home of the free because of the brave images

I lightly sanded the edges of stars to remove excess fabric & give the stars a ‘worn’ look.

I keep one of these sanding blocks handy in the studio (it’s surprising how many times I reach for it). Sharp, pointed scissors were helpful to trim into the corners. Once the fabric has dried, I used an exacto blade to trim the excess cotton away from the star. Here you see all of the stars with their under & over coating of Mod Podge. Next you will Mod Podge over the top of the fabric – work the fabric to make sure there aren’t any bubbles. I trimmed the cotton fabric a little closer to the star shape but still left about a 1/2″ extra. Generously brush the Mod Podge on one side of the star & place MP side down on the wrong side of the fabric. We cut the fabric to roughly fit each star then poured Mod Podge onto a paper plate. I gathered the necessary supplies: various scissors, foam brushes, fabrics, mod podge, paper plates, etc… We had a little time over Memorial Day weekend & let’s just say – we got a little crafty! The whole time I was working with the stars (I cut the garland apart so I could lay the stars in a particular order), I kept thinking…I need to ‘do’ something with these…something that I can use in my home. I found this cute star garland…it was a little ‘manufactured’ looking for my taste, but I figured that I could make it work. In this case, I had the table runner in my personal stash but I wanted something smaller for balance.

When a cross stitch designer gets ready to shoot a chart cover, he or she may gather 20-30 different items that may or may not actually make it into the final photo. That’s not what this blog post is about! 😉ĭo you see those red & white stars casually yet strategically placed at the bottom of the photo? That’s what I want to talk about! HOD & I chat about the most recent releases.

I licensed this lovely piece of artwork from Lily & Val, LLC – you can read more about the design on the product page as well as FlossTube #67 where Mr. Last May I released a chart titled ‘Home of the Brave’.

Home of the free because of the brave images