Focusing on What Really Matters

I just completed a fiber art mixed media card I titled "Serenity." That word evokes a variety of feelings inside me. I am reminded of the "Serenity Prayer:"

"Lord, grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change,
the courage to change the things I can,
and the wisdom to know the difference."

I am also reminded that there are such simple moments in each and every day I take for granted. Perhaps that's because I'm so caught up in trying to identify what I can and cannot change, that I don't often notice those!

The press of things to do in any given day often puts blinders on our eyes to what really matters. My thought for the day was one found in an 1883 book from my collection (Our Home):

"Joy is the natural and normal condition of every human soul.
To be genuine and permanent it must depend chiefly on internal
instead of external conditions. . .The difficulty is always on the part
of the eye and never on the part of the light."

Here's my personal challenge -- both to myself -- and to you:

"Look today with your eyes wide open, and see with your heart."

Learning the Value of Tweeting on Twitter

I have been working all day long (in between tasks) to learn how to tweet on twitter. After experiencing an onslaught of possible followers that scared the daylights out of me, I think I have begun to both narrow down my choices and then enhance those to make the most out of this experience.

One of the most valuable tweeters I found to follow as an artist is nikolena (Nicolette Tallmadge). She has some tweets on several "blog radio" sessions she has done on "7 Things You Can Do Today To Get More Traffic To Your Art Website." I listened to just one installment and came away with loads of information -- just in time for the Christmas season.

I just don't want to end up like the TV commercial where the teenagers are totally embarrassed by the dad and mom who are tweeting in their presence about totally nonsensical stuff. If you do want to start getting my tweets (which I promise will be fun quotes and artistic tips -- not what I had for lunch), my twitter name is VintageLegacy. I've put a link showing my tweets today in the left-hand bar of the blog.

Altered Art Fabric Postcard

I have really been having fun creating altered fabric postcards for swapping with my friends in the Fabric in Altered Art Yahoo group. I just tried layering with fusible web, fibers, rubber stamping, net and more on one that went out in today's mail to Jo. (Don't peek Jo, if you don't want to see it before you get it!)

Making these postcards is sorta like eating M&Ms -- You just can't stop! I still have a hard time believing they actually go through the mail -- but they do. The ones I've been receiving in turn have come through with flying colors (literally!). And, just think what fun the postal carriers are getting as each one passes through their hands.

A new art technique I'm trying. . .

I am working on making more ACEOs this week, and decided to try out a new technique. Instead of my usual "soft" little 2.5" x 3.5" crazy quilt ACEOs (which by the way, stands for "Art Cards, Editions, and Origionals"), I am trying to add a little more firmness so they are more card-like. I would really like some feedback on which people like better. For that reason, you see one of the type I have been doing and selling on Ebay -- the first picture, and the new try -- the second picture. Let me know what you think, please.

Let the Flowers Speak!

I have been busy transferring vintage botanical prints and great poems onto fabric for my newest altered fabric book -- and as often happens to me -- I got sidetracked by one print that just called out to me to be altered on its own. I absolutely adore pansies and have a bunch of them in my garden. Their happy little faces never fail to raise my spirits and I almost think they have personalities! It's no wonder they have such a variety of names. The name "Pansy" is an English way of saying the French "Pensée," meaning "thoughts." These little velvet treasures were bred in Victorian times from wild pansies often known in Shakespeare's time as "Love-in-idleness." I love the name little children of that era gave pansies -- "Tickle-my-fancy!" They do just that, in my opinion.

More than anything, they are a reminder to me that I am in control of my thoughts - I can choose how to think! I combined the simple words of a favorite scripture (Philippians 4:8) with the vintage picture to create my latest 5"x7" altered crazy quilt wall hanging I posted for sale on Ebay. While I work on other artistic endeavors, I have it hanging on a knob of my roll-top desk where it inspires me to "Think on things that are true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable." It already has a bid on it, so I know I will have say good-bye before long, but I pray it will also bring inspiration to its new owner in a similar way. Hope the picture I'm posting of it here makes you smile too! -- Judi

Altered Mixed Media "Recipe" for Wedded Bliss

I belong to a great online group -- FabricinAlteredArt -- and I just completed a project for a swap of altered mixed media recipe cards based on an article in "Cloth, Paper, Scissors" magazine for May/June. This was a really fun project!

With two sons getting married in the last couple of months, I had provided each bride with a recipe book of family favorites and included a pithy page of marriage advice for husbands and wives from one of my 1883 books, "Our Home."

It was perfect for this project! I took the quotes, copied a graphic from another vintage advice book and, along with antique lace, ribbon, and confetti, made the cards, front and back to the 4"x6" dimensions of a recipe card. I also transferred a ghostly image of a turn-of-the-century wedding onto Lutrador and glued it down over some fancy white brocade fabric. Then I stitched the front and back together, encasing them in vinyl with a fun fiber edge. I'm pleased with how they turned out. Now, of course, both my daughters-in-law want a copy of this version as well. I'm including a picture here. The advice I'll save for another blogging day as I got inspired for another mini book! -- Judi

Wildflower Garden Inspiration

I've been grooming the back yard for some time now in preparation for my son's wedding rehearsal dinner this Thursday evening. I am so amazed at how well my wildflower garden is doing. I took a picture of it yesterday I thought I would share with you. I am going to cut a few of the "bachelors buttons" (otherwise known as cornflowers) for arrangements on the tables. In the midst of mulling over how fun it would be to include the Victorian history on their love of the flower, I pulled out my vintage book, "The Bouquet" by "A Lady" -- which is a pocket volume on the poetry and language of flowers from 1846. Inspiration struck!! Now I know what my next little altered fabric book will be about! I am really excited to get a start after the wedding. I think I will share it in stages as I begin working on it. Now, that's all I'm going to share for now -- to tantalize you! But, with all these lovely poems and meanings of flowers, won't it be fun?! I'll get started on it next week after the wedding.

Here is the little saying I am going to print off as favors for all the guests at the rehearsal dinner (50 of them!) on the cornflower I thought you might enjoy.

"Tonight we celebrate the groom's dinner -- or rehearsal dinner. In the little vases on your table there are some lovely cornflowers.

In the Victorian era, if a girl wore a cornflower (otherwise called a bachelor's button), it meant she was available for marriage.

If a young man placed a bachelor's button in his pocket, he was letting the world know he was in love.

Via superstition of the day, if that flower lived while in his pocket, it was an indication he should marry; if, on the other hand, it died, he must find another sweetheart.

According to other lore, if a girl hid a cornflower under her apron, she would have the bachelor of her choice -- which is where the name "Bachelor's Buttons" came from."

Judi

Poetry in Spring!

I promised I would share the vintage poem I have incorporated in my latest miniature altered crazy quilt book. The book is now finished! I am really pleased with how it turned out. I wish I was better at this blogging business so I could post all the pictures I took, but I am just going to share the one that shows best how the little book looks with all it's fringe and ties. I have decided to go ahead and put it on Ebay -- which I will do later in the day today. You can see 14 different views of the book there, if you want to check it out in detail. (Just follow the link to my Ebay items under the section "A little More About My Passion" on the left side of the blog.) I plan to post it there soon!

Here's the poem (author unknown, but in my 1899 book, Excelsior Writer and Speaker, listed under the children's recitations section).

The Bird's Picnic

"The birds gave a picnic, the morning was fine,

They all came in couples, to chat and to dine;

Miss Robin, Miss Wren and the two Misses Jay,

Were dressed in a manner decidedly gay.

"And Bluebird, who looks like a handful of sky,

Dropped in with her spouse as the morning wore by;

The yellow-birds, too, wee bundles of sun,

With brave chickadees, came along for the fun.

Miss Phoebe was there, in her prim suit of brown;

In fact, all the birds in the fair leafy town.

The neighbors, of course, were politely invited;

Not even the ants and the crickets were slighted.

The grasshoppers came, some in gray, some in green,

And covered with dust, hardly fit to be seen:

Miss Miller flew in, with her gown white as milk;

And Lady Bug flourished a new crimson silk.

The bees turned out lively, the young and the old,

And proud as could be, in their spencers of gold;

But Miss Caterpillar, how funny of her,

She hurried along in her mantle of fur.

There were big bugs in plenty, and gnats great and small --

A very hard matter to mention them all.

And what did they do? Why, they sported and sang,

Till all the green wood with their melody rang.

Whoe'er gave a picnic to grand and so gay?

They hadn't a shower, I'm happy to say.

And when the sun fell, like a cherry-ripe red,

The fire-flies lighted them all home to bed."

The Bird's Picnic

We have two bird feeders in our yard. I think all the birds for miles around have been talking to one another, shouting the news that they can have a picnic here. If I fill both feeders, they are totally empty in less than 24 hours! One delight is that I have been able to observe a number of varieties of birds in my yard, from tiniest finches to a Blue Jay couple teaching their tiny new son to fly. They reminded me of a terrific poem from one of my vintage books from the 1890s (author of the poem unknown) -- entitled "The Bird's Picnic." I dug it out and began hunting for pictures of birds I could use in creating a miniature altered crazy quilt book. I have been having such fun creating it! In the post I did on June 11th, I shared the front cover in progress. It now has beadwork fringe. I'll wait to share it when the entire book is completed (soon, I promise). But, here are a few of the pages in this tiny 2-1/2" x 3-1/2" book that are already completed. I'm still debating on whether to put it up for sale on Ebay or wait for a bit. I'd love your opinions. The whole book has 16 heavily embellished surfaces (or a total of 8 fat double-sided pages). When tied shut with it's velvet ribbons, it's over 2 inches thick!

I'll share the poem tomorrow. . . Please come back for more fun! -- Judi

Sewing Room

For well over seven years I wrote a column in the voice of a woman from 1898 by the name of "Abigail Bradshaw" for newspapers that ran in syndication throughout 23 states of the USA and in Canada. I thought I would begin to share some of those rather nostalgic columns here in my blog for fun. One came to mind the other day as I finished an ACEO with a vintage sewing theme. (I've posted a picture of it here -- it's up on Ebay for sale right now -- Ebay ID: judiwithani2.) Here's that column in its entirety copyright, Judi Brandow 1999-2007, all rights reserved.

"The Sewing Room"

'No Female Suffrage Yet. -- But something far better and more valuable, a Wilson Sewing-Machine for every wife and mother in the Union, and at the low price of $50 each of the full finished machine. People ask why the Wilson, a leading machine in all respects, can be sold for $50. The answer is easy and direct -- because its proprietors do not belong to a great "ring," whose purpose it is to keep up the price of sewing-machines.' -- ad from Peterson's Magazine, December 1878

February 1898

Greetings from my home to yours. I am sitting at the table in my sewing room, sunlight dancing a step over my shoulder and across the bright patches of the 'Chimney Sweep' quilt top I just finished piecing. I am surrounded by a delightful disarray of crimson, saffron and muted green calico prints, waste threads and cuttings -- a testament to my absorption in the project at hand.

How fortunate I am to possess a room set apart soley as a sewing room. I can make a great creative mess here without affecting the rest of the house. When my darling Edward first suggested turning part of the attic into a sewing room, I balked. It seemed such a dingy, out-ot-the-way hole. But when the windows were cleaned of film, a cozy rag rug laid on the floor, and shelves built to hold my collection of boxes, I settled right in to my lovely little nook.

How carefully I arranged all the hundred-and-one things employed in sewing. Hat and shoe boxes were labeled for such articles as rolls of bias tape, hooks and eyes, laces, stays, and threads. I carefully separated out different colored buttons and strung them onto cords placing them in my button box to enable me to find just the button needed without trouble. An old bureau's drawers were each labeled with the names of family members to provide each with a 'piece drawer' for all that person's mending and sewing needs. Another bureau was hauled into my space with drawers for al the folds of fabric waiting to be cut. One drawer holds bags of all my different colored scraps for quilts.

Because I am forever losing track of where I have placed various sewing accessories, I have found it most useful to employ the old-fashioned 'housewife' my grandmother espouses. It is a charming work-case equipped with pockets for scissors, buttons, thread and thimbles, with cushions attached for needles and pins. Grandmother encouraged me to stuff the cushions with hair saved from my hairbrush. She swears the oils in the hair help to keep needles and pins from rusting, and to this day, my pins have never suffered the complaint.

To save myself from eye strain, my sewing machine is positioned where the light is best in the room. The window over my left shoulder allows just the right amount of light to fall on the machine as I work. Mine is a Singer Treadle. I love polishing the beautiful red, green and gilt scrolled flourishes and lettering on its black cast iron body. Keeping it well-oiled and cleaned assures me it will work when I am ready to sit and sew. There are some who say the sewing machine manufacturers are working on electric models. I say, 'Give me the slow, steady whir of my treadle, the warmth of sunlight on my back the feel of crisp fabric through my fingers and a song to hum in the serenity of my sewing room, and I am content.'

Until next time, believe me to be sincerely yours, Abigail Bradshaw."

And, might I add, I am off to my own sewing room, busy on a tiny altered crazy quilt ACEO size (2.5"x3.5") book! In my next blog post, I'll show some pictures. -- Judi

How do you display ACEOs?

As an artist and creator of fiber art altered ACEOs (Art Cards Editions and Originals), I know there are a number of collectors of these miniature works of art measuring just 2.5" x 3.5". Some collectors display one piece at a time on a tiny easel. Others use clear plastic boxes or albums with sleeves to display their collections. You can frame each tiny piece in a small frame, or matte and frame in a larger frame.

If you love altered art, why not do groupings in a shadow box or display case? There are a variety available in the hobby stores. The picture I am including with today's blog shows three of my crazy quilt ACEOs in an 8" x 10" display case with a piece of vintage lace in the background.

I create my ACEOs in series -- each one-of-a-kind, but with themes such as my "Heirloom Flower Series," "Vintage Birds Series," "Heirloom Pet Series," etc. with the collector in mind. Shadow boxes or display cases can be purchased in a variety of sizes that will enable a number of ACEOs to be grouped together in an artistic way. I hope this gives my readers new ideas!

Judi