July 31, 2012

Summer In Bloom

Posted in Silk Ribbon Embroidery, Twitter Quilts...Twilts tagged , , , , , , , , , , at 4:30 PM by Shelley Swanland

“Summer in Bloom” is my newest Twilt. It includes tiny little pieces that I call Twiltlets. They are a great format for experimentation with bits of this and that. These four include, just to name a few things, trims, buttons, a picture on fabric, the corner of an old hankerchief, a heart paperclip and silk ribbon embroidery. When I mounted the Twiltlets on the quilted linen print I added gathered flowers and a vintage lace that looked like a little fence. So, I added a rose bush with French Knot Roses.

For more info on the Twilts: Twitter quilts…….Twilts or see all my Twilts : Flickr Twilts Page. Click on the image of the Twilt to go directly to it’s high resolution image.

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July 21, 2012

Hope and Honey

Posted in Digital Collage, Free Vintage Art tagged , , , , at 4:24 PM by Shelley Swanland

My newest collage, “Hope and Honey” uses a vintage ledger sheet, a flower image, an image of bees and an image of bee hives.

The image that I want to share this week is the background image of the old ledger sheet. I found the ledger book at the Rose Bowl swap meet a few months ago. I love the way old writing adds texture in the background.

The images of the bees and the hives are from http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ .

July 16, 2012

A Note in the Garden

Posted in Digital Collage, Free Vintage Art tagged , , , , , , , at 7:53 PM by Shelley Swanland

I could just picture a turn of the century lady sitting in her garden with a cup of tea and her postcard from a dear friend, as I put together this collage, “A Note in the Garden”. I combined a number of vintage elements, a turn of the century postcard, an old deed, a vintage flower image, the etching of a wreath and the etching of roses in PSE6.

I enjoy the digital collage work almost as much as collecting the vintage elements. Swap meets, used book stores and antique stores are my obsession these days and I have found some wonderful things. I was up in the local mountains for a friends birthday and visited a used book store. I found a copy of Ben Hur from 1881. Each page of the 845 page book set included at least one black and white etching. It was a fabulous find. The etching of the flower ring and the rose etching are just two of the images.

This turn of the century post card is the image I want to share with you today.

I think the card dates from around 1900 but it’s hard to read so I can’t be sure. The fact that it only allows for an address on the front and no additional writing dates it from the that period as well.