I swapped with a Texas Cowgirl...

This is the mini fabric collage I created for my swap partner, Nancy.  Nancy lives in Texas...near Austin...and is a member of The Paper Cowgirls.  So after reading her blog & getting to know her favorite colors & all through a bunch of emails, I decided I'd use this image of me back around 1956 or so...all dressed up as a cowgirl.  Well, almost all dressed up as a cowgirl...I never did get the cowgirl boots, so Mary Janes it was.  I always wanted to be a cowgirl...or an artist...but being a cowgirl was my secret dream.  Don't you LOVE that I was allowed to play with a rope to lasso critters?  Gotta love the 1950s in suburbia.

I got my love for cowgirls & cowboys from hours spent watching Westerns on TV with my Grandma.  She lived with us and I adored her.  Now the story goes that she had a record player in her room & that I would spend hours dancing in front of her full length mirror singing along to "The Yellow Rose of Texas".   When Phil & I moved to Dallas, he came home one of our first days there with a yellow rose for me.  I guess for 2 years I was a Yellow Rose of Texas at last.

So Nancy's collage has fabrics from the 1970s or 80s in pink & turquoise...two of her very favorite colors.  There's a row of yellow roses, of course...and lots of buttons to frame the image.  I decided to add the hanger so she could display her piece right away if she wanted to.

And this is the back of her collage.  Nancy also loves red as an accent to turquoise & pink...and I had just enough of the pink & red fabric to make a little quilted heart & add a heart charm.  There is a thin batting sandwiched inside the front & back of the collage, so it's almost like a little quilt.

Nancy has a wonderful blog called My Crafty Little Page.  You should visit her when you have some time.  She also posted the wonderful fabric collage she gifted to me here in her "California Girl" post.  It's a great piece of bright Hippie, Dia de los Muertos & CA artwork that hangs in my studio, right across from my work surface so I can see it as I create.  Thanks again, Nancy...I adore my collage!

Of course, in the spirit of "rules were made to be broken", I also made Nancy a little necklace with another of her favorite things...a bluebird.

Had to wrap it in a little matchbox giftbox, too...just because I could.

Thanks to Linda for her excellent idea to swap mini fabric collages & for organizing another great Swap for All Seasons...be sure to check out that blog to see links to other fabulous collages created for lots of happy swappers.  I can't wait for the Spring swap...it gets announced on March 20...the first day of SPRING!!!