I love trees, I love sweaters--I love trees with sweaters!

I know that knitting to dress a tree is not what my Daytimer is telling me to do. I also know that all of my knitting friends would laugh if they heard about my plan. But ever since I heard about folks knitting for trees, I've thought, "How can I participate?" It seems like this would be a wonderful project for using up partial skeins of yarn in bright colors...May I count you in?

Lemon Cake Birds

Lemon yellow along with some buttery yellow wool roving were used to create these delicious birds on a pillow top. This photo shows my progress about half-way into a great afternoon spent needle felting. I was hopeful I'd be able to show you the wonderful yellow bird images I found on www.WhatBird.com.

But no luck! Here's my story: I loaded this bird-lover's resource as a toolbar element to my Internet Explorer this past Monday. It is now Wednesday, and my computer hasn't worked right since then. My friend Kathy, who shall remain blameless, showed me a super application for IBird on her fancy IPhone device. This WhatBird website looks like the same thing, so I was really happy to have it available to me on my computer (as my cell phone is stone age compared to Kathy's phone). I've always taught my kids, "You need a Plan B!"

Well, let's say, I am happy to show you the yellow birds I created the old fashioned way instead ;)

Hope you enjoy them!

I have one bit of bird lover trivia I'd like to share with you before I go back to my studio. I love watching the Robins in my yard looking for worms. Have you ever seen it--the head tilt thing--where the Robin cocks his head and points one beady eye toward the ground, looking for worms? I think birds look soo funny when they do this. I find it really charming. Well, I read one expert at Animal Science say that birds do not look for worms at all when they do this! In the art of How the Bird Gets the Worm, it seems as though Robins are actually listening for the worms. Yes, they would not survive, I am told, if a visual of the worm was required. Their senses are much sharper than that, and their chances of catching their food is much greater due to their acute hearing.
I think that this is interesting, and the next time I see a Robin, or a Lemon Cake Bird, tilt his or her head, I'll be sure to be quiet so that they can find their lunch...and I think I will go tilt my head next to the fridge and hear what sounds good for lunch!

Thanks for stopping by,

Georgianne

Blue Sky Tree Pillow, now showing at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Boulder, Colorado

I am excited to tell you that my Nestle and Soar Studio pillow collection is now available at the museum's gallery shop in Boulder! Located at 1750 13th Street, this popular museum invited me to show and sell my folk art. I will be conducting needle felting demonstrations at the museum as well as teaching folk art classes there this Fall! I will be regularly adding to the collection of limited-edition pillows at this gallery. I was excited to discover that next door to the museum is the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House, which is like a bejeweled and enchanted refreshment. The architecture and embellishment of this building is art. I recommend it for an after-museum meal!

http://boulderteahouse.com/

Here is a peak of what the tea house looks like on the inside!

You can learn more about the museum at http://bmoca.org

Thanks for visiting and sharing in my excitement!

Peace,

Georgianne

What I love...

Amish art and lifestyle were introduced to me in 1972. I travelled with my mom, Bonnie Leman, to a quilt show in Pennsylvania Dutch Country. She was there to judge a quilt show as Founder and Editor of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine. I was there to get into trouble.




There was lots of down time for me at this event. I was able to wander around and visit with the local artisans who were preparing to sell their wares. I remember vividly the ladies cooking sour kraut. They were Amish and wore the traditional Amish clothing. They watched me carefully as I spied on them and smelled the large vats of cooking kraut. I was hoping for a free taste, so I tried to be very friendly and stay out of the way. Finally, after no free taste was offered, I worked up my nerve to ask when I could come back with some money to eat what was smelling sooo good. I was gently told I should come back in a few months, when the kraut they were canning would be available. Darn!

I have the wonderful memory of crawling underneath a quilting frame in the large white barn at that Quilt Show in Pennsylvania. There must have been eight women sitting around this large quilt frame, engaged in friendly conversation as they hand stitched a large quilt. I can see hands of all ages on the underside of that quilt, with thimbles on their fingertips, to gently push the needle back up, again and again, as they took tiny quilting stitches. A few other kids were under that quilt, giggling and watching, wondering how it all worked. I love these memories...

The wonderful folks at http://peapodcrafts.etsy.com were kind enough to include my Amish inspired folk art pillow in their etsy treasury "Simple Living". I've placed a link to that treasury below so that you can take a peek. The images in today's blog are images from that treasury. Thank you peapodcrafts for nudging me down memory lane!

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/4c201c84a2ee8eef96a87ec7/simple-living

Studio Wednesday - What's on my worktable?

Welcome to Studio Wednesday. I'm excited to get your opinions on my new felting project, which started out to be a triptych. The idea was to show a long tree branch with three distinct scenes taking place and then frame them into a 3-part frame: love birds kissing, baby birds being fed, and a bird soaring into the air, away from the branch.

I made the mistake of not making the frame for this project first and then designing the work to fit the frame! Rookie mistake! Now I have the emotions and colors of each scene in place, but it really doesn't fit any frames I can find.

So, what do you think I should do? I don't really have enough fabric to stretch this piece on top of a foam core. I don't want to cut it into thirds, either. I'm stumped. It is exciting to be designing needle-felted folk art for the wall. I've been doing pillows for so long, this is a new challenge. I can feel my brain cells perking up!

Please give me your ideas...I'm looking forward to hearing from you!
Thanks for visiting,
Georgianne

P.S. When I look at this design, the thought that keeps coming to mind is, "Inbetween Nestle and Soar is Nourishment." Deep thoughts by Jack Handy ;)

Trees on Tuesday

Trees are beautiful and I spend much of my professional time as a folk artist, as well as some of my free time, thinking about trees. As of today, I plan to spend time with each of you on Tuesdays sharing lovely images and ideas about trees; today kicks off the Nestle and Soar Studio "Trees on Tuesday"!

If you haven't already noticed, the tree photo I found for today looks like a woman dancing--in fact, it looks like me when I dance! I'm being serious. When I dance, I dance alone and I dance with drama. I leap and jump and fly through the air without much ease at all, just like this tree, which I'll bet is completely rooted in the ground. My husband does not care to dance, so it is a solo flight of fancy for me, which is alright (most of the time), as I used to fantasize about being a ballerina. When one dreams of dancing, they can close their eyes and escape into the movement of the dream. That is what this tree makes me think about.

What do you see and think about when you look at this tree?

Happy Trees on Tuesday!
Georgianne