Bird/Tassel/Valance! I can do this!!!!!!!

Ever since I posted the other day about combining little birds with tassels on a valance I have been mulling over options trying to come up with a way I can do this at my current ability level.  And I think I have it nailed...

First I had to find little wooden birds that I could paint and I found them on Etsy,  Not only did I find them, I ordered them last night and received an email that they had been shipped this morning....

 

I did see lots of birds already painted in other materials ....mostly when I searched for bird ornaments.  But I didn't want just any old birds, I wanted birds from my garden.  Several years ago I put together this picture collection of the colorful birds that visit us. 

Now I just have to whittle it down to my eight most favorite...  Probably goldfinch, chickadee, red winged blackbird, grosbeak, rufus-sided towhee, hummer, flicker and bluebird....this will be hard. Maybe  I should have ordered a bigger batch of birds.

 

Then I started thinking about the valance sections.  I know I could still gather enough fancy fabrics to crazy quilt the sections but I hesitate to set myself up for frustration and ultimate failure.

After   I work at the new house I come home to the farm  sometimes I just go through my closet again and try to get rid of more stuff. I have been through it several times already but each time through I get rid of more.  Sometimes I put something in the "donate" bag and take it out and sometimes more than once.  

So last night when I was going through my closet once again I came upon this jacket that has gone into the donate bag twice before and I've taken it out.   I was going to put it in there again when I  really looked at it with a new vision. It's all pieced velvet and brocade.  It has been my holiday jacket for years and years and I needed to let it go as it was showing wear and was too big anymore.  I realized it would make a beautiful valance when cut up and there's just about enough material.  It was a sign for sure. I will cut it up tonight before I can change my mind. I even found a piece of burgundy silk to line the sections.

 

 

 

Then I thought why not make my own tassels with all this thread I have acquired over the years. They would not take that long to do and I could mix the colors and blend them and by then my mind was just was just racing with possibilities and I know I can do all this..

So the bird/ tassel/valance project is a go.  What's more I know just where I'm going to put it.