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January 11, 2009

The making of jail bird

He’d been in and out of the coop ever since he cracked his shell. They couldn’t keep him contained behind bars for long. Once again he was out and headed South for the border.

His story starts with a world map my daughter brought home from school. (The girl knows cool collage supplies when she sees them.) The map, with a bit of designer paper, black ribbon and white card stock make the bird, his scrubs and a post to stand on. Matte gel medium makes it all stick.

The hardest part is walking away so the guy can dry between layers. I made myself refill coffee and do a computer task or two. When things dry, a bit of paint and ink hit the first layer. Next, more of the composition gets adhered including proper jail attire and a key which is floating now, but will soon be hanging from his beak via a key ring.

I step back again for more dry time before building on the last layer. Then, I adhere the type and add more matte medium to create texture which will be painted over in the final step.

A funky fuchsia feather is added along with more paint on top of all of those layers. Finally, a few finer details take place and he’s complete. Jail bird is born. Call the proper authorities if you spot him on his flight to the border.
January 1, 2009

New threads

I feel like I’m waking from a long, dreamy nap…you know the kind that makes you question where you are, what happened and what time is it already?! The past week flew by like that. Actually, I’d say right after Thanksgiving things were on fast forward and haven’t stopped since. Our family had a great time celebrating the holidays with friends and family. The above was one of my favorite gifts. A very modest, beginner-style sewing machine. Perfect for someone who said to her helpful mom…“You mean thread comes down from the top AND up from the bottom?! At the same time! WOW.” And that would not be my daughter talking to me, but me talking to my mom who guided me through my very first sewing project.

disclaimer: I did have a Holly Hobbie toy sewing machine way back when, but that couldn’t really be classified as sewing could it?

So from a “Pattern for Dummies” with Mom standing by, I made this table runner for the dining room. It even has a fancy navy cord detail on the edges that is hard to fully appreciate in this photo. Trust me it’s there and I have to say I’m pretty proud to have managed this.

After the runner, the sewing bug officially took hold. A day or two later, I wandered into the fabric section at IKEA and fell in love with this fabric. And like many of my project ideas, I couldn’t sleep until I had whipped up two valances for my office with a touch of vintage brown seam binding. This project was a little bumpy with no pattern or Mom to guide me, but I’m getting better.

Two no sew projects (my specialty) also happened over the last week. First, I decided to cover my drafting table chair. I used my fancy upholstery tool a.k.a.flat head screw driver to shove fabric into the crack between cushion and rim.

This actually was a piece of cake. That fabric is wedged in really tight and is nice and smooth all around. Now I’ve got a spiffy “new” chair for a new year of art.

Finally, Modge Podge and leftover fabric scraps transformed my office switch plates. Another easy, inexpensive, satisfying kind of project. So besides the usual holiday stuff, you’ve caught a glimpse of the threads I’ve been working on here. Time to flip on 2009. Happy New Year to you!

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