Sewing Mends the Soul: Artwork by an Amazing Artist

Good morning. I hope that you had a great weekend.

This post is rather late in coming, but prior to the holidays I purchased a beautiful fabric collage from an amazing textile artist whose work I greatly admire. I have followed her blog for a long time now and finally decided to make one of her creations my own. It now hangs on the vanity mirror above my sewing station, and you will see why I put it there.

Suzy is from Australia, and her blog appears on my sidebar along with other blogs that I love to read. If you haven't yet spent some time with her, you can also visit her here. You will love Suziqu's Threadworks! Also be sure to check out her Etsy shop.

I took some photos of her creation.

It came beautifully wrapped in tissue

pattern paper, 

with a vintage doily,

and this lovely tag...

Pardon this bad photo, 

but I wanted to show you where I hung it.

It was hard to get a good picture because of

the reflection in the mirror...

so I took some closeups.

There is a lovely tag...

... which sits in a gorgeous lace pocket...

It has a vintage wire hanger...

...and many beautiful embellishments.

Her name for this piece shows below...

Now can you see why I hung it where I did?

Thanks, Suzy!

It's so nice to have this piece in my studio 

where I can think of you every time I sit down to sew!

Here's to beautiful artwork and their fine creators.

We are so lucky to have them.

Vintage Velvet Ribbon

Do you have anything that you love to look at, anticipating what you will do with it and how you will use it? This describes the feeling that I have for vintage velvet ribbon. I love the way it feels in your hands as you run it through your fingers. I love its richness. And I love the beautiful colors that it comes in.

Here are a few photos of some of the ribbons that I have. I played with them a little bit today, matching them up to some scrapbook papers that I had kicking around, and thought that they would make for some pretty pictures. 

Some are still on the original bolts,

with their lovely labels still in tact...

...and some have been slightly used. 

I find myself wondering where

the missing portions went

and what they were used for...

Here are two of the prettiest shades of blue...

...one a pale blue...

...and the other a periwinkle...

How about this beautiful rich purple?...

...or this lovely pink and tan?...

This one is another shade of tan,

and it was not very expensive since

its bolt was falling apart.

Beautiful, nonetheless...

Most of these were imported from France or Germany.

So very beautiful. 

I hope that you have found something lately

that you can appreciate because, well, 

it is just so pretty to look at.

Have a lovely weekend!

Some more playing with images...

Happy Wednesday! 

Last week I received some lovely images from an eBay seller that I recently discovered. The seller provides wonderful copies of vintage images printed nicely on 4 by 6 semi-gloss photo paper. The images are nicely packed and quickly shipped. She allows you to use copies for your own personal use and even small commercial projects (but no more than 100), as long as you do not sell her altered images in their digital form (I emailed her to find this out). The seller is Postcard Muse, and you can find her here.

What do you think about these pretties?

Of course, you know how much I love vintage

ballerina photos...

...not to mention old beach photos...

I also loved these fairy images...

And, there was just something about this

lady on this beautiful horse...

OK...so you know what is coming next.

I edited this photo that I took at 

the beautiful old cemetery

seen in this post

and...

...used an iPhone app called Superimpose

 (for 99 cents) to remove the background from

one of the fairy images and substitute my own

cemetery background.

I then applied a texture and border 

from an iPhone app called 

Vintage Photo Frame

(free)...

While I did find that removing the background via

the "tech-y" system took a lot more time than

just cutting it out with a pair of scissors

(that's just old me!),

it was a lot of fun to see what I could do with it.

Have a great day, and show no fear when it comes to trying something new! 

Vintage Village, Part 2 (Beauty in the Mundane)

Good morning!  I hope that you are well.

Today I decided to share some of the other photos that I took while antiquing on Sunday. It was such a lovely day that I decided to roam about outside and try to find some beauty in the mundane. Well, not mundane for me, but perhaps for some other people!

Chipping things...

...and peeling things...

...and old doors...

Juxtaposition.

Window frames against chippy paneling...

...bed frames against peeling walls...

...and against old fences...

All are beautiful to me.

************************

One of my purchases is pictured in one of the photos above.

Can you guess what it is?

(Hint: Not an old door, one of which I already have in my studio.

And purchased right here!)

I'll reveal it when my plan comes together.

And hopefully soon.

*************************

What common beauty have you discovered lately? 

And what could be more beautiful than jazzing up our photos with some photo editing?

Have a beautiful day!

Vintage Village, Part I...

Good morning, dear friends. I hope that you had a great weekend!

For Christmas dear Hubby gave me gift certificates to one of my favorite local antique shops, SuzAnna's, which is located in a cluster of small antique shops called Vintage Village in Raleigh, NC. (You may recall that I bought various items there while we were decorating Birdsong Cottage.)

Yesterday was one of those rare January days where the temperature hit 70 degrees, so while Mr. Perch was busy puttering with some things at the house, I decided to take off and see what damage I could do with my gift certificates. Needless to say, it wasn't a problem at all! I did browse around The Village before I went into Suzanna's, and decided to snap some photos of various vignettes.

 Two Old Birds,

the shop that sells Annie Sloan Paint...

While there, I bought the smaller pitcher

seen on the right in the photo below.

It is Royal International China,

with the most beautiful green

Lily of the Valley design.

I bought it for my friend, 

whose birthday is next month.

She is Irish, hence the green,

and wants to start a collection of

white pitchers...

I loved the way this old green bike looked 

next to the chippy pink bucket...

There was some cool old junk in 

this grouping...

And I thought these old bottles with the rusty

tops in their wire basket were fun.

But the price wasn't...

This was some stuff from SuzAnna's.

Jenny, the owner's daughter, 

does a lot of cool signage...

So the common thread running through these vignettes

seems to be green. 

Except for a little in our downstairs guest room,

and a little in my studio,

I have no green inside my house.

Interesting!

So the question you are probably asking is:

What did she buy with the gift certificates?

Stay tuned on that one!!

Have you stumbled upon any good finds lately?