5 Orange Potatoes » birds

sewing inspired by art

5 Orange Potatoes — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 22:10:49 +0000

Araina painted this cute little singing bird with her watercolor paints.

Then she made him come to life by using an old yellow sweater, felt and a needle.

Pretty good stitches I must say, especially with being only 7 years old.

I had to make one too, but mine is a baby rooster.

“That’s all,”
Lisa

valentine owl tutorial

5 Orange Potatoes — Sat, 29 Jan 2011 16:54:27 +0000

Owl lovers like myself know the need for a valentine owl! Araina (7yo) made the green owl below, I made the pink one (I like hers better).

you need:

gold felt
black felt
2 different colors of brown felt (or contrasting colors of choice)
pink felted sweater (or color of choice)
hot pink felted sweater (or color of choice)
gold, pink, black, and brown cotton emb. floss (to match choice colors)
scissors
sewing needle
wool or polyfill stuffing (or fabric scraps, paper, tissues)
sewing machine (optional)

*To felt sweaters, use 100% wool sweaters, place in a HOT washer, add 2 tablespoons soap, and wash. Then dry in a hot dryer.

to make:

1. Cut out pieces and parts from felt and/or thrifted sweaters. I used thrifted sweaters for the light pink body, heart, and oval shaped bottom (not pictured); and felt for the eyes, wings, and beak.

2. With right side pieces of owl body facing each other, stitch around the shape of the owl with a machine or hand sew; leave the bottom open. Turn right side out.
3. Stitch the eyes to the heart face mask. For all stitching details visit this post.

4. Stitch the face mask to the body.

5. Stitch on the beak.

6. Stitch the wings together making sure to stitch all 4 (or 3).

6. Stitch both sets of wings to the owl body.

7. Stitch optional heart onto the owl.

8. Sew bottom onto owl, leaving a space to stuff.
9. Stuff and stitch closed.

10. Place little valentine owl in a happy place.

Happy sewing!

“That’s all,”
Lisa

pinecone owls

5 Orange Potatoes — Sat, 01 Jan 2011 16:37:24 +0000

I love challenging the little ladies with Nature’s bounty. I brought our collection of pinecones, acorn caps, osage orange roots, leaves, and thistle down to the craft table and told them to make something using only those materials (glue was allowed). Pinecone owls are what came from the challenge.

Now they line the windowsill in the craft room.

“That’s all.”

nest making

5 Orange Potatoes — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 01:19:43 +0000

We have a small collection of nests that have fallen from trees in our yard. We love to observe and learn what the birds used to build their nests.

We found this one on the floor of our apple orchard buried in the sycamore leaves-

Our crazy dog tore up her toy and left the stuffing behind……a happy little bird picked up the remains! Here’s a better view of the nest. Fluff, pine needles, and grass-

grass and thin plastic-

mud and grass-

This is from the sparrow’s nest that fell from the eve of our house, fluff, husky hair, grass, and seeds-

Today we set up a nesting station for our bird friends. We used our wicker plant hangers, filled them full of nesting material, and hung them from our tree. One basket has pine needles, dog fur and moss; one has grasses and leaves; and one has sewing scraps. We love sitting quietly and observing the birds that visit! So far they seem very intrigued by the sewing scrap basket; the most curious chickadee spent a lot of time on the edge of this basket today!

To make your own nesting station provide a variety of goodies from this list-

Dead twigs
Dead leaves
Dry grass
Yarn or string—cut into 4- to 8-inch pieces
Human or animal hair (especially horse hair)
Fur (dog, rabbit, or cat fur)
Sheep’s wool
Feathers
Plant fluff or down (e.g. cattail fluff, cottonwood down, milkweed fluff)
Poly-fill, cotton batting, or other stuffing material
Moss
Spanish Moss
Bark strips
Pine needles
Thin strips of cloth, about 1 inch wide by 6 inches long
Shredded paper
Snake skin
Onion bag pieces
Mud- keep a muddy spot in your garden

I wanted to make something much more creative and pretty to hang in the trees, but time escaped me this week. However, Jen, from Paint Cut Paste, made the prettiest nest making holders using wire, a tennis ball, and wooden beads. Be sure to check out the rest of her amazing site for more great ideas to do with the kids!

photographing our day

5 Orange Potatoes — Sat, 13 Mar 2010 00:02:59 +0000

We spent the afternoon outside today and the camera came along. I caught my cutie pie little sis sitting in an apple tree, I had to get a shot of her! She has such a great style and an amazing wardrobe full of vintage clothing. To see more of her amazing wardrobe visit her Flickr site- half past a freckle. She loves posting on Flickr, I know there’s a blogger in her just trying to get out, would love to get her to blog about vintage clothing!

We had quite a surprise, when out of the same tree Robin was sitting in, came an American Woodcock! I have never seen one of these long-billed birds before around here before and I think my geeky excitement scared him a bit. At least Robin was able to get some great shots of him. My photos were really BAD! Thanks Robin!

Here’s another photo from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology, fantastic site to do your bird research by the way! They have recorded bird calls too.

After the excitement of our new found bird friend, I was running around photographing anything green. Love the chartreuse color of the moss,

and the hyacinths springing from the ground.

And of course I had to photograph my two little beauties!

Little purple wack-a-do!

The photos weren’t over there, I had to photograph some bags for my mom, she is hoping to open an Etsy shop soon…..ahem, I mean I will have to open the shop for her. She is just getting her very first computer tomorrow; Fauna and Araina are prepared to give her lessons. Oh, this is going to be a long weekend!

And the final shot is of my workspace, new blushing Have a Heart Monsters!

Enjoy your weekend!