The Saga of a Summer Rag Wreath

Last week, I showed you all my freshened up summer mantle.  And while that definitely adds a bit of summer happiness to the indoors, I wanted something bright and happy on the outdoors as well.  I've been eyeing rag wreaths on Pinterest for quite some time and decided this was the perfect time to attempt one.
So, on  a recent outing to AC Moore, I picked up a bundle of quilting fabrics in a summer color scheme (or at least what I consider to be summery) with pinks, greens, blues, yellows, oranges.  I also scooped up a straw wreath and figured that would be about all I needed.
When I got home, I started cutting the fabric into strips.  Luckily, I tested out my wreath pretty early in the cutting process because I quickly realized that the wreath was too thick for my rag wreath.  It may have worked in the end, but I was going to waste a lot of fabric just to get the strips around the thing that I decided to ditch the plan.
I thought I would have to make a return trip to AC Moore, but then I had a little epiphany.  I decided to cut out a cardboard circle from a diaper box (I actually did two halves and then taped them together).  I tested out a strip...it worked...so I got to work cutting all of the fabric into strips that were about 6 inches or so long and about an inch wide.  I'm really bad at estimating, so here's a picture of them along with my cardboard circle.

By the way...I really hated that peace sign fabric that came in the pack but was worried I wouldn't have enough fabric to fill up the wreath if I didn't use it.  I reasoned it wouldn't really be visible once it was assembled, and luckily, I think it worked out.

So back to my wreath saga.  After that, it was pretty easy.  Just knot each strip around the cardboard form...not a full knot, just the first step in tying a knot.  After repeating that over and over, scrunching each piece really close to the one next to it, I had a completed rag wreath.

Kind-of.  I liked it from a distance, but up close it looked really flat and flimsy.  So, I bit the bullet and headed back to AC Moore (is it bad that the kind cashier asked where Colton was...not by name...but "where is the big man" or something to that effect...he was in school in case you're concerned as well).  I wanted one of those green floral wreaths that I swore I've seen, but lo and behold, they didn't have any of those...hmmm.  Instead I picked up a Styrofoam form one that wasn't quite as round as I had wanted, but was better than my cardboard one.  

I got home and one-by-one untied each strip from my cardboard wreath, retied it to my Styrofoam one, and then had to add a few extra ones at the end to fill it in (thank goodness I saved the leftover fabric).  And after all that, here's the final version of this ridiculous summer rag wreath.

I know it doesn't look much different in the pictures, but I promise it is!  That certainly took way longer than I had originally planned on.  I was also going to add some pinwheels to it, but I thought that would be too busy, so I think it may finally be done!