what aboutin'

before i added the star borders to the Old Glory panel, Melissa came up with a positively brilliant idea...

What about muskets - big honkin' muskets - instead of stars?!?

i tell you, the woman is waaaay more creative than i am...

oooo!!! yeah!!! muskets - a call to arms - like from the Revolutionary War!!!

Exactly!!!

or what about a musket on the Original Flag side and a modern Army rifle on the Present Day side?!?

Oh yeah - that would be even better!!!

and i proceeded to do an internet search for a paper-pieced musket and rifle...

or an appliqued shudder musket and rifle...

or even an embroidered musket and rifle...

three wasted hours later...

 i decided to go with the stars...

one for each of the original colonies ... boy howdy that looks crooked - i oughta be more careful when i take pictures

it isn't muskets and rifles, but it'll do...

and if i ever see that panel again, i'm gonna buy one for Melissa so she can carry out her brilliant idea on her own eagle quilt cuz it would be awesome!!!

after the flying eagles, stars, and words were added, i thought i was ready to make the red and white stripes...

not so fast - it definitely needed something between the red and the blue...
 and that started another search for just the right gold for a peeper border...
after checking the yellow/orange/gold stash of batiks and of cottons and finding NOTHING that would work - too yellow, too brown, too orange (can anything be too orange?!? the answer is, actually, yes - hard as it is to admit) - i decided not to settle ... i was gonna hafta BUY some gold...

 sigh...

i was really, really trying to make this one from stash - and i already had to buy the red (there is no red in the stash - what is up with that?!?) and the white (Stonehenge whites are hard to match unless they are actually Stonehenge whites) and the blue eagles that were gonna be the outer corner stones...

sigh...

anywho, i put 1/4 yard of gold on my list of things to look for while we're Row By Rowing ... and THEN i had to find something - ANYTHING - to take with me that was the RIGHT gold ... which ended up being a skein of yarn from Melissa's sunflower afghan - yeah, there is still a LOTTA yarn leftover - and put it in the car...

where i found the gold is another story for another day - and it involves Taking The Low Road - suffice it to say that i DID find it - and it is cut, pressed and basted... 

and i said to myself...

self, it is time to start the stripes - gotta cut the cornerstones first so you'll know how many stripes and how wide to cut them...

when Melissa came up with yet with ANOTHER brilliant idea...

What about circles of flying geese for the cornerstones - you know - like Betsy Ross's original flag - instead of the blue eagles?!? you really oughta consider it...

ooo!!! yeah!!! and when i was a kid there were only 48 stars on the flag, and there are 12 geese in each block, and twelve times four blocks is 48!!! throwback ... vintage ... honoring the past ... it's kinda my duty, innit?!? 

Duty ... doody ... you said doody!!! ha ha ha!!!

seriously?!? what are you, 12?!? anywho ... i can actually MAKE circles of flying geese without wasting hours and hours searching for a pattern cuz i already HAVE a pattern!!! 

and that's what i'm doing now - working on my bird doody duty...

round and round and round

i am linking up to WIPs With Friends at Mama Spark's World

There is a brilliant child locked inside every student.
Marva Collins