proof that I am insane (or at least a bit OCD) - a little garden flag mini-tutorial

Last night, sometime after 9pm...let's say it was 9:30...I realized that some corner of my brain was obsessing over the fact that I didn't ever quite finish taking down the Christmas decor.  I couldn't bear to take the star-lights from the windows. I mean, it's still DARK. Which means all the snowflakes are still stuck to the windows too. I left the wreath on the door because it was not overtly Christmas-y (I told myself). And there are a couple of random decorations that I missed when I took everything down and I haven't managed to tuck them away.

But what's been bugging me every day, at least twice a day, is the snowman garden flag that graces our front steps. 

It's February. This guy is no longer seasonal.

But since I don't have seasonal garden flags for every season, they tend to stay out there way too long. I needed a Valentine's Day flag.  So I decided to make one. At 9:30 at night...

By around 11:15pm , I'd managed to put together this flag in time to swap out in the morning and avoid one more day of shame!  (although the starlights and snowflakes are still up - Wild Thing needs to help me make some valentines to put on the windows!)

Tutorial of sorts:  

Here's the recipe for a flag like this - but since I didn't take photos of the process, you'll have to fill in with your imagination.  I promise I will do better next time! There are similar techniques for this scrappy applique type project out there all over the place...

Ingredients: 

- scraps of reds and pinks

- scraps of fusible interfacing (other tutorials I've seen use stuff that will fuse to both sides - that would be even easier, but I didn't have any on hand)

- one piece of white muslin the width and length to make 2 times the flag size plus 3 extra inches length for loop at the top.

Instructions:

 - cut out a heart shape and letters of your choice from the fusible interfacing

 - select scraps to cover the interfacing and trim and arrange until you are satisfied

 - fuse the scraps to the interfacing with a nice hot iron according to the instructions (or until they stick in my case since I don't have the instructions anymore

 - trim the scraps to match the interfacing cutouts and pin to the bottom of the muslin (be sure to include 1/2 inch for seam allowance when you choose your placement. (if you used the 2 sided fusible stuff - now is when you fuse the other side to your muslin)

 - stitch around the outside of your shapes (I used regular foot for the heart, and tried free-motion with the letters which turned out a little wonky stitch-wise)

 - stitch along all the little overlaps of your scraps - looks cool and holds them down better in case of damp weather conditions

 - fold your muslin in half, wrong sides together and stitch around edge with 1/2 inch allowance. Leave a 4 inch opening somewhere for turning.

 - turn the flag right side out and press (press the opening seams in to match the rest of the seam allowance)

 - topstitch all the way around, closing up the hole during the process

 - fold the top over to the backside 1 and 1/2 inch (or as big as you need for your flag holder), press, and stitch across.

VIOLA!  you have yourself a new flag!  

I plan to use this scrappy applique approach again for other projects - it was fun and very easy - improv is more forgiving than a pattern (well, until you hit a dead end with your improvised non-plan. which can happen. but it didn't this time!)