The Raven's Crafty Nest

Welcome to August's REVEAL DAY Blog hop!!! My sincerest apologies for posting late, I was thinking that the reveal wasn't until August 31st for some reason. Who knows the why??? 😁😂😂 Better late than never, eh?? On with the show... This month's Art Elements theme challenge was " SWIRL " hosted by Marsha (Owner of Marsha Neal Studio). My initial inspirations for this SWIRL theme were definitely things like nautilus, snail shells, fiddle ferns and lizards (specifically chameleons)...spirals found in nature.   August was going to be a challenge for me regardless of the theme selected. This is when my orders start ramping up for Halloween and the Holidays, as well as preparing for vendor shows and charitable donations occurring in October and November. To make it EXTRA tricky, this year I was out of town visiting family for half the month so I almost convinced myself I should just not participate at all moving forward. Less stressful. Uh huh. BUT... I am

Magical Reveal time has come again!!! :) July's art theme was  "Seed Pods"  hosted by Jennifer Cameron over at  Art Elements.  This theme was inspiring because I love the shapes and textures created by the variety of seed pods found in nature. I think many of us are captivated by the promise that seeds and seed pods hold. The potential of something SO small having the ability to propagate new life and often grow into something immense and magnificent is just awesome! I knew I wanted to try wet felting wool ever since Cathy shared her  tutorial  for the making of her gorgeous work in our May Tidal Pool challenge. I even ordered myself a  Palm Washboard  felting tool, after watching her tutorial, so that I would be ready to wet felt as soon as I found the time and inspiration. This seed pod theme seemed like it would lend itself really well to a felted landscape with some embroidered detailing and that would also allow me to learn some new hand embroidery stitches. B

It is REVEAL TIME again and boy did that month go by FAST!! 😲 This month’s themed art challenge over at Art Elements was "Sunflowers " h osted by Susan Kennedy. I always associate sunflowers with gorgeous photos and paintings of the Tuscan countryside for some reason, so my design for this theme was inspired by images of Tuscan sunflower fields against a blue sky. These types of photos contributed to the colors, composition and the feel of my new piece this month. Left- Sienna, Italy         Right- Tuscany, Italy **DISCLAIMER: Since sewing and quilting are NOT my area of expertise, I apologize in advance to those who quilt and sew, for any improper use of terminology and/or technique descriptions in this blog 😂** As soon as I saw the theme I knew I wanted to use a very new to me hand sewn quilting technique called English Paper Piecing . My by-love-rather-than-by-blood third mom, Annette, taught me about this method just last year! It’s use of geometric sha