of pictures... LOL

The smaller display shelf...

The large sampler is an oldie but goodie from BBD called Stars & Stripes... the eagle is  another snippet from WTN&T (notice how many little pieces I've been  stitching...  years ago I would never have thought of doing this... but I'm glad I'm doing it now!) Oh I wander off again... the snippet is from Summer in Baltimore... and take at look at the table runner... that is part of the border I cut off from the big eagle quilt... such a good Americana fabric... I still LOVE Debbie Mumm fabrics!!

Another couple from WTN&T... Farmyard Parade... 

The Summer Welcome from The Drawn Thread... another Longaberger basket and a Debbie Mumm plate... oh I was soooooo into all things Debbie ... glad I held onto a bunch of it.

Oh and one last little display... this is in my TV cabinet...

Yankee Doodle from Lizzie Kate, the Flag City freebie and who can resist a man in uniform???  Liberty from Birds of a Feather...

So are do you hear Kate Smith singing God Bless America?? I do... LOL... as I was putting everything out I  was surprised   how many bits and bobs I have that say God Bless America... I hope that he does... we could use more blessings... 

Well that was a pictorial overload, wasn't it??   And wait... like the Ginsu knife commercial... I got more!!  Now we'll go outside... the weather here has been all over the place in the last month... first waaay too much rain... then 90 degrees temperatures ( waaay too high for June) ... and then bad storms... the weather guys confirmed a tornado in the area last Wednesday...luckily no deaths but lots of damage...  

My flowers are looking good... and these pictures are for me to be able to remember what things looked like when I'm longing for some green in January... 

Looking nice from the corner...

This window box looks the best of the 5 I have... the petunias in the other ones have started to give up the ghost... and I've tried to add new ones in but it hasn't been helping... sigh...

The cleome has done great as are the little zinnas  I edged all the beds with... 

I'm very very happy with my new outdoor lighting... those little pagoda type lights really light up the plants at night... I think I'm going to see if I can add a couple more of those to the beds... I'm going to call Adam an see if I can get on his schedule for Fall...  after I clean up these beds... I'm thinking maybe 3 more ... another project...LOL

The other front yard... the marigolds are filling in... the canna's are finally blooming and there are dahlias that are almost 7 feet tall... I suppose I should have cut them back ... too late now... look at the pic below... I am 5 ft tall ... 

Also check out the roof... that is my outdoor American flag... and there is not way I can reach it... I texted Dan the Handyman and when he's over in my neck of the woods he has a ladder tall enough to reach the roof line and he says he'll get it down for me... 

And here is a view of the dahlia bed that I've never shown before... you can see how long it is here... 24 ft... and how tall the dahlia are getting in this bed... so far no blooms but lots of buds... with the forecast of sunny days this upcoming weeks things should start popping...  now to deal with the Japanese beetle problems... ugh ugh ugh... I picked off about 50 of them last night from the dahlias in the front yard and the zinnas... I'm going out today to get some spray and maybe some beetle traps... the problem with the traps is you are suppose to set them about 30 ft from the plants you want to protect... ummmm... 30 feet from any of my stuff is either the street or the neighbor's yard...  I may ask my one neighbor if I could put a trap in the corner of his yard... he doesn't have any flowers there and I would be diligent about emptying the trap... have to think about it...the woes of gardening... 

So now that your eyes have glazed over I shall toddle off here for today... I'll link up with Kathy's Quilts ... and if you are so inclined stop back in tomorrow... I'm going to post some quilty stuff... like I said long long ago at the beginning of this epic post, my sewing mojo has returned... I took at top to Delinda last week, I have another that just needs a border,  one that is waiting for a binding, a table runner finished, a quilt that has languished for over a year waiting for me to sew the sleeve down, and a NEW quilt on my design wall.  Now don't think I'm being productive every day, because I'm not... I find that if I have a day where I get a lot done, it is followed by one or two where I just doom scroll on my phone... trying very hard to stay off of the computer or my phone... I can waste hours and hours and hours looking at pretty things and reading all kinds of stories... which is enjoyable, but I have nothing to show for my time... which bothers my Catholic soul... boy the nuns trained me well... LOL 

Hope things are well in your corner of the world...

happy stitching-

carol fun