It is Beginning To Look a Bit Like Christmas.....

on my work tables anyway!!! I am in full Christmas production mode. I took several boxes of wares down to the Gallery at Liberty Town in Fredericksburg, yesterday. Displays are being arrainged today. Now I am in theprocess of restocking my Etsy shop. I will let you know what is there and when as soon as the Elves are finished!!!
I have been working on Trees like the ones that you see above. I am using my hand printed gelatin monoprint fabrics for the trees and I am quite pleased with how they are turning out. They are definately one of a kind , Artsy and Unusual!!
My dear friend Trina Lucida, proprietess of the Paper Flea Market and artist extroirdinaire, was recently published in the current issue of Somerset Life. The concept and design of these trees is her brilliance and I give her full credit and asked for her permission before I started creating trees very similar to hers!! Her fabulous trees are made with rich tapesty fabrics and have a decidedly vintage feel. In reality, mine are polar opposites, but if you get a chance please check out her wonderful article on page 79 of the current issue of Somerset Life!! You must also go and visit her wonderful on-line shop, The Paper Flea Market, for wonderful ephemera at fabulous prices! (see the link above).

In this shot , the trees lined up along the back are awaiting their tree stands.

These three trees wil lbe staying in our family Christmas collection. I created these using vintage family relics from my grandmothers house. These trees began life as a wonderful Swedish Linen Dish Towel. When my Mom asked me if I had a desire for the dish towels that were used everyday for many many years and were now sporting good sized holes from wear and use, I jumped at the offer and implored her not to discard a single one!! I have quite a bit of dish towel remaining and I plan to make more to share with my brothers familyand my Mom, of course!!
THe most forward tree is decorated with vintage red buttons, the next with vintage mother of pearl buttons and the back tree has vintage white beads. For the tree stands I used small vintage wooden thread spools with the thread still wound and then added bits of sheet music and glitter. (This style is much more in line with Trina's design).

This year I designed a different style of bird ornament using my favorite Fabric Paper. My goal was to make a simpler design that who be quicker to produce in quantity and therefore have a lower price. This is what I came up with.

These little birds are decorated on both sides. The front is the fabric paper with a sheet music wing and a sequin and bead eye. The back is upholstry fabric in colors of the season with a stitched eye. The legs are wire wound around a real twig with a added bead embelishment. these birds will be available in my Etsy Shop very soon!

I also created these fabric collage house ornaments. The house itself is my Fabric Paper with a white Upholestry Roof and vintage lace for icicle drippings. the shrubs in the front are also vintage pillow case edging. I placed stiffener inside th fabric sandwich and backed the piece with more upholstry scraps. Again each ornament is unique depending ont he Fabric paper used and the trims added!

I am also making small Art Quilts using the dried Baby Wipes that we used for cleaning paint off of our hands during my Gelatin Monoprinting class. (NEVER throw anything AWAY!!!) I added a stamping of my own creation and wrote the quote using a fine tipped sharpie marker. The quote reads: "Find the seed at the bottom of your heart and bring forth a flower".
Then, using scraps that had piled up around my sewing machine, I added borders and a backing. Then I embelished the piece with s afew beads and added a hanging cord. The border scraps and backing are form my gelatin monoprinted fabric stash.

In the past, I have created scrap fabric pieces that I have then proceeded to use for purses and other fabric creations. Recently I created a piece that is predominantly red, with Christmas ornaments in mind. I have been collecting mens silk ties when I see them in thrift stores and they have appealing patterns. I used many of the deconstructed ties in this fabric reconstruction. I then cut heart shapes out of the scrap and stitch embellished fabric and embellished the hearts further with embroidery and beads! (Of course!!)

I added vintage silk for the backing and stiffened the whole piece with interfacing.

Finally here is a picture of the collection of items that I delivered to Liberty Town, to kick off the Holiday Shopping Season. Keep your fingers crossed for me!!


Happy Creating everyone, I am off to make a batch of bread for this week's bag lunches!