baby quilt in process

Posted on May 5, 2013 by Salley Mavor

My friend Terry and I are at it again! We’ve collaborated many times over the years and our recent projects include the Woods Hole Village Quilt, nursery rhyme cookies and a wonderful wedding cake. Now we’re making a baby quilt for a friend who’s due to have her baby boy any day. Terry pieced and sewed together a trapezoidal grid of bright cotton fabric and I embroidered designs that had a connection to the baby’s parents. There’s their red truck towing their boat and their chickens and honey bees, along with other fun images that a baby can identify. The chain-stitched objects are from 1 to 2 inches in size. For the past month, I’ve been posting a new embroidery from this quilt every day on my Facebook page. Most of the quilt was embroidered in airport waiting rooms and aboard airplanes during our recent trip to California. When Terry puts the layers together, we’ll figure out how we’re going to quilt it. I’ll show the completed project when we’re finished. I hope that we get it done before he goes to college!

new born lambs

Posted on March 16, 2013 by Salley Mavor

Rob and I visited a friend’s farm a few days ago. We took photographs of the new born lambs and proud ewes, who were very willing subjects. As our camera clicked away, they provided us with the most pastoral maternal scene. The lambs were so beguiling! See sheep and lambs I’ve stitched from my Close-ups series here.

Close-ups (Cats #2)

Posted on March 10, 2013 by Salley Mavor

Cat pin circa 1980

It’s about time I showed more cat pictures because there are so many to choose from. Cats were the subject of the first post in the Close-ups series, back in 2009. This brown cat pin is over 30 years old. Read about my pins here. The baby leopards are from “Rana is Born”. The piece was the inspiration for Judy Richardson’s story, Come to my Party, which I illustrated in 1993.

detail from “Rana is Born” fabric relief 1992

This costumed cat is a detail from “On Halloween”, which is in my 1997 book You and Me: Poems of Friendship. The whole illustration is printed as a poster, which is available in my Etsy Shop.

detail from “On Halloween” 1997

This seated cat is from my 1999 book The Hollyhock Wall.

detail from “The Hollyhock Wall” 1999

This kitty is part of the faux tile frieze in my kitchen. Read about that here.

Faux Tile 2001

And this cat topiary is from the verse “Molly My Sister and I” in my book Pocketful of Posies. Autographed copies, plus a poster are available in my Etsy Shop.

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

to the end of the world and back

Posted on December 27, 2012 by Salley Mavor

The experience of being in Antarctica cannot be adequately conveyed in photographs and words. The continent is a truly awesome part of our planet, with an environment so different and extreme that my visit was as close to being on another planet as I’ll ever experience. From the deck of our big comfortable boat, we saw this sailing ship, with some more adventurous tourists aboard. The monochromatic scenery was breathtakingly beautiful! And everywhere there was wild life to gawk at.

We woke up a napping elephant seal pup.

We had to bundle up, but the temperatures were mild for the end of the world–in the 30′s F.

Being the height of summer, the sun was out most of the day and night.

The elephant seals sang (or grunted), “There were 9 in the bed and the little one said, roll over, roll over.”

Polly had a great time!

Throughout the frozen landscape, there were signs of growth, like these lichens and moss.

The adorable penguins won our hearts.

And an occasional seal on an ice flow noticed our presence. Antarctica was worth the trip! My husband, Rob Goldsborough took many of the photographs I’ve shown from this trip. See more of his great pictures of Antarctica on Flickr.

penguin pot holders

Posted on December 25, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Our trip to Antarctica has produced penguin fever! Luckily the local fabric shop had some penguin fabric to make pot holders, which I traditionally give for Christmas. See a tutorial about making my style of pot holder here. I picked fabric scraps from my stash that reminded me of the Antarctic landscape, including a dark purple and blue Mari Mekko design I’ve had forever.

Old cotton mattress pads work well for the padding.

Striped sear sucker fabric cut on the bias finishes the outside edge.

It’s time to wrap them in the penguin wrapping paper I found at the super market. Merry Christmas!

Antarctica: birds

Posted on December 20, 2012 by Salley Mavor

We just flew into Logan after about 24 hours of traveling, beginning in Ashuaia, Argentina, to Santiago Chile, to Atlanta to Boston. After a day of flying and while we wait in the airport to catch the bus to the Cape, I thought I’d write a post and show you the splendid birds we saw in Antarctica. Some were seen from the boat and others we saw on land. Can you guess what they are? Answers at the end of this post.

Birds, top to bottom: Cape petrel, Antarctic fulmar, Cape petrel, Giant Antarctic petrel, Giant Antarctic petrel, petrel, Giant Antarctic petrel.

Antarctica: Polly at the rookery

Posted on December 17, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Polly has visited several penguin rookeries, which have their own pungent perfume! The penguins are such entertaining and curious creatures! Both the male and female take turns sitting on the egg and keep up the nest of stones.

gentoo

Antarctica: zodiac tour

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Salley Mavor

We’re finally able to get internet service, so here are a selections of pictures taken from a zodiac. Polly saw some amazing ice formations and some very cute penguins.

Polly meets the Penguins

Posted on December 14, 2012 by Salley Mavor

See Polly and the penguins on my Facebook page.

Birds of Beebe Woods: robin

Posted on October 25, 2012 by Salley Mavor

Back in the spring, when I started working on Birds of Beebe Woods, robins were in abundance, hopping around the yard. After making the larger, dominant crow, I added a robin to the piece, placing it in the center, down on the ground. Compared to the smaller, realistic looking birds that were made later, the crow and robin’s bodies are more abstract, with stylized patterns on their wings and breast. My approach to rendering the birds seems to have changed during the 4 months that I worked on the piece. Toward the end, when I sewed the nuthatch, chickadee and warbler, I referred to photographs more closely and was caught up in making them identifiable and naturalistic. I like to combine realism and abstraction.

In keeping with the robin’s perky nature, I curved the bird like a sideways apostrophe, with its tail flaring upwards. The red breast presented a opportunity to play around with warm tones and metallic thread.

To see more posts about the making of Birds of Beebe Woods, see the archives here. A 18″ x 24″ poster (pictured at the beginning of this post) is available through my Etsy Shop. Also, the piece is part of “Intimate Woods”, a fiber art exhibit at Highfield Hall in Falmouth, MA. through November 16, 2012. Then it will be on exhibit (along with 2 original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies) December 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th at the Plymouth Antiquarian Society’s Fairy Christmas at Hedge House Museum, Plymouth, MA.