W is for Wacky & Wonderful Woodpeckers

While in AZ for the winters between 2012 and 2017, I made

a lot of mosaic woodpeckers by cutting glass and gluing it to

some powder coated steel woodpecker forms I purchased from

a metalwork shop in Apache Junction AZ

They came in 2 sizes, the  large ones were about  19" "tall".

This one lived with us  while we were home in Colfax the rest

of the year.  

Everybody who saw one wanted one, so that is why I made a

lot of them the following 6 winters.  

The small ones are only about 12 1/2" from their topknot to the

tip of their tail.

Pretty colorful don't you think?

I even made a lot that had different color combinations on each

side.  And this one is attached to the retaining wall where we live

now and looks like

this when you go down the sidewalk to the back yard... when

you turn around and head out front, you see this color

combination... depending on the time of day you might

wonder if you've had too many martinis!!!

I've also made large ants and small ones using a similar process.

These small ones are only about 5" long and 6 of these form a small 

colony along our front sidewalk.  And when the gardener blows

the leaves they get a good ride and sometimes end up on their sides.

They were quick and easy to make as I simply cut out some shapes of

colorful scrap glass, glued them on the powder coated steel form

 and added a little grout around the edges.   OK, back to woodpeckers...

This was one of my small ones that I had placed in a branch at

our winter home in AZ in about 2016.  I took this photo facing

west during one of Arizona's beautiful sunsets and this became

the inspiration for my latest appliquéd, quilted banner.

I pieced some fabric shapes together for the background

and then appliquéd black fabric on top to create a narrower

version... about 12 3/4"" wide x 30 1/2" long.

In this photo I'm checking out my placement and whether I

wanted to use some wild fabric I had on hand for the backing

and border of the piece.

Pretty wild don't you think????

But great when you only see a 1/2" border around the

edges of the piece.

 I'm already thinking about what the next project will be...