The July decorations is one of Vu’s favorite, I think he would be happy if I left it up all year round and only took it down for Christmas.  He is extremely patriotic.  I actually had most of them finished last year, but because I had surgery on July 1, and was sick before that, I didn’t end up getting them done until towards the end of the month.

The map of the US I made by tracing the map on some cotton fabric and then using different shades of red, white and blue thread I embroidered around each state with the sewing machine and went around each state 6-8 times.  I doubled up the fabric hoping that would prevent the puckering, and it did lesson it, but it still puckered a bit.  I think using some interfacing would have helped, but as I always tell anyone that I am giving crafting advice too, sometimes things don’t go as perfectly as you would like, but you just have to own it and if you can’t change it then decide that is how you like it and you meant to do it that way.  🙂

I made this printed subway art in illustrator and really love it.  I love how each phrase has a graphic that matches it.  I really enjoyed creating this one.  But I am a bit obsessed with Illustrator and love creating anything in it.  I laid one of my square cobalt vases on it’s side and put the frame on top of it to add some height.  The America sign I got years ago from a craft store, but I decided to repaint it this year.  I sanded all of the original paint off because when I first tried to paint it the white mixed with the previous red and made it pink.

The flag I made out of 1/4″ thick plywood and some 1/4″ thick poplar board.  The big back piece and the blue stars are cut out of the plywood and then the red stripes are made out of the board.  I got a 3 1/2″ wide board and since I made it last year before I had my own table saw, my friend cut it for me.  He cut the board lengthwise into 3 even pieces so they are about 1 1/8″ wide.  I measured the whole thing before I cut to make it the right dimensions and to make sure it would all fit properly.  After I painted all the pieces I glued the blue board and red stripes onto the back board and then modge podged some lace over the white stripes and some red burlap over the red stripes, to give it some texture.  Vu likes this one best because there are actually 13 stripes and 50 stars.  He thinks all décor flags should all always be perfectly correct…  I set it on the wood insert I made for the May centerpiece to add height, which then fit the letter blocks nicely underneath it. Continue reading →