Altrusa Tree Finished for 2015, lots of pictures!

We survived another tree!  We had a great deal of fun and I am personally amazed at all the wonderful gifts and decorations.  How our group works is that we decide on a theme when we go out to eat after we put up the current tree.  So during our meeting on Sunday we decided next year's theme will be mice!  We may try for a silhouette tree in 2017.

So after we decide on next years theme we all do our thing to bring the next tree to life.  Some of us make gifts and ornaments.  Some of us are amazing shoppers and find the most extraordinary things.  One lady even donates a storage locker!  So we are all thinking and scheming and making things all year round for this event.  Then on a Sunday morning a years worth of work is taken from the storage locker and compressed into the space for our tree.  Linda finds a way to turn our tree into organized chaos.  So now that you know of all the work and joy we put into this event I hope you will be inspired to donate your own tree.

Yesterday I took pictures of the Country Chicken Tree. Some pictures didn't come out and I hope I didn't miss anything. Once the event is opened I will try to get more pictures. So I am going to put up a lot of pictures in this post but to see all of them just click on this link http://tinyurl.com/Countrychickentree

 

Under the tree chicks, cook books and a gnome hiding in a mug!  I hope they notice him before pouring the hot chocolate!  I love the ceramic chicken dish.

Another ceramic chicken! The tree skirt is a no-sew throw with a knotted fringe.

 

 Under the tree sits a rooster which is a lamp.  The tree has a cute chicken ornament a shopping bag and lots of ribbons!  The popcorn garland isn't real, hopefully no one will try to eat it.

  

I really love the simple chicken ornaments.  Lots of holly hangs over it.

 

Lots of presents!  So many they couldn't all fit under the tree!  Holding all the goodies is a green wheelbarrow.  Inside there are baking items including a gingerbread pan, a crust guard, tray, dish cloths and a container full of plastic lemons.  Next to the lemons is another ceramic chicken!  Hiding to the right is an old coke tin.

 The chicken is a braided straw basket, to the left is the coke tin.

 A vegetable and fruit picture surrounded by silk poinsettias

 Under the back side of the tree is a pie plate with cover which looks like a lemon meringue pie.  No chickens but very useful addition for the kitchen.

 

A close-up of chicken basket and Christmas cake pan. 

 Another angle of plate with chicks, cookbooks, mugs and adorable gnome.

 Close-up of gnome inside mug.  He had better escape before the hot chocolate is done!

 A lovely cookie tin surrounded with silk vegetables.

The rooster plate beautiful.  I don't know if it is actually old or a reproduction but it will make a great decorative addition to anyone's kitchen.

Old Mixmaster!

 Scherenschnitte rooster cutting surrounded by cute chicks.  I'm starting to worry about the gnome, hope he escapes the mug soon.

Large gnome sits above a beautiful framed embroidery.  In back of the gnome is the rooster lamp, the lamp shade is a wire frame with strips of red gingham fabric.  I think the shade is absolutely brilliant.

 Another angle of the lamp and tree.

Close-up of coke tin and a fun bacon sign.

Clive and family, there are more of chicks hiding behind their mom.  Clive is the chick with the comb.

 Over all image of 2015 Altrusa tree and gifts.

 Another view of tree.

Red Gingham Country Chicken tree view.  

 

View of simple pine tree.

 Another view of an old embroidery of a country cabin on satin and framed

Giant gnome!

Another giant gnome, this one is standing in the tree!

 

Revisit to the mugged gnome, how does he stay in the cup!

Angled view of the windmill.  Hanging inside is a aluminum water bucket.  The bucket has been turned upside down and made into a lamp!  What a wonderful idea!

Close-up of rooster lamp.

 

 Ornaments and ribbons on the Christmas tree.  Near the top left is a decorated seed packet.

Bottom part of windmill with beautifully embroidered tea towels.

 

Tea towel hand embroidered with chicken doing housework!  It is really cute!

Cross stitched cherry dish towel.

 Serenading rooster tea towel.

A little out of focus but pretty hand embroidered tea towel.

Wednesday is dedicated to reading to the chicks on his embroidered tea towel.

Picnic style basket ornaments are a great idea!  These were filled with eggs and silk vegetables.

Over all view of tree ornaments.

Another gnome, at least he is safe hanging from the tree!  He had better not eat the popcorn garland!

This is a unusual cookie cutter for ginger bread.  Looks like a cyberman!  Behind him is one the the seed packet ornaments.

Giant gnome placing hat on the tree top!

Close-up of chicken in a picnic basket!

Really cute crocheted chicken pot holder.

Beautiful felt chicken tree ornament.

Ornaments at the tree top.

 Merry Christmas ribbon.

 

Tree full of Christmas ornaments.

A happy little gnome, perhaps he is looking forward to eating all that popcorn!

Nice view of tree top.

So here is our Country Chicken Tree for Altrusa 2015.  I hope that everyone will get involved next year!  If you see that I missed some please let me know because I don't want anyone to be left out.  More images can be seen here http://tinyurl.com/Countrychickentree

I hope that you all enjoy the holiday season!

Altrusa Tree 2015

I was going to give this years Altrusa tree a miss but decided to make a few things last minute.  For the first project I cut out a rooster and framed it using a recycled frame found at a garage sale.  I fell in love with this cutting, even though it was a challenge to cut.  The fruit and vegetable background was designed by Debbie Mumm and can be found in her "Market Fresh" clip art package.  The bold background is really striking with the black cutout.  The rooster cutting was originally pale blue and spray painted black.

 

Scherenschnitte Rooster in found frame. 

Looking at chicken art on pinterest,  I found an image of chicks with bendable wire legs.  So of course I had to make some chicks and put them in a wicker basket with a hen.  Both the chicks and mom are still in progress.  The wire legs had to be heavy to hold up a chick and therefore hard to bend into feet.  I've got the chicks to the point where the legs are inserted.  I just need to work on a design for the chick's feet.

Here is a picture of Clive the happy chick.

Clive the felt chick.  Watch out!  He has his racing stripes on!

 

Clive and his silly feet.

The third and final project for the tree is a country style hat.  Unfortunately I couldn't find any red gingham ribbon so I used gingham fabric sewn into tubes, ironed them flat and created a hat band and bow.  To decorate the hat I used cotton fabric and the large pointed petal tool by Clover.  The sunflower is made with a large brown yoyo.  The petals are made of yellow ribbon folded on both sides to the center to form a triangle and then gathered at the bottom.  I think the sunflower came out cute.  Maybe they will use the hat as a tree top!

 

 

 

Country hat with fabric flowers.

Close up of almost finished hat.

TM Patch Workshop

This week I gave a workshop on how to make TM ( Teesha Moore) patches and we had a lot of fun!  We spent 1 1/2 hours trying to be imperfect, which is harder than it sounds.  It's much more fun to concentrate on creativity than if something is sewn straight.   Everyone did a great job on their patches and all were very creative!  We had fun and they even want me to come back for a different workshop.  Several ladies were interested in ribbon work and ribbon embroidery.  Though both uses of ribbons would make a fun workshop, unfortunately ribbon is expensive and not easy to obtain here.  So I am trying to come up with a project that might make a reasonably priced workshop.  Thank you to all the ladies who participated, encouraged and shared with all of us!  I had a great time!

To learn more about TM patches search on www.pinterest.com
using the search string,  Teesha Moore Patches.

Here is a TM patch  I used as a sample.  The vase was just hand cut without a pattern and the flower is made using one of the Clover flower tools.  I think it came out cute and definitely not perfect!

Altrusa 2016

Next years Altrusa tree is being planned already, it may seem a bit early but we will take some time to make it.  Linda wants a silhouette tree!  Which will be fun for me since I enjoy paper cutting so much.  I suggested that we do a Jane Austen tree as a secondary theme.  So after a bit of research, cutting and tape, I've come up with some ornaments.

 

This first ornament is made from an image I found on Pinterest.  The image is a woman with words from Jane Austen's novel inside the silhouette.  After cutting the image out I curled the edges to make it more dimentional and then using dimentional tape added it to the ovals.  Then a fine ribbon was added to the back to hang it. 

 

The same image but with a bit of color added. 

I love this image and I think it makes a wonderful cameo type ornament.

 

The bell is also from Pinterest and dimentional tape was used to make layers.  The bottom layer of the bell is a beautiful silver paper with swirls.  Unfortunately the silver doesn't show up in the photos.

 

Here is the bell ornament in the opposite colors.

 

This candle ornament was made like the bell using layers and dimentional tape. 

 

Candle ornament at an angle to show dimensions.  

 

This couple is interesting but I haven't figured out how to use them.   They may end up being decoupaged onto a glass ornament.

 

For fun I also cut out this house in two sizes.  The small one is cut out of paper the bigger house used card stock.  These would be great as ornaments but are a challenge to cut out.   So I think I will design my own houses and make them into a small village.

Close up of the larger house.

Well it is a start anyway.  The 2015 tree is going to have a country theme and roosters.  So far I have collected stuff for a hat and made a rooster paper cutting.  I have yet to think of some ornaments for the tree.  Just maybe a large basket with felted chicks may show up!