Button Stars and Quilted Stripes

I make it a rule to not talk politics in public, but I am an American, and for all it's flaws there is no denying it's a beautiful country built on beautiful ideals.

It was with those ideals in mind

that I tried to give my Uncle Sam a look of hope.

I imagined him looking towards a bright future.

There are no such heady concepts behind the flag we made this week. I just wanted to play with our national symbol a bit. Yes, I'm aware that it's not an literal translation of the official flag of the United States, but it gets the idea across. It's obviously an American flag, despite it's 15-star and 2-stripe deficit.

Had I known how much time would be invested in this not-so-little flag of mine, I probably would have thought again. I really like how it came out though, even if it did take a big ole bite out of my red-button jar. I counted (as best I could with my daughter helpfully counting along) and there are 168 (give or take) buttons on this Old Glory. I took it with me to baseball practice and soccer games, doing a good impersonation of Betsy Ross.

While I had the red, white, and blue paints out I couldn't resist making a little Lady Liberty to keep Sam company. He's wishing I would have made her a little older. Apparently she's at that age where she just asks "Why?" over and over and over. Good thing Uncle Sam is a patient man, he has a lot of explaining to do.