Small, Green, and Gorgeous Challenge

"Small, Green, and Froggeous"

5" X 7"

This was created for a challenge to Madison Contemporary Fiber Artists for a piece of environmentally concerned art.  It will be on display with others from this challenge at the Madison Senior Center on Mifflin Street, Madison, Wisconsin, during the month of September.

I painted used dryer sheets, then cut them up and fused them to a piece of batting which was stuck to a scrap of stabilizer.  This was inspired by Terri Stegmiller's "mosaic collage" technique.  I printed the frog image onto a used tea bag, cut it out and stitched it to the collage background.  Then I stitched some more and added the little stones that were left over from another project.

In the interest of reusing -- I have to compliment my garden.  I planted these tiny yellow light-bulb shaped tomatoes a while ago and every year since, they volunteer.  By August, we have to have tomato salad twice a day to keep up with the production.  What a problem to have.

The flowers reseed themselves too.  Yes, this is the garden in front of my house -- the one where most people grow, um, ornamental items.  I grow tomatoes, peppers, beans, basil, garlic chives, oregano, thyme, parsley, cilantro, and flowers.  I also grow rosemary, lemon grass, chiles, tomatoes, and beans in pots.

On a good year, I grow zucchini  -- for some reason, it's not growing this year.  But we did have some kind of pumpkin volunteer -- I must have thrown some seeds there when I did the jack o'lanterns last year.  Trouble is, the bunnies keep biting off the flowers.   This is the best place on my property to grow things, so I use it.  And I think it's all kind of pretty.  And even the neighbors would agree -- it's better than the ugly overgrown bushes that used to be here.