Patriotic Project #1

Hi Everyone!

My first patriotic project does not involve quilting.  Have you seen this on Pinterest or in blogland?






I have been drooling over it for more than a year now.  The other day when I went to my local craft store, I spied the flag picks on sale, so I scooped up several  all they had.  The link to the original post can be found here.  The instructions were pretty brief and described the materials more than the technique.

I got a styrofoam wreath of about the size mentioned and opened my picks and starting sticking them in.  I got maybe 75 in and didn't really like it.  I consulted the photo from the blog (above) and realized that I was putting the flags in like this:

When I looked at the inspiration photo, I could tell that the flags were put in vertically, not horizontally.  So I first tried to twist them, but discovered that I broke fewer of the toothpicks by just pulling them out and beginning again.

In this photo, you can see that I am now sticking them in more vertically.  After I did a bunch more, I realized  that you could just look straight through the flags to the Styrofoam.  I didn't want that, so I took them out again and reinserted them in at an angle--so they were leaning to the right a bit.

Here you can maybe see about how far apart they are.

I kept it up, worrying about the last bit--when I would have to tuck them under the area where I began.  Since they were "leaning," I thought it may be tricky, but it wasn't.

Here it is--all complete.  I think I used more than 300 flags--probably closer to 350.  You can still see a bit of white under the flags, but it will be okay.  I have it hanging on my front door for the photo, but since I don't have a storm door, it will be exposed to wind and rain, and I don't want it to get damaged, so I will probably hang it inside. 

It was a fairly easy project, once I figured out exactly how to do it. 

I hope you all have a great day!
JoAnne