late to the party again!

 I always find myself behind the trends it seems.  When I saw sashiko boro patches (Japanese method of mending) show up on Pinterest, it sparked something in me.  I've been doing small sashiko projects for years but never thought of pairing them with fabrics to create small pieces of art ... art that could enhance clothing actually. 

The last couple weeks my arthritic fingers have been super busy producing these pieces for my sharny etsy shop . . .

The denim pieces are ones that can be applied with a simple running stitch to jackets, jeans, etc. The other two can be applied as well or hung from chopsticks as a wall ornament.

And a table runner that got me started . . .

Wish someone would tell me what the next big thing is so that I could get a jump on it!  Anyone?

Four Pin Friday ~ OMG!!!

Just discovered a contemporary artist I have fallen in love with.  Where have I been!?

Here are a few of many paintings from Kelly Reemtsen.

 

She is best known for her bright and bold paintings of women carrying household tools such as chainsaws or axes. Her work often investigates the role of the modern woman, deconstructing societal perceptions of gender, power and femininity. Reemtsen's paintings are characterized by their thick impasto, stark white backgrounds and anonymous figures. Her most recent body of work explores the idea of breaking the metaphorical glass ceiling, often featuring female figures climbing on objects like chairs or ladders. 

Collections

 For the fun of it, I started counting the woven baskets we've collected over the years!  I came up with 75, give or take, and know there will be more if we ever empty boxes we moved into this garage over 5 years ago.

I know ... I know ... We have, in our 66 years of married life over~collected certain things we love.  Some of our baskets are very old, old, mid~century, ones I wove and newer but I treasure each and every one.

Here are my personal collection of tiny baskets ~

and my bittiest one.  Can you even imagine trying to weave this small of a basket!?

Next, my bowls.  Stay tuned

 

Olga Suvorova ~ Russian Artist Extraordinaire

 

Olga Suvorova/ Ольга Суворова is an acclaimed Russian Master. She was born in 1966 in St. Petersburg. Olga Suvorova has created her own style of painting – lifestyle portraits of costumed characters in the interiors of different epochs. Her work is a nostalgia for the St. Petersburg “World of Art” movement with its retrospective and love of the 18th century. Olga is the daughter of the Honored Artist of the RSFSR Igor Suvorov. She graduated from the Academy of Arts of Ilya Repin in 1988. . Her paintings of the players in "Comedia de arte" have a haunting quality that sets her apart from the many young talented artists emerging from the Institute. Recently she has produced a series of magnificently detailed screens which have been widely praised and collected. She also paints portraits and landscapes. Olga has exhibited in Italy, Germany, Sweden, Finland, France, Britain, Ireland, China, and the USA where her work is in many collections.

I do love her style . . . filling the canvas with the intricacies that can take some time to view and appreciate every stroke of her brush.

Four Pin Friday Garden Creatures

 A few years ago I made a post about scarecrows.  People seem to have upped there game since then!  Found these beauties on Pinterest recently and thought I'd share.  Makes me wish I had a vegetable garden again to build one of these for it.  

Scarecrows have really evolved since Grandma's Day!

How did they survive?

 Fascinated by these devastating photos from the 1930s that capture the poverty and hopelessness of the decade. 

Can't believe this was the era when I was born.  We didn't have much but I never wanted for anything as a child.  Lived in a rental, no car but luckily lots of relatives and friends, enough food, and a roof over our heads.

These photos from Pinterest show the poorest of the poor after the market crashed in 1929.

Dashed off a greeting card

 Thinking it's easier, cheaper, and much more personal to make a little card for a friend or relative than to go out and buy one.  So I quickly made this one for my granddaughter this morning.

What takes the most time is going through my stacks of papers to find just the right ones!

I didn't even know this was a thing

 Apparently this has been going on for a long time.  

Mona Lisa Reimagined

and then there is Mona and Friends

I cracked up when this came up on Pinterest. There are hundreds of images of Mona Lisa reliving her everyday life on the pages of my favorite go to internet time waster! 

What goes around comes around

 Years ago, when my friend Karen and I spent another of our days of thrifting in and around Spokane where I live, we found a sweet little book which was a bit over our cheapo budgeting.  So ... we decided we would go together on it and trade it back and forth.  Loved the illustrations in "The Teenie Weeniees" 1917 children's book and had to have it!

Well, it's been sitting on a shelf in my craft room for years.  I finally came across it while looking at my collection of old children's books.  Still love the artwork in the pages (here are a few examples) ~

Not that I would ever sell it, but thought I'd do some research.  Found it to have been published in 1917, but to my amazement the inside front cover was stamped "Crosby-Ironton Public Schools TEXT BOOK LIBRARY"!

I grew up in Crosby-Ironton and went all the way from kindergarten through graduation in the schools there.  Spent a lot of time in the libraries, and it's possible I could have read this.  Looks like a lot of little fingers went through this beatup, stained, torn and taped tome.

Made my day

Doodling

 I've begun enhancing some of the eco prints made on a warm summer day with my favorite crafting friend Karen using plant life from right outside my home.

The first one using a black micron pen . . .

and the second one using brush pens mostly

Trying to decide which path I should take?

Goodbye old friend

 You have served me well

for at least 60 years that I have been sewing, but I cannot deal with the leakage you have developed.

 

Cecelia Beaux ~ Impressionist

 From humble beginnings painting on fine China and drawing fossils for a geological survey, Philadelphian artist Cecilia Beaux became a prominent portraitist. Her personal style, which combined solid academic training with an experimental streak, was sought after by prominent figures such as American president Theodore Roosevelt and French prime minister Georges Clemenceau. Beaux’s portraits are appropriately stately and serious, but also capture the sitter’s individuality.

Beaux was wildly successful during her day, despite early struggles during her studies at the Académie Julian in Paris. “You know how I hate to fail,” she wrote in a letter at the time. “My grip is pretty hard as a rule.” Beaux made eight trips to France, beginning at the height of the Impressionist movement, and there, she developed the habit of painting en plein air, using loose brushwork and dramatically cropping paintings. 

Another in my series of great female artists that haven't gotten the recognition they deserve.

Cecelia Beaux 1855~1942

 

It's a long slog 'til April

 Snowing again! Looks like a long long winter and being stuck at home, my options are limited.  Either I clean house 'til it sparkles and shines or I go up to my craft room and while the hours away.  Guess which one I usually choose?

I have a huge stash of fabrics in all sizes and styles (mostly scraps).  Lots of cottons so I'm digging in and making small quilts and pillow tops and anything else I can think of to use up some of it.  Been working on a little quilt this past week.  Just enough vintage check with tiny roses for the squares along with other mostly mid century cottons.

Then there is always my stacks of papers. I will never use it all!  Time flies when I'm cutting and pasting them for my gluebook, notecards, greeting cards or tags.

I guess I'll make it through but it's a long way to April

Four Pin Friday Hand Stitched and Vintage

 I want to know the women who preserved and lovingly stitched these small pieces of precious fabrics together.

I want to know where each little square came from.  A daughter or granddaughter's school dress?  A son or grandson's home made shirt?  PJs and nighties?  Were they too worn or outgrown clothing from their family?

1930s patchwork

Feedsack squares

Love them . . . old, hand-quilted and wrinkly!

They were made for warmth, not art, and we will not know their history because they were usually never signed.  They held no value at that time.

I have a few oldies that I hold dear and have given some away to friends and family.

Winter Remembrances

 Looking at past blogger posts, I came across this one that is still relevant to my life 10 years later.

As we head into the winter phase of the year, I'm remembering how much fun snow and ice was for me as a child and young adult.  The good times at the skating rink and the warming room with the pot~bellied stove where we would take on more energy and give it several more spins out on the ice to piped in music!  Sledding and snowball fights.  Tunnels in the deep drifts of a northern Minnesota post~blizzard.

My birthday falls in the dead of winter so it was always celebrated at the rink, or Mom would decorate the house and invite my friends for cake and games.

When did winter become such a drag???  Now it just means icy roads, shoveling snow and longing for warm sunny Spring days to throw off the jackets, earmuffs & gloves and to spend time outdoors. 

Oh . . . and

 the quirky old oak box that kept my memorabilia!

It's a well made sturdy box with dovetail corners and brass hardware. The label gives a hint to what is inside

If you are able to read the inside label and are not at all squeamish, it will put you in mind of it being an instrument of torture. 

Thankfully the tubing, bag and stop-cock didn't come with this years ago when we bought it! (Not that I would be tempted to use it.)

To soften what this was used for, inside was this lovely silk rosette . . .

~ Oh so Victorian ~