Whooooo Houses

Recently I wanted to make some kind of small project that could be priced to sell for the fiber show that opened this month here in Stevensville at River's Mist Gallery. I came across three small clay owls that I had purchased some time ago and decided to make them some homes. Following is what I came up with.

Because I only had three of the clay owls, in order to make more houses I had to substitute fabric owls and some smaller glass owls that I found. I took pictures of the entire process so I could attempt to write up a magazine article about making them and submit it somewhere.

This is one of the original clay owls which is less than an inch tall:

Here are materials I gathered for making the trees:

Here I have used a glue stick to adhere various fabrics to a piece of batting. Then I stitch them on, add a backing, cut the hole, trim the hole with yarn, add the little animal, and shape the flat piece into a tree trunk.

This is still in progress but you can see it shaping up into a 3-dimensional tree trunk. I don't have it sewn to the base (Timtex) yet or embellished.

The one on the left has a pinecone added as embellishment for the base:

I have sold 4 of the brown trees so far (one with a glass owl). I also made some more colorful trees that have fabric owls in the hole and one that has a bear's face looking out of the hole and some bees around it---and honey dripping down from the top of the trunk.

There is a little fabric bunny on the back of this one for an added touch of whimsy:

I am working on some more and looking for a source for the little clay owls. Someone gave me a bead website that might have them so I'll check there. The clay owls are the ones that sold first and the owls are very well done and hang nicely in the hole. They have a hole right through their head so they swing on a little piece of rattail cord.

This is a very fun small project that uses a little bit of free motion quilting, couching, and hand stitching. They take a bit of time with all the steps involved, but they are so cute I think it is worth it. I'm going to make some more even if I don't find the clay owls.

Back to work...!