My Baby Takes Flight

This great-horned owl, who has adapted to a wide range of habitats across North and South America, is winging off to tropical Sao Paulo, Brazil soon, as part of "A Little Fabric, A Little Chocolate" swap. He looks very fierce on the outside, but he's a real softie.

I admire how collage artists reuse whole images in a new context to create a unique piece of art. I approached making this guy as a three-dimensional collage. He's lovingly hand sewn and put together from parts of three different felted wool sweaters. As you can probably see, the main body is the cuff and lower part of a sweater sleeve. The "eyes" are cut from a larger knit pattern, and the "feathers" on his head and wings came together nicely from another sweater's design.

I find that felted wool is an extreme pleasure to hand-sew. The stitches just come through the wool very smoothly, and this stitch in particular is very rhythmic and soothing. It was kind of a gamble to use the contrasting blue thread, but I like the way it picks up the color of his eyes.
I also included a hand-painted Altoids tin, which is lined with a scrap from a felted wool sweater and contains a few coins and stamps for my swap partner's collections.

The fabrics are vintage '70s prints (red butterflies, Crayon-bright stripes, and red-white-and-blue dots and stripes) and are from a flea market in Pennsylvania's Amish country. The little paper mushroom ornaments decorating the fabric bows are from small stump, which inspired finder and photographer extraordinaire Smooth Pebble introduced me to. Artist/crafter Jill Pilotte's small stump shop is a real treasure, with a great eco-friendly vibe. If I hadn't purchased a few too many treasures lately, I'd be clearing her shop out of the reclaimed wood slices to use as pedestals, coasters, whatever!

This was truly a fun swap to put together, and I thank doodlebug finery--who sews the cutest sock animals and other sweet kid items--for organizing it!