A Little St. Patrick's Day Project

Friday night was supposed to be Craft Club, but the ugly winter storm threw a big wrench in those plans. I was really in the mood to make something though, and decided I'd try a shot at making something like this. I then spent the better part of what "free time" my weekend offered working on it.

As you'll see in a few moments, my end result really doesn't resemble their version - other than in spirit. Hopefully they won't be offended that I linked to them before showing what I did do...

I'm a big fan of doing what I can with what I have on hand. I hate making trips to the store for only one or two items. Also, I find that the challenge of making do is often the best part of the project for me.

Of the suggested supply list, I did NOT have any of the following: cream colored 14" fabric for the background, five gold buttons, fusible web or a satin flower.

What I did have was white background fabric, green buttons and a lot of shamrocky fabric:

Without the fusible web, I did the applique by hand, ironing under the edges and doing a small straight stitch to attach it to my background fabric:

Instead of the ribbon flower, I made a little fabric "button" of sorts for the center of my shamrock, using a Claddaugh image cut from one of the fabric remnants I had on hand:

I put the little poem at the top instead of the bottom and made some decorative corners out of a few little quilt squares (the white space just seemed too open for me). I put the green buttons as anchors for each of the corners:

I ended up with something I'm quite happy with even though it's much different than the original inspiration...

Thanks to Old Fashioned Living for a great idea - I only hope I didn't do it an injustice.