Happy Birthday Sis!

It's Mary's birthday today...yes, Valentine's Day!  She's grown tired of receiving Valentine theme items for her birthday.....obviously I went in another direction!  (The photo is mom and dad holding Mary - the first born)

The canvas was dyed on one of my weekend trips with another sister to Arkansas.  I like dying yards and yards of fabric in different color palettes for artwork later in the year.  It's so messy and it's nice to do these types of projects outdoors.  We stay on Bull Shoals lake that has a shaded yard which is perfect so I can hang my material between trees for drying.  We're so far out in the country, one would have to hunt toward town.....so no one cares about my messy artwork.

When I need a break, Annie and I venture into Mountain Home to a delightful quilt shop and that's where I purchased the trim at the bottom along with the batiks that matched my canvas very nicely!

The white lace trim was salvaged from an antique tablecloth. I copied the black and white photo onto photo fabric that I purchased from Joann's Fabric store.

It was a bit frustrating to me that I couldn't locate all my great calligraphy tools and pens for this project.  It was poor planning on my part so I just had to free hand my lettering.  I used Jacquard's No Flow on the canvas before lettering "Family" as that was done with gouache. 

My white lettering pens would have worked perfectly if they weren't so darn dried out....so I had to make several passes and that's NOT a good thing!  My sincere apologies to Reggie Ezell, Lisa Engelbrecht and the dozen other nationally known instructors.

  I also had to go with a more solid background for the lettering to even be seen.  The small strip is adhered using French knots.

I had a new shiny locket that I applied gesso to and then rubbed some off after it was dry to take away the "new" look.  Inside the locket is a birthday wish from me to her.  I sewed antique buttons on with purple thread....an awesome spool that I also purchased at the quilt shop.

I asked my husband to find a twig for me and after a few second in the microwave, I attached it in the middle so that the wall hanging would not droop.  Eyelets are used on the top two corners where I threaded the silk ribbon and tied both the branch and canvas together.