Loving my stitched birdies

I am so far behind in my blogs!  I have been sewing like mad again and this part just slows me down But my friend jane called yesterday and said "Your blogs got me all inspired, can we come over and make something today?"  That is why I do this!  More about yesterday later as I am obsessed right now with my birds. 

True to typical Portlandia stereotypes, I am a crafty Oregon grrl who likes birds. I have making different stitched birds for a while but the last one is my favorite.  I used an old embroidered tea towel which I cut up for one side and the other side is another vintage fabric from the 70's.  I used some old lace  for the wings.

I made another one out of courduroy and old felted sweater aka wool.  I am challenging myself to use repurposed fabrics as much as possible as part of my repurposing campaign.

Clearly I have birdies flying all over my bedroom now.  I have some great driftwood sticks from the beach that I want to hang some birdies from and then hang that from the ceiling.  It looks like it's time to get out that Dremel rotary tool that  I have never used and drill myself some holes!       

Stitch Intensive Final Project

Last summer I took an amazing fiber art class called Stitch Intensive at Lane Community College with Robin Seloover.  She is basically the entire fiber art program at LCC but she is incredible.  The class ran for 10 hours a day for five straight days.
 I knew right away this was the class for me. This wasn't about sewing kitties on tea towels.  My mother had tried to get me to make those day-of-the-week dishtowels for my "hope chest" once upon a time (back in the 70's). I never finished one single towel but I did learn how to hand sew which I never regretted.
We learned that fiber art is real, viable art and stitching isn't just for "craft."  We had to complete a big final project and I made mine out of four old drawers that I found in a free pile after a yard sale. This is the whole piece from a distance.

The piece on the left is about my mother who died when I was twelve.  It's pieces from her youth, old yearbook page, school photos, a bit of a pillow case she embroidered for her own hope chest.

The one on the right is a page from the book Motherless Daughters, a shell worn smooth, and something I made using Solvy, http://www.sulky.com/stabilizers/solvy.php , which was a product I learned about from Robin. 

The piece on the left is about my mother's death and the one on the right is about myself as a mother.  It hangs on my wall today.  I could take this class every term and still learn something new.  It inspired me to stitch and stitch and stitch and.....

A Colorful Day at the Farmers' Market

We went to the farmers' market last Saturday to get some Red Wagon Creamery ice cream http://www.redwagoncreamery.com/# (the Salted Milk Caramel is the best and don't let anyone tell you otherwise).  We hadn't planned to stay but all of the color reminded me of being in the fabric store.  It started with the radishes.

Then there were piles of gorgeous, sweet, fresh carrots....

not to mention the first sweet, juicy, Oregon grown strawberries.

It inspired me to keep my camera out and see what was really going on around me  that morning.  Any one of these images could be a wonderful quilt or a stitched postcard.  This lady was making Dakota black kerneled popcorn.  Ayla and her friend Saeda found her by the smell.  Notice her hiding behind the popcorn maker.

 

I have always wondered if you could get a beignet in Oregon and if it would be anything like in New Orleans.  I think the experience is in the place, not just the food.  It's like why sourdough bread doesn't taste the same anywhere else as it does in places like Seattle or San Francisco.

Next week I am going to make artist trading cards using these images so watch to see them again!  And do go enjoy your local farmers' market.  Think globally, eat locally!

Tom's Shoes Revamp

When Ayla's grey Tom's got some bleach on them from a bag of laundry supplies, she was devastated. Everyone knows they aren't cheap so I decided to save them. Again, a crafty mom saves the day!   We started by painting them purple and cream with fabric paint.  Then we downloaded some images of Paris and printed them onto t-shirt transfer paper.  I stitched the Eiffel Tower on one and the Arc de Triomphe onto the other.  They each got a bit of old lace trim I found at a new thrift store. They aren't done yet, waiting for the 3d fabric paint to dry and then we are adding more embellishments. 



So far we are loving these!