Last Hat Done

I have finished the last hat.  It is a journal of ten years of my horse showing days with some of my horses, from my first to my last.  I wouldn't trade a moment of those ten years but every horse I fell off of is speaking to me now!!  lol

Those Were The Days

The hat even looks authentically beat up!

I have managed another beady piece, I Love Imperial Jasper, 9 x 7.  These little guys are actually square and straight.....my camera eats them funny.

The next piece is on the drawing board:

I can see using some ties here.

I have been busy packing up fabric for a sale in Winnipeg on Sunday.  I have ten boxes!  A lot of cotton, Laura Ashley, Jinny Beyer, etc. Some cotton poly some silk and some rayon.  A lot of it is 3 yards or more.  All garage sale priced.  I hope to do large volume, not high prices, and heaven knows, I don't want to have to unpack it all again!

Hope to see you all on Sunday!  lol

or at  ninamariesayre.blogspot.ca



Busy, busy, busy.......

Working in my studio has become addictive.  I find myself jonesing when I can't get there every day.  I am trying to exhaust my Muse......this is a good thing...right?

Here is a detail shot of Sedimentary II:

I love the chatoyance on the Ammonite, and the tubular mesh ribbon is a delight to work with.

These two are an example of less is more:

 Escape

Tipped

These are used dryer sheets, hand painted.  The hangar rings on the back are wildly off centre to balance the weight of the Agate 'vases.

Here is the Fascinator I promised:

Puttin On The Ritz

The hat itself is black velvet and sucks dust and lint.  I figured that this would be a major nuisance to the curators of the shows it will be in so I coated it with two layers of Paverpol.  It is not soft any more, but you can just blow the dust off.

The next hat is a badly damaged, straw, wide brimmed hat with a round crown.  It looks like it might have been a garden hat.  Since we are supposed to do something that reflects ourselves I am thinking a cowboy hat!?!

More to come.......

I surprise even myself!

Wow, another post so soon!  There are heavy duty exhaust fumes in my studio from me revving my motor so hard!........or is that a disturbing mental image??

I shall have to get a better photo...this is perfectly square.....really.  Sedimentary II.  Hand painted fabric, actually it was the clean up cloth.....why are they always much better than what you were actually trying to do?  Seed beads, ammonites, gem stones.

I am also part of the big Hat Party.  I am a sucker for punishment and glommed onto three hats. I am a greedy so and so too!  This is Buttoned Down Winter Wedding.  Furry almost white hat with lots of a vintage wedding gown attached.

 The feathers and strings of pearls are the perfect finishing touch....who needs a veil anyway?

Next hat is an elegant little head-hugger that might just be a shame to cover up, but what a lovely opportunity for an outrageous fascinator!  So far I am starting out with black, haven't decided whether or not to add some colour.

The next hat is a little straw wide brimmed hat.....hmmm.

After that I am going to do up some shoes just for giggles.......wait for that blog post.

Back to the studio...

Back at it...finally

I am back in the saddle, so to speak.........nowadays I ride a Husquevarna!!

This is Rainmaker. 5 x 7  When you hold it up to the light you can see the stripes in the agate.  I used the corner out of a large piece in the Crap Quota stack, a shame to waste all the lovely quilting.

Thunder and Lightning. 6 x 8  I reworked another piece on upholstery fabric featuring a nice agate slab.  Much better title, but I am not sure how I want to mount it...or just leave it alone, the back is denim.

Mossy Burl. 5 x 7  Upholstery fabric, ribbon and wool accenting a truly fabulous piece of driftwood.

Seaweed and Surf. 13 x 13  Another great piece of driftwood with gemstones and seed beads, and hand dyed fabric, rhyolite and a nice amonite.

I have no excuse, but a very good reason for my long absence:

This wonderful spot is where I sit and have breakfast and my coffee every morning.  The cucumbers on the left gate post are now all the way around the next rung.  We can hardly keep up with them!  Tomatoes at the foot of the garden are ripening apace.  Picked about twenty this afternoon, not counting a double handful of wee Sweet Million.

It is a very green garden, the perennials are only on their first year, but there are some thrilling surprises!

A double day lily....eleven buds that all bloomed....that was a gift from friends.  They live about sixty miles west of us and have had a drought this summer, they lost the parent plant to this one.

An Angel's Trumpet, or Datura.  We did not plant this, it might have come in with the bit of soil a friend gave us in a box of six Zinnia. Which, by the way, are providing some nice colour in our green garden.   I only noticed it two weeks ago when it poked its head up in the middle of the potatoes! How it ever managed to out muscle them is truly a wonder.  The potatoes took over like Kudzu vines...but only 2 or 3 tubers per plant.  Everyone around here said potatoes were a big

disappointment this year.

The Kale we planted to get cabbage worms is working.  We had a snowstorm of cabbage butterflies (Canadian White) a few weeks ago and I have seen a wren in the plants picking the worms......big grin!  Humming birds in the Zinnia too, even bigger grin!

I have another piece almost finished, I will post more pictures soon.

Have fun in your studios ladies, and cuddle your cats.