Stitching Friends Forever

July Stars and Stripes
Week three

Something Old Made New
Monthly Free Pattern

Hope you are enjoying our third week of old ornaments made new.  This has actually been the hardest week to do.   Finding ways to jazz up an old stitch is difficult but we are giving it our best.  

But before we get started, we wanted to tell you about a great giveaway that our friend Linda Lee is having at Lov'N My Stitches blog.   She is one of our sweetest new friends and has a lovely blog that I think you will all enjoy a lot.

And some more good news...our dear friend Stasi at Bee-mused and Bee-stitching is having a fun giveaway too.    She is another very sweet and talented friend.  Links to both these blogs can be found on our sidebar.  So stop by and say hello to these lovely two ladies and tell them Stitching Friends sent you. 

Here are our new stitches made new for July.  Hope you like them.

RJ - I picked Brave Hearts by Little House Needleworks.   This pattern was love at first sight and I wanted to stitch it right away.  Once again, it was way too big for an ornament so I put my own spin on this one.   I only used the house and flag like it is on the pattern.   Then I had to move around the climbing flowers to fit the new saying I was using.  I shortened the lawn under the house by a lot and dropped the whole bottom right side. Instead of the original poem, I stitched Home is where the Air Force sends you. This is a very popular military family saying and it fit this stitch perfectly. To fill in the bottom right,  I stitched three little pots of flowers in red, white and blue.  This one hangs on my nature Christmas tree. 

Before:  Here is my spin on Brave Hearts as a small ornament.

I love this ornament already but wanted to add something extra to it.

After:  While shopping in Hobby Lobby recently, I found this navy pleated ribbon which seemed like it might work for my old ornament.  So I added the ribbon, a navy star bow and a new patriotic charm we just purchased. This little stitch was special to me before but I love the new look it was so entitled to.   

This is the plane my husband flew in the Air Force with the made over ornament

I added a star flag charm with star ribbon bow.  You can see how the pleated ribbon ruffles!   It was a great find.

Closeup of Home is where the Air Force Sends You

Home Is Where the Air Force Sends You
adapted from Brave Hearts
by Little House Needleworks
25 ct. lugana one over one
over dyed threads

                                                                       ❤

Mary- Challenging is definitely an accurate description of how difficult I find it to update an older "finished" ornament.

Before:

After: This stitch was originally finished with cording, trim and a rustic plaid fabric that RJ sent me which blended nicely with this bird.  It needed something extra however and this proved to be a challenge because the ornament is only 3 1/2 by 2 1/2.  I added  a tiny JOY charm and a little corded bow.  It is now officially "finished"!

Homespun Elegance "Majestic Bird"

28 count over 1, mystery variegated threads

                                                           July Freebie

Notforgotten Farm has a great free stitch for you to enjoy and it is perfect for July. You can find it here

I've seen this chart stitched up and it is adorable.   See you next week with our new stitches for July.   RJ and Mary


           This day will never happen again, make the most of it
                                                 unknown author