Holiday Art and Crafts in the Studio

Looking around my place over the Christmas season you can sure see that I've been busy. I designed, carved and painted all of the Dala Horses. Here are a few of the hundreds I've made in the last few years.

The Christmas Stockings were made almost 20 years ago. I started by designing and sewing a patchwork fabric that I cut into the stocking shapes. before assembling the stockings I quilted the patchwork areas and did some embroidery. 

After getting them put together the finishing touches were to add the fabric yo yo's and buttons.

They're a great way to display and enjoy all of your favorite buttons or award pins and be able to enjoy them and at the end of the season you know that they're all stored safely.

Here I'd sewed the valances and trimmed the lamp shades. I'd also designed those thermal mugs with some of my artwork on them.

The tiny tree show's off some small wooden dala horse ornaments that I had designed, carved and painted. 

I used a kit to make the paper chains because my arthritis makes it hard for me to cut out all of the paper strips to make them with.

I've been making paper chains every year since I was a very little girl and it's still one of my favorite parts of holiday decorating.

It's not fancy here but it feels like a hug.

May Your Holidays Be Filled With All Of The Things That Make You Happy,
Julia 

Sunday Bird Watching and other hobbies

It looks like we're getting a positive reaction to the new art work on the bird bath. The cardinal has never used it before in all the years it was green or blue and he ignored it when it was plain white so we were really excited to see him today. Doug shot this photo.

Good Morning!

Yes, I shot this photo from my living room chair. The window screen keeps it from being as clear a photo as I'd like it to be but there was something delicious about being able to sit back and have one more cup of coffee before writing this post. I'll include the other photo and finish up so I can get busy around here.

As I'm doing this, I'm also embroidering a handkerchief for my Mom and sorting through some things on my desk. Yes, I'm easily distracted and anxious to get back out in the garden again.

My first project will be to smooth out the finish on the big patio table  and paint it white. It's a disaster right now because I've been using it as a worktable for painting and carving projects as well as a potting table for transplanting container plants.

Once it's been painted ( I'll start at the legs and go until I run out of paint)
I'll be using it to replace the small tea table in the front garden so that I'll have more room for my guests. I always use a tablecloth for company so If I run out of paint it won't show. (I'm aware of the impact on the environment and try not to use anymore spray paint than I have to. Most of the time I'm just recycling bits of cans that people had left over)

Once that table is taken care of it will be time to get back to my plants before they run away completely. The last rains we had did have them growing like mad and tumbling out of the pots already-I LOVE it! 

I'm off to the garden now,
Julia

Organization and inspiration

 
I'm feeling a bit wrung out from struggling with that sunflower painting so I took a bit of time off to organize things in the studio.

 I found myself singing a little Beatles tune (with a little help from my friends)  as I was working because the embroidery floss and the box I decided to store and display it in were given to me by a friend (thanks Irene!)

Having all the bright colors where I can see them may spark some ideas and it's just pretty and cheerful to look at. There are any number of ways to put things away, you just need to decide what meets your needs best based on the things you have to work with.

I painted the edges to keep things a bit cleaner and nicer( it would be easier to dust if I ever felt myself inclined to do that) but didn't feel the front really needs it right now.

Where does the time go?

I've already given away all of the things from my last post. As you can imagine, this time of year just about everyone is happy to get a card and some fresh cookies.

 The potholder was appreciated so I started another one and while I was doing that I finished a hat and started another one and a scarf. Yes I get a bit carried away with things and it's endless. One project always carries me into another and it can be hours,days or weeks before I snap out of it and wonder what happened.

It's a good thing we're not expecting company for the holidays. I work at the dining room table and her's a tour of the projects happening there right now:

1.Crochet potholder
2.crochet hat
3.crochet scarf
4.patchwork tote bag
                 5.sewing
                 6.embroidery
7&8.paper projects and letters
9.painting a wooden bird house
10.carving a wooden horse
11.painting a watercolor poinsettia
12.pencil drawings

The thing that makes this really interesting is that the diameter of the table is only 52 inches so I just don't buy it when people say they don't pursue their hobbies or interests because they don't have room.

Do the best you can with whatever you've got anyplace you can. It's the only thing thing that really matters to me these days and I think you'll find it useful to you too.

Projects and ideas in photos and paint

 These went fairly well but I've got several days into them and I'm still adding layers of clear coat so it may be tomorrow before I'm actually finished with them and ready to send them on their way.

 Coming to the end of that project I'm kicking around ideas for what I want to do next. I started by photographing my Christmas stocking. So far the plan is that if I don't like the way the photo itself works on a greeting card I'll just use it to base a series of drawings and paintings on until I find an image that works for me.

There are several reasons that I love this stocking. Of course the top one is that I designed and made it out of a lot of great things that people I care about have given me. I'll give a short list as I finish this post.

 There is a stick pin that my sister Becca cross stitched for me and some some plastic "shrinkies" that she made as well (drawings on a shrink plastic that turns them into small charms)

 Some of the fabric is from my cousin Susan's wedding in Hawaii, there are buttons from my sister Chris and hand made paper beads from my husbands aunt Doris.

So many things from so many people, and now I want to share it with more. I'm hoping that they'll love it as much as I do...now I've just got to decide which photo to start with...

A week of kindness and amazing surprises

There are so many people to Thanks this week and most of them don't want to be mentioned by name here so I'll just list what came in and when as I marvel at life and the fact that everyone wants to see the art keep coming enough to help us make ends meet until it starts to pay the bills.

Monday: Bags and Bags of groceries just when we didn't know where our next meal was coming from.

Tuesday: 2 bags of card making supplies along with a cutter and folder
              fresh fruit, veggies and bread
              5 wooden Dala Horses
           
Wednesday:

Thursday: 3 packages of tea from a friend cleaning out her cabinets

Friday: Embroidery floss
           Card Stock
           Clay and clay tools for my sister

Saturday: a can of coffee left on my doorstep

I'm happy not to be a "starving artist" this week and am very grateful to everyone as I set to work on my next project.

Cat Drawing

Creating a new drawing from some of my favorite things.

Project Updates

Work in the bag continues. The ultrasuede fabrics didn't respond well to most of the marking methods I tried so I ended up drawing on them with a regular pen. The ink lines will be covered by the embroidery so that won't be a problem.

With most of the drawing done on this piece I went ahead and sewed both the side and bottom seams so that I can keep all of the materials to finish it inside so that I'll have it all together no matter where I choose to work on it.

When I'm embroidering I dump everything into the lining so that I can work on the outside of the bag.
There's a LOT of embroidery to do so this project needs to be mobile so that it can get out of the way for all of the other things I'm working on.

Here's a short list:
tote bag
dala horses-carving
                 sanding
                 painting
Photo display board (for a local senior center)
crochet hat (to be given to a program for kids who need them)
teaching myself to paint bulldogs
painting a mailbox (for my sister in law)
designing items for my Zazzle stores
re-arranging merchandise in the stores to make them easier to shop

Fiber Art Friday

I spent the morning finishing a crochet scarf that's being donated to the veteran's home. I suppose that's what made it funny that I felt like sewing when I got home. It was less about doing more fiber projects than it was about trying to finish this bag to get it off the table and clean house for company on Sunday. I'm always distracted like that and would much rather make things than clean them  How about you?

Back to the recycle bag

After sticking the pieces together there were a few scraps left so I used those to make some pockets that will be added to the bag later. I cut and sewed a lining for the bag but forgot to shoot pictures of that.

I'm using the odd spacing between the patches as an opportunity to teach myself new embroidery stitches and use up bits of my button collection.

 I plan a bunch of flower petals around this in the red to unify the design and I'm headed back to the worktable to do those now.

Scrap Craft felt and embroidery

 Front

Back

The real charm of this project comes from the collections of pins and badges that will cover it and impart the personality of the owner

So Many Projects, So Little Time

I'm still working on that painting and Christmas card design but as you can see behind it a friend brought flowers yesterday and I need to get to drawing and painting them while they last so I'll have to take a brief break from Christmas.

Perhaps walking away from this right now is a good thing because I'm having a bit of trouble coming up with just the right background as well as a technique for painting the crochet and knit items both in and on the stocking.

Here's a long shot of the mess I've got going on in here today where I'm also embroidering some flowers over the stains on a pair of pants for another friend.

A neighbor dropped these off  this morning for me to paint so I guess I'd better get set up and started on these. I haven't really done anything this morning besides this blog and already my day feels busy.

1960's Raggedy Andy

I came across this today while sorting through things and as you can see by looking at it I've always been interested in arts and crafts. Believe it or not this little doll combines a lot of them. It started with a store bought doll, I replaced the hair with a latch hook and yarn. I sewed the little jeans and embroidered the suspenders and trim on the sleeves. It was the 1960's so I couldn't resist sewing some little patches on them as well. Silly, maybe but it was a great way to learn and improve on skills which is probably why I've kept it all these years. You never know where a project idea will lead you.

Hanging on by a thread...and some buttons

This old black vest was beginning to get a bit faded and tired looking so I decided to look around for something to brighten it up with. It's a great way to use up odd buttons and bits of embroidery floss. These are going around the edges of the pockets. I haven't quite decided what I'll add to it after that.

Well, I'm not sure how fashionable it is but it cheers me up and anything that bakes you happy makes you look and feel better so I consider this a winning project. I'm off to sort buttons and get started on the other pocket now.

Projects, progress and a few random thoughts

I returned those books on Rosemaling and was happy to hear my friend will loan me more of them when I'm ready.
 In the meantime I've brought the big easel in and set up that abstract canvas as a vertical painting which should give me some fresh ideas and perspective on the piece before I fling anymore paint at it.

It was great to discover that in addition to making me apple pancakes for breakfast Dougie had set things up with zazzle, have any of you seen it yet? I guess I'll have to check it out for myself someday soon.
I spent the last couple of days doing a series of drawings on letters and envelopes but dropped them in the mail before I got around to scanning them.
I've also been doing a lot of cleaning and rearranging in the house so I can get all of my projects, equipment and supplies handy without running into anything.
The sleeves on my old denim jacket are still too long so I plan to shorten them and add a bit of embroidery. They've been too long for years but I hadn't done anything about it because they were keeping my hands warm until I got around to making mittens again. There's a rose on the end of the sleeve that I'll need to take a seam ripper to. As I'm doing that I'll decide what sort of design I want to draw on it this time.
It's not exciting news for most of you but it's a nice way to spend a snowy afternoon and you can always go and play the "click to feed the fish" game further down my page so we've all got something to do.
Thanks for stopping by. I'll be posting more photos and things after lunch. Have a great day!

Incoming projects and outgoing mail

Somewhere in all of this at my table today is a vest I'm sewing, embroidering and decorating, the pencils used to decorate these 4 envelopes and a potholder, hat and afghan that I'm crocheting. No wonder we're eating in the living room...that's fine with me. The sun is out so from time to time the solar powered crystal in the window makes a shimmering light display across the ceiling and walls.

The vest came along nicely and I repeated this design in several places...of course being plus size there was a lot of space to cover ...

All Together Now

It's fun when you can combine a bit of everything (patchwork, charms, embroidery buttons and pins) as I did in these Christmas Stockings for my husband and I. Some of the fabrics were a gift from a Cousin on her return from Hawaii, some fabrics were from my sister the decorator and I combined those with a stick pin embroidered by one sister, buttons from another and of course a few buttons from my cousin as well. So many things come together here including my husbands pins from his years at the Post Office. They make us smile every year and we're STILL adding things.

A couple scraps of fabric end up as holders for gift cards

I guess I could have called this post "saving money is my bag". a friend enclosed these 2 bits of fabric in a recent package and it worked out so well because I'd been wondering what to put some gift cards in this Christmas. They were just the right colors so I folded and cut them until the pieces were small enough. A few straight pins and a bit of sewing was all it took to slide one bag in another, turn in the ends and finish with a bit of embroidery and of course the best part about that is having the embroidery floss given to me by another friend. Lots of positive energy in theis project and a perfect way to use up some odds and ends.