Who’d have thought you could take this cool little fabric called Laminate and make a flag out of it, let alone buy a special ornament for your yard to display it in. I suppose with all the Christmas decorations or other holiday decorations that it was probably inevitable that someone would come up with the idea to decorate your lawn. Now, let me explain, I did not purchase the flag stand that goes in the ground. The reasons being that the Flags On A Stick’s website could not seem to let me get through the cart, and I gather that’s because I have a FPO address, which is a post office box located on the military base that we live on. It didn’t matter what frame I added to my cart, it would not let me check out. When I wrote them, they didn’t seem to know how to fix the problem, so, like any thoughtful customer, I went elsewhere and purchased my stand. It happens sometimes, even at Amazon, it won’t ship some things overseas, so it’s just something I’ve grown to know over the years. I did find a stand in the image to your left that you see at Garden House Flags. I really like it. There are also regulations for living in military housing such as no planting of flowers, trees, plants, or even a garden, so placing a flag stand in the ground would definitely be out as well. Perhaps that’s just here in Sicily, I don’t really know, but I like living in normal housing, so I couldn’t have put a stand in the ground anyway.
For my design, I drew the Sunbonnet Sue from artwork I purchased at Clipart-4-Embroidery. The Sunbonnet Sue was drawn in Electric Quilt 7, and then parts of the shapes were digitized in Bernina Embroidery Software v7. Parts of this design use dimensional elements, the bow on the dress, the hat ruffle and bottom on the dress. Unfortunately, the green print you see in Sunbonnet Sue’s dress, did not arrive at my home until my husband came home last night, so I was up all night finishing what I’d originally planned to do. I have come to the conclusion that the mail is behind again as I still haven’t even received the interfacing from my owl purse for the Ruffles blog hop.. So I didn’t have any chance to create a test stitch out first. I had wanted to play with a zigzag stitch as the topstitching, so most of the dress and hat feature that zigzag stitch, where other parts are just straight stitched on. I also didn’t have time to fully remove the stabilizer from the top of Sue, but I think you can still see her well enough. I do apologize for any sloppiness, I was really trying to finish in a hurry. I did learn pretty quickly it’s better to use a walking foot than a normal foot on your machine as laminate tends to slide or bunch up quite easily. My fabric kept bunching up on me, so I had to take out part of it and fix it. I tried the walking foot and my problems were resolved. What I will show you as the back was going to be what I’d planned as my backup plan if the green print didn’t come today. Here is the back of the flag:
What’s odd about the back is that I am unsure of why my block didn’t give me the proper height, I can only assume I need to beef up my EQ drawing skills where blocks are concerned for piecing. I’m not any good at drawing pieced blocks in EQ in the first place, but thought I’d give it a first go, so this is my first manually drawn half log cabin block in EQ7. When I finished it without adding the black bottom, it was 13 x 14 1/2. I had to add the extra wide strip to make it to the 16 1/2 inches. I gather I could have added some text to that, but at 4:30am I just wanted to go to bed. 🙂
Thank you to Thearica and Madamm Samm for another fun blog hop.
It’s now 5:12am and I’m going to publish this post and go to bed.
Night Ya’ll, and Have a great day!!
Living with Purpose
Life In The Scrapatch
Devoted Quilter
Made By Me In Red
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Bumbleberry Stitches
Quilted Delights
Red Quilts
On the Banks of Frog Creek
Words & Stitches
K and S Sweets and Stitching
How arT you?
Just Let Me Quilt
Robin’s Fabric Nest
Patchouli Moon Studio
CeLynn’s Sunflower Patch
Ravelly1 In Stitches and Seams
Grandmama’s Stories
More Stars in Comanche
MooseStashQuilting
Pampered Pettit
ShirleyC
Farm Gate Creations
Sew Incredibly Crazy
Quilt Doodle Designs
Buzzing and Bumbling
Why Knot Kwilt?
Creatin’ in the Sticks
Thimblemouse & Spouse
Stitchin’ By The Lake
Just One More Stitch
The Quilting Queen Online
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Whims And Fancies
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The House on the Side of the Hill
Texas Quilting Gal
Madame Samm
What a great flag and how different. Thanks for sharing. Susie x
Your Sue Bonnet flag is very creative and lovely.
I think you did a wonderful job on your Sun Bonnet Sue , sorry you had to stay up half the night to finish I have been there. Thanks for sharing.
Such a cute idea! and very well done…
Looks like we have about the same blog name!
You certainly did persevere and it was worth the effort. I love Sunbonnet Sue patterns and you made a delightful Spring Flag. Thanks for hanging in there.
Blessings
Gmama Jane
You combined two of my favorite things, swings and Sunbonnet Sue. Perfect for blowing in the wind. Thanks for sharing, great job.
Luv your swinging Sue…and the fabric for the dress is perfect. Your determination paid off…a great finish!! Thanks for sharing!! Happy stitching, Pauline
Your flag is just as cute as can be! I also like your flag stand. We need a new one for our yard.
I own a Babylock embroidery machine, and I recently bought a roller foot which works great for materials like the laminate.
Happy Flagging!
I’m so impressed with your EQ7 drawing skills. I’m working on that… And I can’t wait to read your blog and hear about life in Sicily!
I love your Sunbonnet Sue – I am sorry you had to stay up late to finish! I have been through that too! I am so glad you stuck with it. You now have a beautiful flag. I haven’t tried EQ7.
You did a great job. Hope you got some rest!
xo jan
The stand is very unique and beautiful. Really love your version of Sue,she makes a delightful little flag. Hope your mail gets caught up,and you get some sleep!
Now, get to bed early tonight!! Sunbonnet Sue is really cute – congrats on the digitizing and all. I love that you did laminate – a great idea for any flag that might be outside at any point.
Your flag reminds me of the swings at school that we all wanted to be on come spring and summer…. thanks for sharing
in stitches
Your flag is just adorable! Very, very creative! Thank you for sharing with us! 🙂
Sunbonnet Sue Swinging is wonderful on your flag. Thank you sew very much for Hopping and Flag Flying…
What an artful piece of work!
I like your stand, it looks much nicer than my 8 Dollar Michael’s pole 😉
How brave to try something new. Your Sue looks lovely.
Lovely! I didn’t realize that about the rules for base housing. I would have thought gardening would be good…one of my favorite pictures of my husband is him showing off the vegetable garden he planted on base in Vietnam. Thanks for sharing! Beth @ Words & Stitches (who is frantically finishing her flag, too!)
What a beautiful flag! She looks great on your stand.
-Soma
Very sweet & very creative!
She’s a beauty! Great colors.
Very creative indeed, not only for the stand but the flag also.
Your Sue design is very cute and the pretty green fabric was worth waiting for! Great job!
So cute and perfect for a nice spring day!
In spite of the obstacles in your path you finished and a mighty fine job you did too.
Love the idea of lamanate.
You did swing into action with your little garden girl! She’s adorable. I can just imagine how hard it must be to work with the laminate, but you did a great job!
Your flag is sew cute…I truly like her. I also had problems getting a flag pole. I found a regular vine that goes in the ground and got it. But still did not get the one I truly want.
Very sweet design. I really like the swinging lady. You burned the midnight oil and brightened our day with your sweet flag.
Yikes…that was a late night! She turned out really cute. I have found that sewing with laminates works best with a silicone foot or even placing a piece of masking tape on the bottom of your regular foot.
You did a fantastic job. I love everything about your flag!!
She’s a very lovely Sun Bonnet Sue of “modern times”.
Just love your Sunbonnet Sue!!! Never imagined using laminate for a flag, but that would be a great idea@!
I think your flag is lovely! 🙂
Sweet swinging lady on your flag! It looks like you mastered working on those laminates. :O)
You had sheer determination and it paid off! I love your swinging Sue! Reminds me of the song about Charlotte swinging on the front porch… Makes me smile. 🙂
It turned out so well for being under such a time crunch!! I love the applique!
Hello Marian…your stand is really lovely…like a tree that is bare but then you did your magic and had us swinging…working with laminate can be a challenge…you made it look like a breeze…
She is beautiful! And now think about the memory of a delerious night finishing her! LOL thanks for hopping!
Your flag is wonderful, and it was interesting to read about your creative process!
I really like your indoor stand. I think I need one. Your swinging lassie is very cute and spring-y. I am glad you were able to finish in time. I hate deadlines and it really seems like you are at a disadvantage regarding the mail.
Your flag is wonderful. Thanks for sharing your creativity.
I sure wish I had a lovely tree with a swing in my backyard! Your flag is beautiful.
What a cute flag…love that it is done in laminate and can be put outside. Great work, thanks for sharing.
Marian, Thanks for persevering to complete your flag – it is wonderful. I think swinging reminds us all to be carefree. The green fabric is absolutely perfect. I’m sorry you are having trouble getting your supplies. You are doing a remarkable job even without what you order. You certainly are dedicated to be up to the absolute wee hours of the morning to finish. Thanks for participating and sharing your beautiful flag. I’m glad you got a flag stand.
Oh, to be swinging in the spring air. When I saw your flag, I had to stop and search the web for the nursery rhyme by Robert Louis Stevenson, “The Swing.” The first verse is:
How do you like to go up in a swing,
Up in the air so blue?
Oh, I do think it the pleasantest thing
Ever a child can do!
It turned out just lovely. There is nothing like a beautiful afternoon and a swing on a tree. Thanks for sharing.
I love your use of laminate for your flag! I have only used a nylon, non raveling, that is no longer available. Thank you for sharing.
Very creative flag … I’m sorry you had troubles with one of our Sponsors. Thank you for sharing.