New Bird Creations

It has been a long time since my last post. I have been very busy getting an order together for a gallery that has taken quite a liking to my Wing Dings. In fact the first batch that I delivered has sold out!!! WHOOOO HOOOOO!!! I had set aside a chunk of time to work on items for two upcoming shows and I had not plannned on an additional order for Garden Fairies and Birds from the gallery. Mind you, I am not complaining one bit, I have just been very very busy!!!

Here are my new birds. I will post more photos of finished items as soon as I can get them finished!!! Right now everything seems to be in some sort of state of not quite doneness!! I must make a list or two and figure out where everything stands!!

This Wing Ding is going to remain in the family collection! I am not sure how many tree cookie press dies I am going to come across!!

The next two are also made from aluminum plates from an old cookie press. I painted the plates and then overstamped them for some more texture.

"Sing Your Own Song"

"Let Yourself Soar"

I made the next two birds using vintage drink coasters. They came with the flowers on them and all of the wonderful dings and scratches! I just love them and they will make perfect gifts for Bird Loving Gardeners!!

The phrase on each bird says,"Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower."

This bird is made using the bottom of a soda can. the rim gives me some room to add a small collage. I created a very small nest from honeysuckle vine and yarn and added a tiny round white beach pebble for an egg. The phrase says "Nourish Your Soul".

This bird was made with wings cut from copper flashing and then embossed and flamed for color. The body is a tart tin and the legs are from a vintage typewriter.

I have had several requests to have birds at my upcoming shows on the 8th and 9th , so there is nothing for it but to get back to work!!!!!

Pay It Forward!!!

I Love the idea of Pay It Forward!! I have just found out about this art version from my dear friend Patty, On her Blog Magpie's Nest ( http://bitze.wordpress.com/ ), she found out about it on Belinda Schneider's Blog ( http://belindaschneider.wordpress.com/ ). We all know that if Belinda is involved , it is a Very Good Thing!!! Here is how it works:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this PIF (Pay it forward) exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days, that is my promise! The only thing you have to do in return is to pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.So basically, if you’re one of the first 3 comments, I’ll send you something crafty that I’ll make!Once you sign up, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog, and three other lucky people will be recipients of your handmade work. Pay it Forward!

By the way, if youhave not seen the movie Pay It Forward, it is a must see!! Just be sure that you have a box of tissues handy!!
Come and join me for this fun arting event!!

Ashes of Roses

I don't remember if it was a lipstick color or a blush name, but I am pretty sure that it was from the cosmetic industry, my Mom use to have some product by the name Ashes of Roses. I know that there is a novel by this name. Anyway, my Belinda's Dream Rose has given me her last bloom for this year. She bloomed steadily and very profusely in the Spring, slowed down a bit when it was very hot and then as soon as it started to cool down she came on like gang busters again!! We have had several frosts, the impatiens succumbed weeks ago but Belinda has kept right on blooming!! I do so wish that our computers had Small-a-Sensors as her fragrance is amazing as well! Becca and I love her evena s she is losing her petals all over the kitchen table!!

I know taht she will return even more floriferous and fragrant after a long winter's anpbut we will miss her!!! You can bet that you will hear me shouting from the rooftops when we pick our first bloom of 2008! I must remind myself that Spring would be nearly so fabulous an occurence if there was no Winter to spend in anticipation!!

It's a dog's life !! (Part Deux)

100% cotton sheets, 100% wool blanket, Down Comforter, hugs from a sweet 10 year old. What dog could ask for more!!!
Buddy puts up with SOOOOO much!!
now don't go rushing off to call the ASPCA on me!! :)

Finally Done!!

A miracle of infintesimal proportions ( when compared to World Peace or something else important) has occured! I have finished up some projects!! But not, however, before I had started a new one- more on that later!! There is no denying it, this is just how I work!!

These stocking ornaments are for an Ornament Swap on one of my Yahoo Groups. I dyed some white baby socks with coffee 9for thatVintage look- ha ha!) and some with Red Rit dye. I used truely vintage trims and hand dyed cheese cloth and beads and tiny jingle bells to decorate them and put a Chick charm on each one, they were quick and easy! on the red ones I use some really neat lime green tiny ball fringe- it shows up here as more of a yellow but it really is a nice different green.

It was suggested to me at the GRACE Gallery in Reston that my Garden Fairies would make neat pins. So I tried some. I have made some modifications as to how I do the faces. I paint the fabric before sewing and then draw my own faces once the piece is sewn and turned. These are very cute but not easy! Smaller is often much more difficult- now I have to figure out pricing!! iIhave put a small pin back on each taht also has a bale on it . This will allow the piece to hang on a necklace as well!

This picture gives you an idea of how much smaller the pin doll is when compared to the regular Garden Fairy.

After receiving my copy of Quilting Arts Gifts, I got all inspired to make some more fabric paper. i m working on a Christmas Stocking for my AWOL Yahoo Group and I wanted to make it out of fabric paper. I love this technique as it is so messy and all collage work. I use my painted paper towels, wrapping paper, decorative napkin tops, text from old and foreign books and tissue paper, all fused to fabric with white glue. I literally spent several very enjoyable halves of days working on several very large sheets (yards) of this stuff, so now I have lots to be used for creating!!!

Each hanging is approximatly 3 x 4.5 inches. only the fronts have bird images but the backs are decorated as well. I sewed each piece together on the machine, sometimes adding thread painting around the nests and some have tulle pockets with treasures sewn inside.

In this piece you can also see that I used dressmakers pattern tissue for the collage work. These hangings definately have a Holiday flavor to them but they can also be left to hang all year round. i put eyelets in at the top corners and in the bottom middle. Then I played around with adding the dangly bits. I love the danglies!! Most of the items that I added are bits of old jewelry, vintage lamp prisms and old pearls.

In this hanging you can see the little tulle pocket with fibers and pearls placed inside. Thank you Ruth Rae, for that inspiration!!!!

I have 6-8 more of these to finish and I have a feeling that they will sell very well at my show- at least I hope so!!

Well, the natives are clamoring for food! What's up with That????

I'll be back later with some more photos of completed photos!!

Do You Ever Feel Like.......

a puppy chasing it's own tail??? Lately, I feel like I have been spinning in circles happily playing in my art space, moving from one project to the next and getting nothing done!!!!!! I get a new idea, get all charged up about it with more ideas than my mind can handle and I go charging off to start it. Meanwhile, I have various other things going in all sorts of degrees of "Doneness" and now new things started!!! ARGH!!! I just need to lock myself in, take in no new stimuli and finish what I have started! There must be (please!!!) others of you out there who suffer from the same sort of artistic frenzy??? If not maybe i need some medical intervention- JUST KIDDING!!
It is raining here today and after I return from my Reading tutoring duties, I plan to hide away and finish up several things- I'll post again soon!!

3 Pink Lovelies Complete!!

I have posted a picture of the center Lovely in a previous post but I had to show a group shot before I send the girls on their way to Mo in Oklahoma for the Dorcas Project. See http://mos-musings.blogspot.com . I( Imust learn how to embed a link into the text, but I have too little time right now to learn something technical!! EECK!!)
Anyway I really enjoyed creating these three and i can hear my swedish grandmother's voice in the back of my head telling how pleased she is that I used all of my left over fabric scraps to make the fabric!! Besides being incredibly thifty and frugal, my grandmother was an amazing gardener. I have so many things to thank her for!!

New Quilt Journal Pages

I am pretty tired of birds and Garden Fairies right now, but I am not to get much of a break!! I delivered my art to GRAQCE in Reston, VA today and everyone was thrilled. The gls working at the time started shopping! Erica, the wonderful Artistic Director, asked if I could bring more Birds and as many dolls as I can make, when I go back up for the opening reception on November 30th!!!! it is SOOOOOOO Fabulous to be so well recieved!!

I do have some other projects to finish up and to share before I start on Round 2!

I have just finsihed another Quilt jouranl Page Swap on my Surface Designs group. this time I sent my page to Ann in France! The theme was Monochromatic Colors. I chose to work with Green. I have nto been a big fan of green till just recently- maybe it has something to do with being "delivered" from Oklahoma, though they have had much more rain recently than we have! As it was so darn hot there and the wind never stopped blowing, I really came to covet the lush greenness of the garden.

All of the fabric used in this collage piece was dyed by moi! I used the Setacolor dyes for both the sunprints and the trim. The background fabric is from a vintage linen napkin and I added dyed cheesecloth and then another trim piece over that and Stamped the word Grow on a piece of fabric/paper that I had made earlier. I did lots of beading on the piece but unfortunately that does not show up very well in this picture.

This is the page that Ann sent to me. Keep in mind that these two pieces passed each other somewhere over the Atlantic and we did not share our plans with each other, I am not sure that we both knew that the other was passionate about gardening either! I certainly did not know that she was, she may have seen some of my garden pictures that I posted to the group.

She paper pieced this rose from fabric that she had created by printing a photograph of a rose from her garden on fabric! I just love this piece!! as it turns out I am nuts about Pink Roses and I have one still blooming in my garden right now. It also turns out that she also only plants antique roses and has no use for those that do not have a fragrance!! Maybe we are twins that were separated at birth????? Serendipity and Sychronisity!!!!! I love it!!!

Birds and Fairies Everywhere!

It has been too long since my last post!! I have been pushing hard to get the 30 Garden Fairies and the Bird Dolls done for the Gallery in Reston, in between making a double batch of homemade rolls for Tom to take into work tomorrow and a batch of homemade Pretzels for Matthew to take into German Club for their Oktoberfest celebration!! I can now say that they are complete!! Everything is tagged and ready for delivery! I have so many other things to do and shows and gifts to get ready for, never mind two kids that have birthdays on either side of Christmas . Matthew, my soon to be 16 year old (EGAD!!!!), just informed me that Thanksgiving was only two weeks from this coming Thursday!!!! YIKES!!!!!

Enough whining here are my Wing Dings!! I love them! They are so much fun to create and each one developes her own personality!

Listen To Your Heart

Let Yourself Soar

Sing Your Own Song (version 2)

Follow Your Dreams

I will be making more birds as I want to have stock for my other events and to have stock to post on my Etsy site.

Here are the last of the Garden Fairies- the ones that I like the best.

I am enjoying creating the faces . The gals take on some real personality depending on how I shape the eyes and mouth! I have also been paying alot of attention to the backs of the dolls. I am a real stickler for the details and these girls must look good from all angle

I have also made some functional art using some of my collaged and paint scraped papers. The frames were covere d with my papers and then coated with many coats of a heavy varnish for extra durability. Mirros are very hard to photograph!!

The mirror in the center is about 4 inches square and the frame is 4inches all around. these will make nice occasional mirrors on a small wall. Hopefully people will like them, they are certainly one-of-a-kind!!

I will be back with another post in a day or two, as I have 5 or ten different projects in the works right now- all at various stages of "Doneness"! In the meantime please say a little prayer for us here in the Mid Atlantic- we are supposed to get some rain tonight and we need it desperately!!!

Keeping my fingers and toes crossed..............