Clothes Pins

 

 Clothes pins. Soft wood, an ingenious mechanical device (the spring).

They come in handy for so many jobs in the studio. 

 I use one of my little canvas bags to contain them.
This allows easy access whenever I need to grab one or more. 

 You have no idea how handy they are to hold my fabric bins in place to sew the edges. 

They help coral pieces of fabric already cut for a project as well as pieces of 

more intricate stencils I want to keep together. 

I went so far as to soak some in a rust solution to age them.
Then wound embroidery floss on them. Link to my post about that process here.

Do you have unusual uses for objects around your home?

 I'm always game to try a new use for an everyday item.

Birds of a Feather

Having woods out our back window gives us lots of opportunity to bird watch. 

The past couple summers we have Barred Owls we hear at night & in the morning behind our home.

Recently one showed up during the day & perched outside the window. Link is the call we hear.
He's in there, can you see him? Dead center below the clump of snow. The camouflage is amazing. 

What a treat to have him hang out for us to watch for awhile.

I love dolls. Saw this wonderful owl ages ago and recently found the artist, Ann Wood ,
who created him has the pattern for sale.  I think I could use my canvas scraps
 in different colors for the plumage.  She has lots of other tutorials & patterns
 for other birds as well as all kinds of inspiration for hand sewing. 

Awhile back I did a flamingo card for an ATC (artist trading card) group I participate in.

I created it as a pop up since a fold was needed to accommodate the long legs.

Here is the image  that gave me the idea.

   

Have to include the Puffins. I was inspired on a trip to Kodiak Is. in Alaska a few years ago.

 The image that gave me the proportions to use in my stencils.

 What birds do you see in your "neck of the woods" ?

Alone Time

Alone Time

 

Here we go. The A to Z April challenge is upon us.

A is for Alone. This is not a bad thing. Who among you reading this gets enough alone time?  I find it a necessity. Any creative type needs their time alone to ponder, engage in trial & error, dive deep into whatever process moves them. Are you honest with yourself & those near to you about your precious time? I am an only child, so time alone was something I had plenty of growing up. Now I find I can get crabby if I don't build it into my routine.


Since I am trying to be honest about my feelings & what drives me in the challenge this year I'm sharing a "self portrait" that I did for fun.  Perhaps this will help you get to know me better.

 It's a block print I had laser cut from a drawing.

 

There are no wrinkles here, but rest assured they exist. 

 

Below are the parts I borrowed from to create the funky (a bit scary?) 

final product above I sometimes use on business cards.    

 

I look forward to sharing all sorts of random, alphabet driven thoughts, links, art, 

& ideas with you over the next 30 days.