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...)

The Waning Summer...

The summer is quickly drawing to a close. The trees and shrubs along the roadsides seem to be tinged with rust, a precursor of the coming fall. I always look forward to the change in seasons, while also regrettably letting the old season go.
I harvested some lavender last week! What an enjoyable and relaxing task that is! Out in the sunshine with the scent of lavender on the breeze, the drone of bees in the background and butterflies fluttering nearby! It was my second go-round among the four plants we have growing in the front yard. I have been very pleased with the amount of lavender they are producing, as well as the fragrance of the plants and seeds. I hope I have time to create little sachets this fall to give as gifts this winter.
I also created a 5"x5" journal piece incorporating that distressed bottle cap I found a few weeks ago. Here is the result, similar to the previous journal piece:
As you can see, I do enjoy using that burlap! I also used some tree bark, wooden beads, embroidery floss, and the fringed selvage from a striped piece of something shiny. Again, I am just enjoying the contrast in colors and textures.

Journal Quilt 8/11/08

Last week I read Anne Rice's Christ the Lord: the Road to Cana. I started out making this journal quilt just as it is here, but I intended to incorporate this cool distressed, smashed bottlecap I found in a parking lot. It's so distressed that it didn't look appropriate as the center of this piece. It needed a more formal and meaningful focal point. Reading Anne Rice's book, I guess I had Christ on my mind, and was inspired to fashion a cross out of copper foil. I like the way it shines against the rougher weave of the fabric behind it. I used two upholstery fabric scraps I picked up recently. I love the contrasting textures! (If you enjoy reading about the life of Christ, you may enjoy this Christ the Lord series. The first one is called Out of Egypt. I find them very intriguing because they are written from the point of view of Jesus Christ, and it is interesting being inside His head and imagining along with the author how He thinks. I am looking forward to the third book in the series.)