My "me" project

This year I have many large projects going at once. Each month I am working on slippers to give as Christmas presents, I am making a few 12x12" blocks for an afghan, I am making a new tree skirt because I desperately need one plus I am making a flag afghan for my front room.
After looking through patterns I have decided to combine a few.
I had a hard time deciding if I wanted traditional red, white and blue or more country/antiqued tones of cranberry, cream and navy. I finally went back to my days as a tole painter and decided to create a shaded look to the stripes, starting with light then moving to bright tones and finally deeper reds and blues. For the white stripes I started with white plus off white (since this is work holding two strands) and gradually ended up with light tans. I love how it is turning out so far. I am changing every eight to ten rows.