A tad more progress and a finish

 There's been some more progress on the landscape as you can see here...

You should be able to click to embiggen if you'd like to.  I fussy cut all those flowers and now I'm in the process of adding embroidery details over top.  There's going to be a LOT of French knots on this one!

And, one of my evening projects ended up with this little finish for our expected 'grandie'...

The sweater is a pattern in a book 'Grammy's Favorite Knits For Baby' by Doreen L. Marquart and the headband is THIS one.  Yarn is 'Baby Soft' from Lion Brand.

Today's quote..."My body sometimes feels sore, but it works.  I don't sleep well most nights, but I do wake up to fight another day.  My wallet is not full but my stomach is.  I don't have all the things I ever wanted but I do have everything I will ever need.  My life is by no means perfect but it's my life and I'm happy"

Maybe?

 Yes, maybe I'm on the right track with this one....at least until I try to add something else in which case the entire thing could very well still be fodder for the trash heap!

At this point it's been quilted and next 'up' will be 

adding the borders and then the embroidery.

Jury is still out on what I might, or might not, add
to the church.

The next two photos are the view from our balcony the other day just before the sun set.  

Those skies look rather forbidding, don't they!

Today's quote..."Perhaps they are not stars in the sky, but rather openings where our loved ones shine down to let us know they are happy"

Fearless - or - foolhardy??

 In the background, while you were reading all about Shudayra last week, I have been working on the latest landscape.  My inspiration is this photo, kindly shared with me by Dale Stewart....

Our Lady of Mount Carmel
Raymore, Saskatchewan

Photo by (and used with permission) Dale Stewart

For reasons I can't entirely understand I immediately thought that church should be a ghostly image.  Of course I have NO clue how to accomplish that using fabric but never let it be said that I'm afraid to try.  As I said - either fearless or foolhardy, take your pick!

In progress - and thinking seriously about chucking the entire idea.....

Better....maybe....

Adding further details and some shading...

But, mama still isn't happy.

Stay tuned!

For those of you who are curious, the church was printed onto organza using my computer.

Today's quote..."Don't stress about your eyesight failing as you get older.  It's nature's way of protecting you from shock as you walk past the mirror"

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!  

The horse

This is the second in my mini-series featuring 'Shudayra', my art doll that was created in a collaboration with other artists throughout Canada and the US.  One of the artists created a wonderful horse absolutely filled with incredible details.  The horse itself was created with papier mache techniques using a plastic dollar store toy horse as a base. 

Above you can see one side of the horse which features a woven reed basket containing a spirit bag filled with runes (more details further down).

Below shows the other side.  You can see the pannier on the back which contains a rain stick and a clan scroll (again, more details further down).  There is an amazing 'ruffle' collar - all created from papier mache.  

 

These four pictures show details of some of the additions to the horse.  The basket (on the left) was woven from reeds, and the saddle bag (below) is papier mache.

Above is the pannier that holds the rain stick and clan scroll and below is a detail of the saddle blanket

Below is the rain stick and the clan scroll...

The scroll, unrolled....

The runes, contained in the spirit bag, which is

tucked into the woven basket...

There are so many amazing little details on this creation and I hope that what I've shown here is a good representation.  Next time, I will share the journal that accompanied Shudayra on her travels.  As always, I think you can click on the images to have them embiggen for you to see the details better.

Today, instead of a quote, I have this....

And oldie maybe, but still a goodie

 The subject of making dolls has come up a few times around my blogging friends so I thought maybe it might be fun to share a couple of posts about a collaborative doll I was involved in.  It began as a 'nekkid' doll that I created and then mailed off to travel around to several different artists before returning home to me as an incredible piece of art.  Her name is 'Shudayra'.

She began, as I said, as just a bare bones doll form...

She traveled throughout Canada and the US until she finally returned to me looking like this...

I sent her off into the world with a journal to record her travels and her additions along the way.  Today I'll show you the doll  and next time I will share more information about the  horse and following that the incredible journal entries.

Shudayra - the doll

Closeup of her face and the front of her cape, including the cape fastener

The front of her dress showing the skirt

The back, showing her cape and the embellishments

Close up of her cape (notice the handmade paper bead trims)

The back of her skirt

Close up of her head, showing hair adornments

Beaded shoes

Close up of front of her cape

There, I think that gives you a good idea of what she looks like and the incredible amount of work that went into her creation.  Next time I will share further details of her steed and following that, her journal. Hopefully you will enjoy this look back and all the details!  I think you can click on each of the pictures to embiggen them as well.

-Today's quote...."Sometimes my greatest accomplishment is just keeping my mouth shut"