February fairy ornament story

Robin, my swap partner for the Year of Enchantment ornament swap received her package so now I can show you all. February's theme was the fairy...oh the fairy!! Now let me give you my personal history on the fairy...

I grew up with a mother who was a HUGE crafter, particularly porcelain dolls. Dolls soon led to porcelain miniatures and related miniatures, miniatures soon led to enchanting miniatures...mainly miniature fairies. What I'm getting at is that this month's theme, the fairy, was one I was too familiar with. So familiar that I could have SO EASILY created a porcelain fairy ornament since I had all the supplies at hand (or at least, at my mom's house in her stash). Well, me being me, wanted a design challenge, so I searched for something different and not so easy (or at least something I could create using my OWN stash. After all, I did join the Destash-Along 2010 challenge for myself, not for my mom.) One day while blog surfing, which I occasionally do when I'm looking for an idea, I came across this tutorial for a sarubobo doll. I thought PERFECT! The idea for the flying sarubobo would be perfect to turn into a flying fairy! So, having created a flesh colored sarubobo from muslin, I altered the "look" to be that of a fairy and this is what I created:My orange fairy prototype! It took a few days to figure out the wings, I played with several different ideas, wired ribbon, plastic printed butterfly wings, different fabric. Nothing seemed as good as the white tulle. So I played with a few different shapes. I still don't think it's my favorite idea for wings, but with a deadline, I went with them anyways. She also features a silk flower skirt, ribbon trimmed waist (or in prototype fairy's case, ric-rac trim, the rest will be ribbon), yarn hair, acorn hat, and a green beaded necklace with the center beades matching her skirt. A few more colors will be coming to my Etsy shop soon, so be on the look out.Here's the yellow fairy talking to her dragonfly friends on top of the purple and green wonky log cabin quilt block that I created for Robin. There was a GREAT online tutorial for the wonky log cabin quilt block here. I haven't created a quilt block since I was a teenager, it was a lot of fun! I've been wanting to get into quilting FOREVER! I just need a better rotary cutter and board. I was using my cutting mat from college for exacto knives and matte board (you know, for building models of your design if you're an architect or interior design major)...yeah...that's what I had, so apparently that type of cutting mat is not as self healing the way a quilting one is. :) Note to self, need new cutting matte, old one has many cuts through it now. Here's a larger pic of the quilt block and other goodies I sent to Robin:I also added some Leavenworth postcards and a package of chocolate covered red vines from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory that's in Leavenworth. Mmmm-MM! This months challenge was to use glitter...hee-hee...here's where the glitter went...
That's some fancy pair of underpants Miss Yellow Fairy!!

Next up...my A Fairy Went A Marketing Swap creations...due in THREE DAYS!! There's a sneak peak of my prototype here in my Flickr pics. Have a great weekend!!