Christmas in July: Vintage Santa Photos

Merry Christmas! Well, not exactly, but I am celebrating "Christmas in July" in my etsy shop by listing a few vintage Santa Claus photos.

I have scanned six photos from my personal collection 

and made them available as digital downloads....

They would be perfect for holiday cards or gift tags.

Or, a few of them would be lovely incorporated into a Christmas banner.

If you like them you can find them here.

I would love to see what you might make with them!

Don't eat too much Christmas ham today.

The Zingaro Dahlia

"What grows in the garden,

so lovely and rare?

Roses and Dahlias

and people grow there."

--From the TV show A Gardener's Diary

A while back I started some dahlias in pots.

I know that I had previously written about 

some others that I started and later transplanted into the garden.

But I never have much luck with them out there,

as some of our local critters seem to munch on my babies before they ever amount to much.

So, I purchased some more dahlia starts when it was getting late in the season 

when they were at a substantially reduced cost, 

and decided to try my luck with them in the porch.

One of them just started to bloom.

 How pretty is this?!

When they get near the end of their season, I will transplant them into 

one of the gardens that is a little more sheltered from the "wild things".

In the meantime, though, I think that I'll just enjoy them on the porch!

I hope your week is going well.

The Start of a New Project and New Photo Fabric

Hello there. I hope that your July has gotten off to a good start.

Having finished the collages that I was working on, 

I put together some things to begin a new one.

An old and stained piece of a cutter quilt...

Some goat cart photos printed onto photo fabric,

along with some wide burlap ribbon...

Sari ribbon, laces, trims, and an array

of buttons...

...along with some pretty fabrics...

Can you tell what my color scheme is going to be?...

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By the way, I was reading one of my books about crazy

quilting, and the author recommended this photo fabric...

Have you tried it yet? 

It seems to take the ink very nicely,

and the paper backing is quite easy to pull off.

It comes on a roll, so you can just cut off what you need.

The only thing that I do not like about it is that the texture

is a little rough, and you tend to see that on your printout.

I did use it for my patriotic collages that I featured here and here.

If you look closely, you may be able to see the texture on the photos.

But it doesn't bother me enough to hold me back from using this product.

I purchased it on Amazon.

Have you tried any new products lately?

Rhinestone Cowgirls and Straight Shooters

Good morning friends. A while back I showed you a glimpse of some cowgirl fabric collages that I had started to put together, and am happy to say that I have finally completed them! They are companion pieces of sorts, since I used bits of the same fabrics on each. Don't you find it so much easier to create a couple of pieces when you don't have to keep choosing fabrics and embellishments over and over again?

The fabrics that I used absolutely don't in any way go with the photos, but I thought it would be fun to experiment a little with the unexpected. I hope that you like them!

The photos used on both pieces were old RPPCs from

the early 1900s. 

I assume that they were souvenir or prop photos.

I copied them onto fabric, as usual!

For each of them I collaged everything onto muslin. 

I incorporated various vintage fabrics:

velvet, silk, dupioni,

chiffon, and sari silk.

I then added vintage laces, 

and small pieces of sequined sheer fabric

from an old flapper dress.

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To this one I added a rhinestone button onto a small crocheted

embellishment. 

These ladies look like they would have worn anything in the

world but rhinestones, silk and lace!

Still, I couldn't resist...

The sequined flapper dress piece goes along the right 

side of the photo...

To the bottom I added a portion of a vintage doily,

which I embellished with a vintage button to match the flapper 

dress trim...

The hanger is made of coordinating sari silk tied in a bow...

For these straight-shootin' gals,

I pretty much used the same materials,

but in a different way.

These ladies were  far more comfortable holding

six-shooters than getting prettied up, 

but I wasn't going to let that stop me!...

  

But, even they deserve a little respect, 

so I gave them a wooden button instead of one with rhinestones...

The vintage silk velvet used towards the top of this one

was used on the bottom of the other piece.

It is a beautiful faded rust color...

...and the colors in the cowgirl boot chiffon that you see at

the left below dictated the color scheme of both pieces,

namely dusty rust, dusty peach, and shades of teal...

It was so much fun trying to incorporate my two favorite pieces

into this collage, namely the cowgirl boot chiffon and the sequined

flapper piece, which I have more of and will be using some time

in the future, I'm sure.

I have listed these in my Etsy shop,
which you can find here.

Have you used "the unexpected" in any of your creations lately?

Patriotic Fabric Collage: "Proud to be an American"

Happy Independence Day! I hope your weekend continues to be great! Below are some photos of the other fabric collage that I completed this weekend, inspired by the holiday.

I recently added this charming photo to 

my "patriotic photos" collection.

I love the adorable children standing in a row.

It is a copy of an old RPPC printed onto fabric.

It looks like it must have been taken at

their school.

I love that the children are wearing  patriotic

banners and holding flags, and that

the little guy is dressed as Uncle Sam...

As with the piece that I posted about yesterday,

the blue fabric with the stars on it

that I used for the background is a piece of

antique indigo dating from the 1800s.

And the little quilted piece that the photo

sits upon is a square from an old quilt.

I bought a lot of these awhile ago

and posted about them previously.

Of course, I had to add some vintage lace

and crinkled seam binding to it, 

along with a paper flower held in place

by a BoBunny brad...

 

The stamped words are from the stamping

that I talked about in yesterday's post.

Again, I just cut out the phrase that

I wanted to use...

 

Like with the cutter quilt piece that I used in yesterday's piece,

the red has faded to a dusty rose...

...so for the hanger I used dusty rose crinkled seam binding,

and cream sari silk...

I really enjoyed using these old photos,

not to mention the cutter quilt pieces.

I am putting the finishing touches on two other pieces

that I worked on yesterday,

and will share them shortly (hopefully!).

Thanks for coming by,

and I hope you have a creative day!!

Patriotic Fabric Collage: "God Bless the USA"

Hello, and I hope that you're having a great Fourth of July Weekend.

This holiday inspired me to use a couple of my recently acquired patriotic photos in some fabric art. I actually made two yesterday, and here is one of them.

This is a rather tall piece.

The collage was done on a piece of a 

cutter quilt that I have had for a while.

I only wish I could have seen what the original

quilt must have looked like.

My piece is a very irregular shape

and it was from the 1860s or so.

Since it was shaped like a house,

I made believe that it was...

I used some vintage lace and buttons,

and the words were stamped with

a stamp from the Stampabilities line.

It included a lot of patriotic phrases,

so I stamped the whole thing on muslin, 

using old Archival ink in coffee,

and just used the phrase that you see here...

The photo was a beautiful old RPPC

printed onto fabric.

I couldn't resist these sweet little girls,

with the toddler holding the flag.

Don't you just love the flag that also 

appears behind them?...

You can see in the next photo how 

old and faded  the indigo fabrics are. 

I particularly love the indigo with the 

stars on it that I placed behind the girls.

And what must have once been red

has faded to a dusty pink...

Because the top section of the quilt piece

looks like the roof of the house,

I couldn't resist incorporating a vintage

piece of salvage, which I think must

have once held a doorknob.

Inside of it I placed a BoBunny brad

that I bought a few years ago...

It is about 7 inches wide, by 18 inches long,

not counting the jute that it hangs from.

It felt good to be able to make some time for creating again!

As ever, thanks for coming by.