The last one!.....?

 This is the last Christmas present I'm making for this year.  Yes, it is - uh huh - yep - done.  

My friend has a habit of keeping notes about her knitting on random pieces of paper that tend to go AWOL so I thought she might have a use for a notebook.  I couldn't give her just any ol' notebook so I gussied it up with embroidery on the front.  

The back cover was created using a piece from a blouse she once gave me for use in crafting.  She loved it so hopefully she will like it here too.  The spine is made from a scrap of musical fabric I had (she's musical so I thought it was fitting).  Hope she likes it and gives up on her bits of paper!!

Today's quote..."Conformity is doing what you're told regardless of what's right.  Morality is doing what's right regardless of what you're told"

The journal

Today I'll show you the journal that traveled around with Shudayra.   It's hard to get really good detail of the pages but hopefully you can click to embiggen the pictures to see more.

This is the front cover that I created to accompany her on her travels.  The bottom half was crinkled up brown paper with butcher cord 'stripes', the top was gauze with paper flowers, sequins and beads.  The middle part was more cord.  Painted gold and then dry brushed to antique it somewhat.

The inside of the front cover showing the pocket that the 'picture'  of the naked Shudayra fits in. 

This is the back of the 'picture' you see in the above photo

Below you see the first spread done by the first artist.....

The second spread....

The third...

The fourth....

This page was done by the young daughter of the artist that worked on the doll

The fifth....

The sixth...

and, finally, the seventh...

All in all, Shudayra took almost a year to travel throughout  Canada and the US spending a little over a month with each artist before moving on to the next.  At that time I was a member of an online art doll group and this collaboration was arranged through that group.

If you are interested in seeing more of the dolls that visited with me during the collaboration, please click on the 'Dolls' label in my side bar and keep scrolling through.  You'll see them, along with some of the other dolls I've created over the years.

Hope you enjoyed this little series! Because this post is quite picture-heavy I think I will forgo giving you my normal links and the quote.  Try not to be too disappointed!  

A wee little book

I did a bit of a studio clean up (I know - what IS this world coming to!!) and came across something I have been meaning to share for awhile.  Several months ago our honorary member of our little CQTeers crafting group (Liz) sent us each one of her little artist books with the challenge to fill it with something.  It took me awhile to decide what I could do.  I have an inherent fear of defacing books which my mother instilled in me when I was little so it took some mental talking to before I could manage to touch it.  Here's the beautiful handpainted cover that Liz created for my book...

The book measures approx. 5" tall x 4" wide

About the time the book arrived I was in the throes of a somewhat more thorough cleanup of my sewing room and came across what I created in an online ledger class taught by Karen Ruane.  I sat down to look through it and was aghast to discover that the double sided tape that I had used was turning everything brown and was letting go (despite having been assured in the store that it wouldn't do such a thing....false advertising!!).  So...I ended up taking the ledger apart, salvaging what I could and putting them into this new little book (MINUS the double-sided tape I might add!!).  This is the result...

Another anonymous quote..."The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts while the stupid ones are full of confidence"  

Additional progress

Now I can show you some additional progress on my fall pillow cover (which is nearing completion, btw)...

Here I have added a bee and some honeycomb and seam treatments (fall leaves, beaded flowers; and acorns).

In this area I added the crow perched on a pumpkin, a beaded seam treatment, some apple trees, and the macrame spider (thank you Connie!!) and his web.







And, here are the final pictures in the garden journal series (and aren't you glad?!!)....

If you look just to the right of my fingers, the butterfly lifts up, similar to a match book.

This is the final page in the journal and on the left you can see a table and chair - when our garden was featured on the local garden tour, this was a 'setting' at the very back of our property.  DH made the table using an old sewing machine base and he created the top out of cement in an organic shape.  His old gardening hat was pressed into service as a decorative element too, along with a found-on-the-roadside rocking chair.

Today the quote is from Leo Buscoglia.... "A single rose can be my garden - a single friend my world"

Too busy to take pictures

It's been a busy few days, so my picture taking has been a dismal failure.  So, how about some more garden journal pictures?  I promise I will show you my progress on the pillow later in the week!!

It's difficult to see in the photo, but the page on the right is actually two - there's a small 'page' made with lace that lifts up to show a greeting card designed by one of my favourite artists - Marjolein Bastin.  I actually used several of her greeting cards throughout my journal.



Today's quote is from Isak Dinesen.... "The cure for anything is salt water:  sweat, tears or the sea"

 

And....we have a winner!!!!

Sorry, it isn't the lottery and there's no money forthcoming, but....

By the uber-scientific method of writing names on

slips of paper, folding them up, putting them in a 

container, and asking DH to pick one...

Christine, your name came up!

Your book will go in the mail as soon as I get your snail mail addy
(well, it'll have to wait until Tuesday because we have our

Thanksgiving weekend coming up).

Today it's dull and spitting rain here, so pictures are not good.  I do have a bit more done on my fall pillow, but will hold off on pictures of that until the conditions are better.

In the meantime....here's more of the garden journal.... (I know, it's getting boring, eh?)

Throughout the journal, I not only used my own photos from our garden, but also images from greeting cards I had been saving over the years.  You can perhaps see some of them in the photo above and the one to the left.

The page on the right is fabric - woven and stitched with running stitch.  

Your quote today is from Morrie Schwartz...."The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love and to let it come in"

 

If at first you don't succeed...

...try, try again.  Well, I'm trying this again in hopes that my picture of my small amount of accomplishment on my fall pillow will post...

Well, yeah!!!!   It worked!  Yesterday I could NOT get this picture to post right-side up no matter what I did.  And now, it worked fine.  Blog-grrrr must have been having a hiccup yesterday.

After all of yesterday's links, I will just show you pictures today, but before I show you any more - don't forget that today is the last day to get your entry in to get your name in the draw for the book.  Go HERE to do that.  Only comments left on that post will be entered, and be sure to give me a way to contact you should you be the lucky winner!

The first picture today is a pair of knitted socks I

just finished.  I just wanted to show you to prove that

there IS actually something creative happening at 

Chez Magpie!

 and now, here's some more pictures of the garden journal...

The photo on the right on this page is from my family, but the girl is unknown.  

Sorry about the fingers, but I had to hold the book open somehow.  And I see that the messy tabletop is showing too.  Ooops.

Another quote from an anonymous source... "Everyone is really standing in a circle, holding hands.  Whatever you give to the person standing next to you, it eventually comes back to you."