What have I been doing lately?

Wow, the holiday rush is already over! Here are some photos of what's been keeping me from blogging lately. At least I had the presence of mind to photograph a few things along the way...

Here are most of the lavender sachets I managed to get done as gifts or additions to gifts. I started with a piece of lavender fabric and used bonash fusible powder to adhere on scraps of yellow, green and purple fabrics as well as Angelina fibers. I covered parts of it with tulle or netting and fused everything together, then free-motion stitched over the top to hold it down better. Then I sliced the piece up into about 12 rough squares (about 4" square) with a pinking rotary cutter. I embellished each square individually with flowers, lace, and additional stitching, then sewed a backing on like a pillow and stuffed in the dried lavender I collected in August. I just finished the last two last night...who

will I give those to? I think I owe one to my youngest daughter...

Next, here is a sample of some

of the baking I've been doing. As teens, my sisters and I used to start baking after Thanksgiving and freeeze each batch as we baked them. By Christmas, we had four or five varieties of cookies to eat and give away. This year I also managed to get in four or five batches, only two of them being particularly labor intensive (the thumbprints and the gingerbread). The thumbprints (the recipe calls these "Jewel Brooch" cookies) are my family's absolute favorites, as they are mostly butter and melt in your mouth. The recipe (which I usually triple) is as follows: Mix 1 cup plus 2 T flour with 1/3 c sugar. Add 1/2 cup (1 stick) softened butter and mix as for piecrust until coarse crumbs are formed. Add 1 egg yolk and 1/2 t. vanilla extract and mix with fingers or pastry blender until dough holds together. Form into a ball and refrigerate 20 min. or until stiff enough to handle. Using a measuring teaspoon, put pieces of dough 1" apart on cookie sheet, the shape into balls with floured palms. Make an indentation in the center with the handle of a wooden spoon (or the little finger). Press garnish into the center and bake at 350 for 15-20 min or until golden brown. Garnishes include raspberry jam, semisweet baking chips, an almond half, candied cherries or other fruit etc. (The raspberry jam is our favorite by far, but chocolate chips and nuts are also delicious!) I usually use the egg whites leftover from this recipe for a coconut macaroon recipe (also a family favorite!).

Here is a photo of one of the kittens we got in late October. We are earnestly trying to keep them indoors and they are full of energy so of course they climb. Here is Tigger in the small artificial tree we keep downstairs in the family room.

Maybe I'll use this for Christmas cards next year! Tigger and Honey are loads of fun and extremely soft and cuddly. I managed to get a decent shot of them snuggling together and printed it on an iron-on sheet to make sweatshirts for my daughters.

This was sort of like three blogs in one, to make up for my lack of posting this past month.

I hope to get back into some creative work soon. Meanwhile, Happy New Year everyone!

Here come the holidays...

Even though I haven't blogged in a while, I have been anticipating the busy season ahead. I completed these little quilts last week, photographed them, and ordered prints for our Christmas cards! It took a while to research an on-line printing service that was affordable and easy to use and I chanced upon Vistaprint.com when an ad came in our local "Money Mailer." I just hope the quality is as good as the prices and website...those of you who receive Christmas cards from us will see the proof in the pudding, I guess! There are little words in some of the snowflakes in the quilt on the right, if you click on the image to enlarge it, you should be able to see them. It's kind of interesting that the Nativity scene shows the side of me that plans everything out, draws everything, measures, and proceeds in a rather left-brained way, for an artist, but the trees show more of my right-brain tendencies: more spontaneous, intuitive, and experimental. When it was almost completed, I realized I wanted to add in words and wished I had planned it out better from the onset, but I think it all worked out alright in the end. Most, if not all, of the materials for these pieces were leftover from previous projects. It's nice to finally have enough of a stash to be able to throw some things together without having to run to the store! Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!
Don't eat too much...!

A walk in the woods...

Here is another piece I finished recently. I am only showing a portion of the whole because this may end up as a Christmas gift for a relative! I call it "Watch Your Step." It was inspired by walks in the woods near our shared vacation home in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. I actually started it about two years ago and got bogged down in some of the hand stitching. I recently came across it again and decided to change the original plan (thus eliminating some of that pesky hand embroidery) in order to get it finished more quickly. It still incorporates all the forest elements in the original plan, and despite the "cheater" ferns, I think it evokes the lush dampness and shade of the forest floor. It is currently displayed in our hall bath (will I be willing to give it up come Christmas...?)

Cartwheel!

I finally finished another piece! This is "The Cartwheel," with a corresponding poem. I think I will send it to some children's magazines and see if I get any bites. Does it look like it belongs in a children's book or magazine? I hope so. Any suggestions for improvement? Here is a snippet of the poem (don't want to give too much away!)

"I threw my hands down in the grass

and kicked my legs up high.

I whirled around, upside down,

as clouds went whooshing by."

Autumn in the Hudson Valley

I am still finishing up two works in progress, but meanwhile, here are some other ways I spend my time. We are lucky enough to live in NY's Hudson Valley region and here are some photos of fun fall activities. Saturday was our annual apple-picking day. This year our nephews joined us in the orchard. Sunday, our family tried canoeing and kayaking in the Hudson - a first for us. (We kayak often, but never before in the Hudson). We were supposed to explore some marshlands, but because it is hunting season, headed out into the river. The weather and colors were just prime!

Other creations...

In addition to making art quilts, I occasionally foray into the field of stuffed animals and hand puppets, especially when it comes to my current job in the children's department of my local public library. Here are some samples of things I've created in the past two years. The taller light blue bird you may recognize from Mo Willems' "Pigeon" books. His "Don't let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" won the Caldecott Medal a few years ago and I decided he (the pigeon) might make a nice addition to the Toddler programs I do at the library. The green furry guy is fondly known as "Dewey" and was quite the popular character around the library this summer. Every week he was hidden in a different spot in the library and when a child whispered his location to a Youth Services librarian, they received a special sticker with Dewey's picture on it. (If I could manufacture these quickly and sell them...!) The other hand puppets include a blackbird and a turkey, both used in my "Mother Goose" library programs for children ages 13 mos to 23 mos. The puppets really seem to add a lot to the little rhymes and fingerplays I use in the programs and the kids get really excited to be able to see and touch these furry little critters!

Lavender Sachet

Wow, two weeks since my last post! Things have been so busy with back-to-school etc. I always think that I'll have more time once the kids get back in school but somehow all my personal time gets taken up with grocery shopping, house cleaning, and errands! But I have managed to finish one project I began last spring and am currently hard at work finishing another one. The second is an illustration for a poem by Robert Louis Stevenson titled "The Swing." My grandmother used to sing this poem (to a pretty tune that I don't know the origin of) whenever my sisters and I played on our swings, and I did the same when my own girls were swinging. My oldest daughter reminded me of it recently and how much she liked that song, as did we as girls. I have never seen it published in song form anywhere, and decided a nice fabric illustration may be in order. Most of the background work is done but I am still working on some details, as well as the child on the swing! I hope I will be finishing and photographing it soon. In the meanwhile, here is a lavender pillow I finished last week (another 5"x5" journal-type quilt, only stuffed with lavender). The top is layered with burlap (stained lavender with watered-down acrylic paint) and two sheer fabrics and hand stitched with floss to make the flowers, leaves, and stems. The back is a sheer lavender fabric that allows the scent to come through. I like the fact that the burlap fringe eliminates the need for binding. I will have to find a quicker way of putting these together if I want to make a bunch of these for the holidays. Maybe some kind of quick piecing, like a log cabin or something, embellished with free-motion stitching, lace etc. (I wonder if I'll really have time to do this...)