Country French Trash

Country French Trash...now doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? Well, I had a catalogue from Pottery Barn that I had been saving for a while. It was full of a line of Pierre Deux-inspired country french prints on towels, sheets, beach umbrellas and bedspreads. I am crazy about that particular style of fabric design, so I saved the catalogue.

When I was cleaning, I discovered the catalogue that I had squirreled away a few summers ago, and decided to take the prettiest items and cut them into strips. I glued the strips to heavy paper. [The whole collage process was verrrry therapuetic.] It looked boring, and not at all country french any more, so I printed one of my hand-carved stamps in black on it. Still boring, so I painted gold in the middle of the flower leaves. Not so boring any more, but I added touches of green, white and gold squeeze on dimensional paint for some extra zip.

Even though I always think I am more a mixed-media artist than an art quilter, the ATCs looked naked without some stitiching, so I added some simple criss-cross lines and machine blanket stitched the edges. They remind me of poinsettas a little, but maybe that's just because I finished them Christmas eve after all the presents were wrapped.