Rooster Tale

When in Maryland several years ago, I found these wonderful tea towels in a little shop that I could have spent hours in!

I think they were the beginning of my love of cobalt blue roosters.  I love the french coq au vin title.  I even love the fact that they are not quite the same blue.

Later in another state, I found this mosaic made from broken china with a cobalt blue rooster in the center.  Well, how could I resist adding this to my "collection"?

Though not cobalt blue, this little weather vane candle holder seems to fit in with the other roosters.

Of course, you have already seen the white ceramic rooster when I showed you Sheila's table runner.

This isn't such a great picture of him since the focus was the table runner.  In fact none of these photos are as good as I like as they are all straight off the camera except for this one.  I usually run photos through PhotoShop Elements to "clean them up" a bit, but time got away from me and it just didn't get done for this post.

Everyone has to have a cookie jar, right?  So why not one with a cobalt rooster on it?

That brings me to my latest little project.  While cleaning out old magazines I found some pillows that had wonderful roosters on them.  I knew that the graphics had to be available on the Internet as free downloads and I was correct! 

Hmm, I'm pretty sure I had the flash on, these look quite washed out.  Usually I shoot photos in natural light.  Sorry about that! 

Anyway, I downloaded the graphic, put it in PhotoShop to color it cobalt blue and then printed it on T-Shirt transfer paper.  After cutting the rooster and the background out close to the edges, I ironed it onto canvas fabric left over from some slipcovers I made a while back.  Then the blue and white checked fabric left over from a window treatment in the Alabama house was added.  Usually I add piping or cord to the outside of a pillow, but that would have meant having some on hand which I didn't.  Instead, after stitching the front and back of the pillow together, I stitched very close to the edge to make a sharp edge.  The back is the same blue check fabric with a zipper added for ease in cleaning the pillow when necessary. The next one I make, I'll do a tutorial so you can "see" the process.

The pillow form had been purchased with a 40% off coupon from Hobby Lobby.  So with all the left over from other projects fabric and T-shirt transfer paper I already had on hand, this was a fast and really inexpensive addition to the family room.

So now that I've shown you my little obsession  collection, what things have you almost accidentally started collecting?  The roosters have been fun and I see a LOT more pillows added to the accessories.  In fact, the old church pew needs to be re-accessorized, but that's another blog.

Until next time -- keep creating!

Lois