Next Quilting Project

I have been out to purchase fabric so I can begin working on a quilt.  For me, shopping for quilt fabric is like going on a quest.  I generally prefer to go purchase my own fabrics rather than order a kit.  Using a kit means that somewhere out there is another quilt exactly like mine.  I would rather spend a few hours searching for the fabrics that I think work well together.  I spent time this week checking out fabrics.

I did not find any fabric that interested me until I hit the third store.  The first store was a craft store that used to have a fairly decent selection of fabric.  However, they have reduced their inventory and are now only selling flat folds of fabric.  The second store had more fabric, but the selection was not what I had in mind.  It tended to lean more towards decorator fabrics with only a relatively small selection of quilting fabrics. The third store finally paid off.  Although even that was a bit of a stretch.

I took the fabric instructions for four different quilts that I wanted to make with me.  I had hoped that I would be able to find enough fabrics that I could choose between which quilt I wanted to make.  I was only able to find fabric for one of them.  I guess that I am picky about the fabrics I want or something, but nothing seemed right.  There are a few more fabric stores in the area, but the price point definitely goes up after this store.  I try to keep my crafting expenses down by using less expensive fabrics, but when I can't find what I want, I end up going there.  I try not to though because it could mean as much as a two hundred dollar difference in materials costs.

Looks like I may be heading for one of the more expensive shops for the next quilt.  I wanted to make a flannel quilt, but I have not been able to find a good selection around here.  Most of the flannel is children's prints.  The rest is shirting material.  Neither choice is what I need for the flannel quilt.  So far, I have not yet found anything online that is exactly right.  I'll keep looking.  Since I now have quilt fabric in hand, I am going to be tied up for a while.  Perhaps something will turn up by the time I complete this quilt.

I suppose another option these days is to create my own fabric.  You can actually design your fabric and have it printed on the material of your choice.  I have not investigated that option as of yet, but if I really want what I want, the option is there.

Since I just purchased the fabric, I have no photos to show yet.  The colors are all autumn colors, gold, orange, red, and brown.  I will be blogging now and then on the progress of the project.

As I have mentioned before I have had one of those occasions where I ended up completing all of my ongoing projects at the same time.  For some reason, it is much harder to get started on a new projects when so many have ended at once.  The only thing to do is to get started somewhere and let the inspiration for the next project catch up with you.  I have started on a new painting project which contains an owl.  I expect I will have a new photo on that for the next blog post.  Check back on Thursday for the update on that project.

Playing with Owls

Technically, I am still playing to unwind after finishing a major project.  But this project also marks a turn towards my new project (or projects).  I am experimenting now with a product and technique that will soon be incorporated into a painting, perhaps some Halloween cards, and a quilt.  At this stage I am not entirely sure where it will end up, but it will appear somewhere in my art.

Within the last year or so, owls were a hot crafting topic.  I had wanted to make something with an owl on it even before the fad started.  Once they became the rage, I felt a need to wait a bit.  I feel a little more comfortable making something with an owl in it now that the rest of the world has turned its attention to other things.  Now I am ready to do something with an owl.

When I make a project, I always start by creating a drawing of my subject.  I don't do it because I think I draw well.  I make a drawing because I need to practice drawing if I am ever to get any better at it.  Drawing a subject helps me to understands its muscular and bone structures.  It helps my creations look more authentic.  (I would say realistic, but I am not sure that any of my drawings are realistic.)  Anyway, I made my own drawing by looking at pictures of live birds.   It is somewhat of a composite drawing because I was trying to get a good look at several features.   Once I have made an acceptable picture, I get on with my project. 

I like to make seasonal projects, and owls are closely associated with Halloween, my favorite holiday.  I have made Halloween paintings before, but I wanted one to have an owl up in a tree.  So I am starting my projects with a painting.  Most of the painting will be freehand, but I plan to make a stencil for the owl.  I find that drawing for me can sometimes be like a bad hair day.   Sometimes I can draw something exactly as I want it and other days I am nowhere close to what I want it to be.  I spent a fair amount of time working on my owl drawing and for the most part I am satisfied with it.  By making a stencil, I can reproduce the silhouette, and then paint in the detail.  Or not.  It could just end up being a silhouette.  I have not decided yet.

Anyway, the important part of my play was to create a drawing and cut a stencil, so that is what occupied my time this week.  I made the drawing on graph paper.  The lines help me keep things in proportion.  Then I made a stencil using Martha Stewarts's brand of stencil film.  I had not planned to purchase that particular product, but the store was out of template blanks and other brands of stencil plastic.  So I guess this is also going to be a product review.  It worked well, but there were things that I liked and that I did not like. 

Her stencil film comes rolled up into a scroll.  I prefer to have my plastic flat because the film wants to roll back up into a scroll.  However, once it is unrolled and taped down, making the stencil goes well.  The film is very thin.  This is good because it allowed me to cut the material easily.  (I was using a craft knife because it was too hot outside to open the windows and ventilate while using the stencil cutting tool.) The stencil film was blue.  Even though it was blue, it was translucent.  I was able to place my drawing under the stencil film and trace it rather than taping it to the top of the film and tracing around it.  It was a little harder to see than if the film had been clear, but it was manageable.  On the plus side, a blue stencil meant you did not have to search as hard for it as you would with a clear stencil.  The stencil film was not as thick as a commercially  prepared stencil, but I believe it will hold up well over the long run provided the stencil is stored properly.

Once I made a stencil, of course I had to test it.  Since I am playing, I just stenciled onto some card stock I had laying around.  I think it worked quite well.  I used a pounce applicator to apply the paint.  There was no bleed under the stencil.

So now I am ready for an owl project or more likely projects as I am gearing up for Halloween.  I can see this owl being used in different ways.  The good part of making the drawing is that it can be sized up and down on the copier to work in whatever scale is appropriate for the project.  Most of these projects will be quick relative to some of my long term projects, but they will be a nice transition to get back to working on a serious project.

Check back for the next blog post on Sunday.

Embroidered Denim Jacket Completed

 This is one of those times where every project I have going has come to completion all at the same time.  I recently completed my folk art lamb soft sculpture.  And now, the denim jacket, my long term embroider project, is finished at almost the same time.  I thought I would put this up on the blog before I started anything new.

I generally have more than one project going at a time.  My main project is the one I work on during the day.  I generally also have a secondary project going that I work on in the evening.  Usually this is a sewing project that I work on while watching television and relaxing during the evening.  Once in a while, I will take on a third project when I need something to do while the main project has amounts of significant drying time between segments.  I try to limit myself to no more than three projects at once.  Otherwise, I end up with a lot of unfinished objects lying around.

The embroidered jacket was actually done in two phases.  In Phase One, I embroidered the cuffs and bottom band.  In some of those areas, I was sewing through five layers of denim.  Trying to push the embroidery needle through that many layers was uncomfortable for my hands and caused some inflammation.  Sometimes I had a break and let my hands calm down before taking up the embroidery again.  When I finished that segment,  I put the jacket away for a while, thinking that the band and cuffs were enough embellishment.

After letting the jacket sit for a while, I decided that it still was a little too plain for my taste.  The reason I started on this project at all was because I rarely wore the jacket because it was just plain denim.  It was a serviceable garment, nice to have with me on a cool day, but it just had no eye appeal.  So once I determined that it needed something more, I started on phase two.

Since I had started with flowers on the cuffs, I wanted to continue the flower theme on the front panels of the jacket.   I started envisioning a flower garden with flowers of different heights and colors.  The panels closest to the side seams are morning glories.  The middle section is a rather generic flower shape.  The section closest to the buttons is supposed to be roses.  Some of the flowers came out better than the others, but overall, I think the jacket reflects the theme of a flower garden.

I used drawings of flowers as the inspiration for the flowers.  I drew a silhouette shape of the flower.  Then I used a crewel stitch (long stitch, short stitch) to fill in the silhouette.  The flowers are not completely realistic, but I was trying to give an impression of real flowers.  It was hard to see the shape of the silhouette on the dark denim.  I had to draw it on with a permanent ink.  After that, it was do something with it or toss out the jacket.  I just stayed with the process until I had something that worked.  Sometimes I had to rip out a section and do it over.  Well, maybe I did not have to, but I wanted to because it did not look like I had imagined it would look. 

Phase Two took a fair amount of time.  I worked on it regularly from mid-March until this week, so about four months.  Most of the time, I worked on it for at least two to three hours a day for at least five days out of the week.  There were a couple of weeks where I was traveling and did not work on it, but overall, I think Phase Two took over two hundred hours.  All in all, I think the total project probably approached three hundred and fifty hours or better.  There are thousands of stitches in this project. 

There is still plenty of room for more embroidery on the jacket, but I am choosing to stop here.  Sometimes less is more.  Embroidering every area would make the jacket too busy.  Right now, the jacket tells a story of a garden.  I am pleased to leave it like that.

I will be blogging about the new project(s) on my Thursday blog posts.

Eggshell Mosaic Experiments

Regular readers know that I have recently completed a couple of large projects.  To unwind from the projects I have been doing some creative play.  This weeks playtime was centered around making a mosaic. This is just play.  I did not start with a plan as I did for my mosaic peacock.  This was just pull out some materials and play around to see what happens.

I expect that just about anyone who has ever made a mosaic has had the thought that they could make a mosaic using egg shells.  And they have used them to make mosaic jewelry and incorporated them into all sorts of craft projects.  Well I had the same thought.  It was one of those things that I would get around to sooner or later.  Today was that day.  It all worked out because I had made some hard boiled eggs and had eggshells available.

 Before beginning the project there is some prep work to do.  When you peel hard boiled eggs, you have to get under the membrane to get the shell off.  That membrane is still stuck to your egg shell.  It needs to be removed.  Otherwise, at some point, your project could begin to smell like rotten eggs.  To remove the membrane, I threw my egg shells back in the pot of hot water I had used to boil the eggs and brought the water back up to a boil.  Then I shut off the heat and let the egg shells sit there while I was finishing my egg dish.  Once the water had cooled down and the shells could be handled, I was able to pull the membrane off, or roll it off using my thumb.  Then the shells were set aside on some paper towels to dry completely.

This is not a large project.  I used one of those card stock art tiles that have been in craft stores lately.  It is only a few inches square.  I grabbed a circle template and drew four circles on the card.  I glued the egg shells using Elmer's Multi-purpose Glue All in the center of each circle to begin the project.  As I said earlier, I really had no plan.   As a caveat, I will add that I put out a small amount of glue at any one time and dipped a brush into it to paint it onto the back of the egg shell.  While I was gluing the eggshell pieces down, the glue was drying, so it became thicker like a tacky glue type glue.  The tackier the glue the better, so it is worth it to wait a few minutes once you put the glue out to get started, or just start by using a tacky glue.

Once the circles had been filled with bits of eggshell, I painted the bits with metallic paint.  At that point, the eggs were just glued to cardboard.  There was no black paint down yet.  I wanted to start out by making sure that the eggshells had a solid surface to adhere to firmly.  After the bits were painted on two of the circles, I painted the area that would be the grout lines with black paint.  The paint was flat on the surface, and the eggshells stood above the surface and did not appear to be grouted.

Then I asked another "what if" question.  What did I have on hand that would make the eggshells look grouted.  There were a number of possibilities, but I settled on an Golden acrylic glass bead medium. The glass beads are really tiny.  I used a pallet knife to spread some of the medium between the white eggshells on the other two circles.  Then I used a paper towel to wipe the beads off the top of the eggshells, but kept the glass beads in the joints between the bits of shell.  Then the eggshells were painted with metallic paints and set aside for the bead medium to dry.  Once the medium was dry, I painted the grout lines of the two circles with different colors of metallic paint so I could see what each color looked like.  (Just a note from a previous experiment:  The glass beads reflected light better if the paint was put only on top of the beads.  If the paint was mixed with the medium, the paint appeared milky.)

At that point, I still had some playtime left so I painted the rest of the card stock black and let it dry.  Then I glued on more eggshells over top of the black paint to cover the rest of the card stock.  Then the shells were painted.  At that point, it was time to call it a day, so I did not go back and add more bead medium. 

Maybe I will go back and do that if I have time.  Maybe the piece is something that is just destined for the trash.  It never was supposed to be anything more than creative play.  I did learn something from the creative play.  I learned that I could use the glass bead medium as a grout for this type of project.  It helps the shells to stay fixed to the card stock the way grout helps hold tiles in place in a mosaic.

I am already growing bored with playing around.  I will be starting a new project soon.  More about that on the next blog post.

Discoveries Around the Yard

Camouflaged frog.

I am between projects at the moment.  I just completed my folk art lamb soft sculpture and am taking a bit of a breather before I jump into a new project.  To avoid burnout, I am taking a week or two off in order to unwind before jumping into something else.  While I am relaxing, I am experimenting with a few craft products just to see what happens when I do this or that.  I will post some more on that next blog post.  For today, I thought I would post some photos of our backyard's fauna.  It is surprising what you will find when you get outside and see what there is to see.

Lizard egg.

Finding interesting things is a matter of paying attention; looking a little closer.  Usually we are in such a hurry that we go right by things without even noticing them as we hurry on to our next task.  I find that so much of our time is spent on what we are doing next that we have lost not only situational awareness but our actual connection to the world around us.  By slowing down, and making a conscious effort to be aware of what is actually going around us, we can reconnect with being amazed by the diversity of our bio-system and our world.

Eggs are at left and center.  More were covered in the loam.

My husband spied this toad sitting on the trim of our shed.  Usually toads are shades of cream and brown in a camouflage pattern.  This one had chosen to change his color to match the trim on the shed.  Fortunately, my husband took the time to ask me to come out and see this unusual sight. I did not know that toads could change color.  I did not really know that they could climb either.  The piece of trim the toad was on was several feet off the ground.  I went online to look at photos of tree frogs, and this definitely looked more like a toad than a tree frog.  Anyway, I am grateful that my husband would take the time to pull me away from a task to show me something interesting.  It was worth it to take a moment to reconnect with the environment.

Young Eastern Cottontail

While cleaning up the around an old stump that is coming apart, my husband found another item of interest in the yard.  As he approached an old pine stump to pick up the loose bits around it he noticed a lizard run from the stump.  When he started to clean up around the stump, he came across a number of small eggs, presumably the lizard's clutch.  He brought one in to show me.  I took a photo of it, then he placed it back in the powdery wood from the disintegrating stump.  There were numerous eggs there.  We decided that cleaning up the stump could wait for a while in order to allow the lizard eggs to hatch.  We do not know if the lizard attends its eggs.  But, since it ran off it and caught my husband's attention, we think it might be keeping its eye on the eggs.  The question was interesting enough that I went online to look it up, but the answer was not definitive.  Many reptiles lay their eggs and abandon them, but some make nests and protect their eggs and young.  Without more information on what type of lizard it was, we cannot tell.

This year we have a couple of baby bunnies in the yard.  Well, they were babies earlier.    They are juveniles now.  When they were small they would jump under the day lilies if they heard us come out the door.  We do not approach them, and to a certain extent they have become used to our comings and goings.  Many times they will not hide if we come out the door.

I had noticed early in the spring that the mother rabbit frequently would graze out at the back of the property with a groundhog.  They seemed like companion animals.  When I went online to look up information on cottontail rabbits, I found that they did not make burrows, but made a shallow net in a depression to birth their young.  The article also said that cottontails would frequently shelter in a ground hog burrow in bad weather.  So I guess they are in some sort of symbiotic relationship.  The ground hog may benefit from the rabbits hearing to avoid predators, and the rabbit benefits from shelter in a storm.  This is information that I would not have known if I had not taken time to watch what was going on in the backyard and taken the time to go online to read about it.

There was one other thing of interest that I saw in the yard this week.  Actually, this was on the front porch.  I came out the door and saw a large insect.  The insect was about an inch and a half long. It was bright red with a black thorax with one black stripe across its back and abdomen.  (I am presuming the band went all the way around the abdomen.  It went around as far as I could see.)  Sadly, I did not have a camera with me, so I decided to observe the insect rather than run for a camera.  I took one look at it and decided that given its coloring that it might be lethal.  However, I did not try to kill it.  It was outside, so it was in its own environment.

The insect was definitely aware of me.  As soon as it saw me, it ran off the porch, down the steps, and into the grass.  It was having trouble getting off the concrete and into the grass and it took several attempts before it was able to get into the grass and run away.  I was not trying to chase it or swat it and I think it might have understood because its first attempts were frantic, but it slowed down once it did not feel in immediate danger.

After the insect disappeared into the grass, I went online to look it up.  It was called a cow killer ant.  The name is a misnomer.  First off, it is not an ant, it is a wasp.  The females are wingless and can sting multiple times.  The males are smaller and have wings.  Secondly, while the sting is toxic and painful, it is not likely to kill someone unless they are allergic to bee venom.  The name derives from some old description that the sting is so strong that it could kill a cow.  It generally won't kill you, but the pain is said to be so strong that anyone stung will be screaming.    Speaking of screaming, the cow killer and makes noises if it is frightened or perhaps as a warning if you get to close.  I am posting a link to photos of the insect since I don't have my own photos.https://www.google.com/search?q=cow+killer+ant+lancaster&tbm=isch&imgil=7-PadRbQDc4viM%253A%253BIXsJ7sxv8MAVOM%253Bhttp%25253A%25252F%25252Fkotunews.weebly.com%25252Fmain%25252Fvelvet-ant-or-cow-killer-ant&source=iu&pf=m&fir=7-PadRbQDc4viM%253A%252CIXsJ7sxv8MAVOM%252C_&usg=__6LCoD7iNcoWLYsQHQgq-CDIY94w%3D&biw=1366&bih=635&ved=0ahUKEwii1YGS1frNAhXTMx4KHetJDTwQyjcIMQ&ei=R5CLV-KVBNPneOuTteAD#imgrc=7-PadRbQDc4viM%3A

I realize now that I had actually seen males of the species a few years ago.  I had meant to look them up then, but was busy and eventually forgot about them.  We had taken down a hemlock on the property and I saw a few of them moving around on our back deck.  They looked like bumble bees except that they were red and black.  So if you see anything that looks like these creatures, you probably don't want to touch them or step on them. 

The cow killer lives pretty much everywhere.  According to Wikipedia, there are about four hundred species in North America, so there may be an ant somewhere near you.  

Anyway, those were some interesting things in the back yard.  Next blog post I will show some more outcomes of my playing around.  Pretty soon I will be getting back to work on some serious art.

Creative Play to Avoid Burnout

My last blog post showed my completed lamb soft sculpture.  Before I start a new project, I just need to relax and play a bit.  Working on a project for a long time can leave me feeling burned out and not enthusiastic to be diving into some large project right away. 

I started the lamb project on the first of April.  It would not have taken so long to complete, but spring started our travel season and we have been on the go for weeks.  My time spent working on the lamb was hit or miss.  The net result was that I had spent weeks working on a lamb that was an off-white color for weeks.  I missed doing something with color.  And I just wanted to do something that was completely without structure or rules.  I wanted to put color on something without having to worry about the result.  Fortunately, a conversation with my sister-in-law pointed me in the right direction.

My sister-in-law is an artist, art instructor, and crafter.  I had been reading about Yupo and asked her if she had tried it.  Yes, she was working on a picture about it at the time.  She showed me her latest drawing and gave me some tips on working with the medium.  When I returned home, I ordered some from Amazon as my local craft store did not carry it.  Once it arrived, I could not get it out of the box fast enough.

In case you have not heard of Yupo, it is a surface for watercolor, acrylics, inks, alcohol inks, pencil, and collage.  It is not a paper in the traditional sense of manufactured paper.  This surface is made of Polypropylene.  I guess that makes it a.... plastic?  

Since this just arrived, I have only tried it with watercolors.  I would have to say that Yupo has one characteristic that makes it really great with watercolor.  Since it is a plastic, the paints are not absorbed into it.  If you do something and don't like the look of it, you can wet a paper towel and completely wipe away the paint.  Even if the paint has dried.  It has gone, back to a completely blank surface.  This is great, especially when you are just playing around with watercolor.  If you don't want to keep something, you can reuse the sheet.  I am always looking for ways to do more art for less money.  As they say, "a penny saved is a penny earned."

I have not yet used Yupo enough to know how many reuses you can get out of a sheet.  But, if it does becomes stained, you could always use it for the back support for a collage or cover the sheet with a background of acrylic paints for a new painting in that medium.  I expect a little of this will go a long way.

When I paint small pictures on a flat surface, I use a flexible plastic cutting mat to protect my work surface.  I found that dabbing a little water on the back of the Yupo sheet before laying it on the surface helped hold it in place, just as plastic wrap will hold to a damp counter top.  Then I can turn the plastic mat when I needed to change angles while I am painting.  The Yupo sheet stays in place.

One other piece of advice from my sister-in-law that I would like to pass on.  When you want to experiment, especially when you begin working with Yupo, let the picture decide what it wants to be.  Put some color on, see how the color diffuses, then decide what picture you want to paint.     Once you are more familiar with how the paint is going to act on the sheet you can start with the idea of the painting first.  She is right.  Since the paint is not sinking into the sheet it acts differently than it does on paper.  It is a great art product to work with when you just want to add a little color and see what happens.

So, I wet a sheet of Yupo and got started.  I put three dabs of paint on the wet surface and watched as they diffused.  It looked like the center of flowers, so I started adding some petals.  Then some background and leaves.  Is it a masterpiec?  No.  Was it fun and relaxing?  Yes.  And since I could just wipe the whole thing away, there was no pressure to get it right.

My second paper was an experiment to see how the paint acted when it was swirled, lifted off, erased, and painted over once it was dry.  I used bright colors.  I was not worried about a design.  I was using a Zentangle approach to this:  draw some lines (or strings as the term is in Zentangle) to create sections and then fill in the sections with shapes.  This drawing not supposed to mean anything.  It was just a way to see what happened when I did something.  However, in a way, it slightly resembles a fish looking at a can.  Whatever that means.

So that was my play day yesterday.  Fun.  Relaxing.  And totally what I needed.  I will be doing this for a few days until I am ready to start a new project.  That won't be long.  Time is moving all too quickly.    Check back on Sunday for a new blog post.           

Folk Art Lamb Soft Sculpture - Completed (Part 12)

Today I have pictures of my lamb soft sculpture.  I am very happy with how it came out.  It is always satisfying when something that I have put so much work into comes out looking so nice.

  This project literally started with a flat piece of paper.  I drew a sketch of a lamb after looking at photos of real lambs online.  I created my own pattern based on my sketch.  Lets just say that the pattern needed several adjustments before it became something that worked.  I made the torso twice and the legs three times before I had everything looking like it was supposed to be on the same animal.  I learned that translating curves and planes from flat to three dimensions was a little more complicated than I had though.  But preserverence paid off in the end.  After a number of reconstructions, things worked out.

My first lamb attempt was for a very small lamb.  But the limbs were so narrow that they ripped to pieces while I was trying to turn them right side out after sewing them.  Also, they were so small that they would not have support the weight of the body without bending out awkwardly.  It was back to the drawing board to create a larger lamb.  The small size was just too small to work with easily.

The next attempt at the lamb had the torso out of proportion.  It was too long in relation to the legs and looked too long to be a sheep's body.  I actually saved that torso in case I want to make another stuffed animal.  I will have to do a lot of adjusting on the leg patterns, but it might be workable for some other type of animal such as a horse or cow.. Then I had to rethink how I was attaching the legs to the body.

When I started this project, I had thought I would attach the legs to the torso using the button method.  I tried, but when the back legs were attached to the body, it made the rear end look ridiculously oversized.  I just had to laugh at it.  Once it was clear that my plan was not going to work, I started thinking in terms of sewing the legs directly to the body.  I started with the same pair of legs, but the shape was wrong, so I had to remake the legs for a third time.

I also had to remake the neck.  I originally had it a little long.  It made the piece look more like a pony than a lamb.  

Once I had my animal stuffed and sewn together, I started adding wool roving.  I did not just needle felt it on.  Each individual strand is hand knotted onto the body.  Then I used a needle felting tool to felt each knot.  Every time I had a few rows finished, I would use the felting tool to felt the wool into the lamb.  The process was time consuming, but I found the needle felting to be very relaxing.  It is repetitive, but you also have to stay very focused on it because otherwise, you are going to be poking your fingers.

Before the wool was added.

As I had blogged earlier, I was thinking of this lamb as a female because she does not have any horns.  It may be that some male sheep do not have horns, but I was unsure about that.  So this lamb was dubbed a female.  I finally came up with a name for her:  Miss Daisy.  The name is not very original, but it seems to fit.  She looks like a very sweet lamb.

My original sketch

Anyway, once the lamb was made, I started thinking about accessories.  When I make something, I like to embellish it.  The addition of embellishments helps to draw the viewer in as he or she takes a little more time to view the embellishments.  Embellishments also add a little bit of a story and gives detail about the character.  In this case, Miss Daisy has a flowered and be-ribboned hat saucily perched on her head and a pink bow on her tail.  Before the hat and ribbon were added, she just looked like a farm animal.   Once she had the accessories, it seems that she is a dainty character with a dash of style.

Pattern before revisions.

At the moment, the hat and bow on her tail are removable.  As I had mentioned in a previous blog post, I have concerns about safety.  Once my work has moved out into the world, I have no way of knowing how someone may use or abuse my creation.  I am leery of having small parts on a toy because they could be a choking hazard for a small child.  By making the accessories removable, they can be safely stowed away in case a small child is around.   Although I had not thought of it until now, I can also make other accessories and change them out seasonally or for holidays.  It is just a thought, I doubt that I will ever do that.

So my lamb soft sculpture is completed.  I already have a number of projects that I would like to explore.  I will be beginning a new project soon.  But first, I really need to take a break and play around for a little bit.  I have completed a few long involved projects in a row and I need to do something quick an fun to clear my head and get my creativity going in other directions. Looking back through the blog, I realize that I have only worked on three project this year.  I began working on a Victorian Belsnickel doll on January 10.  After that, I worked on creating a sphere mold that I could use for making other projects.  That project started on March 17th.  I did not begin working on the folk art lamb soft sculpture until April 1st.  Each of those projects called for meticulous work.  (Well, maybe not so meticulous on the sphere mold, but it has its own story.)  No wonder I need to take a play break and just a fun for a bit.

I will be posting my creative play on the blog.  Just because the projects are simple does not mean that they are going to be boring.  Check back on Thursday for the next blog post. 

More Photos from the Road - July 2016

Rolls of hay along the road.

Back from another road trip. So I am posting a few photos from the latest trip.  The last trip and this one were back to back.  We came home, paid bills, did the laundry, and headed back out again.  My husband and I are so tired.  I don't think we are going to do trips back to back anymore if we can help it. 

We lost power at the cabin both Saturday and Sunday.  Fortunately, they were fairly short power outages.  It did not effect us other than we switched some of our meals around so we did not have to pull out the camp stove. 

Fiberglass cow statue.

It was rainy in the mountains.  The weather was cool.  At night we slept under light blankets.  Determined not to turn on the heat or start the wood stove, we spent the evening huddled together for warmth while we watched some shows.   Since it was cool, it was good sleeping weather.  The stream was full from all the rain, and the sound of rushing water covered over every other sound.

This trip up, most of the hay has been harvested and formed into the big rolls.  There were rolls of hay along the road everywhere.  Most of the rolls are picked up and stored in barns.  Others are wrapped in plastic or some kind of mesh and left to sit on site.

Old barn.

I finally was able to get a decent picture of that fiberglass cow that sits up on the hill.  I have been trying to get a photo as we go by it for a couple of years.  Generally we come up on it too fast, and I only get a very blurred picture.

I have been trying to get some good pictures of old barns.  There are still plenty of old barns out there, but you can see that they many have been replaced with newer buildings.  I take many pictures of barns because one day I hope to paint pictures of them.  It might be a while before I get around to that though.

Rain and fog on the mountain.

Despite having been away so much, I have been making significant progress on the lamb soft sculpture project.  I expect to have some completed photos ready for the next blog post.  Check back on Sunday for the new pictures.  

No Post Due to Holiday Weekend

The regular blog post will return on Thursday.  I'm spending the holiday weekend with friends and family.  I hope everyone will have a safe and happy holiday.

Photo taken on our recent road trip.