About Salley Mavor

I make 3-dimensional fabric relief pictures that are photographed and used to illustrate children’s books. I sew together different materials to create fanciful scenes in relief, much like a miniature stage set, with figures imposed on an embellished fabric background. My work is decorative and detailed, full of patterns from nature and found objects, all sewn together by hand with a needle and thread.

bed book peek – back cover

Posted on September 13, 2024 by Salley Mavor

Today, I’d like to share how I made the embellished border strips that are on the back cover of MY BED. While the cover of the book introduces the children in their beds, the back is purely decorative. I wanted it to be a cross-cultural celebration of color, pattern and texture that hopefully will make the person looking at it to want to open the book. There were a couple of practical requirements, too, like a place for the bar code and an open area for the publisher to print promotional copy and add book reviews in future printings.

UPDATE: Personally signed copies of My Bed are available in my shop.
Also, all of the original 3-dimensional embroidered illustrations for the book are included in my current exhibition at the Albany Institute of History and Art in Albany, NY. Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor is on view now through Feb. 23, 2025.

The design on the back cover includes multiple narrow (about 1/2″ wide) lengths of felt that I embroidered and pieced together in the style of a log cabin quilt.

I edged each strip of felt with blanket stitch and then sewed on wire, to make the long sides firm and straight, like bones on a corset. Otherwise, the strips would be too limp and wobbly to work with. You can’t see the wire because it’s wrapped with thread.

After stitching the strips together, I embellished different motifs on each one with beads, silk ribbon and embroidery stitches.

I combed through my vast collection of beads, which all seemed to be waving their hands wildly, calling out “pick me!”. The hardest part was selecting which ones to use and coming up with a combination that was interesting, but not cluttered looking.

I love embroidering simple stitches with silk ribbon.

I wanted each strip to be distinctive, but also work in harmony with the others.

The border looked like a window when it was finished

The last part involved sewing the border in place on top of a solid felt center piece. Since the book is a perfect square, everything had to line up just right.

Please keep in mind that while this book is technically a children’s book, it’s really for all ages! Over the past few years, I’ve published posts about making several of the different scenes. Here’s a list of the posts I’ve written:

Afghanistan – part 1, part 2
Holland – part 1, part 2, part 3
India – part 1, part 2, part 3
Iran – part 1, part 2, part 3
Japan – part 1
North Africa – part 1, part 2, part 3
North America – part 1, part 2, part 3
Russia – part 1, part 2, part 3
Scandinavia – part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4
South America – part 1
Animals (spot illustrations) – Rooster, Camel, Parrot, Elephant, Goldfish, Cat, Duck, Sheep, Rabbit, Cow

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

Summertime Poster!

Posted on September 6, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m thrilled to announce that 18″ x 24″ posters of Summertime are now available in my shop! This frameable poster is the closest thing to seeing the piece in person, which I realize is out of reach for many of you (visit this page for current exhibitions). The original bas-relief embroidered scene is just an inch larger than the printed reproduction, so the scale of the wee folk, raspberries, and thousands of stitches is very similar to their actual size. If you’ve seen my other posters, like the one of Birds of Beebe Woods, you know that the photography and printing quality is very good, too.

Will the other scenes in the series, Frosty Morning, Harvest Time, and Mossy Glen be made into posters as well? It really depends on how much interest there is. I’d like to eventually offer all four seasons, but first I’m testing the market with Summertime posters to determine if it’s worth the financial investment. I’m excited to be adding Summertime posters to the list of books, notecards, puzzles, notebooks and bookmarks now available in my shop.

Enter Salley Mavor’s Etsy Shop

Summertime is one of four seasonal landscapes that will be icluded in my solo exhibition, Works by Salley Mavor: To Every Season at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 27, 2025.

The Four Seasons series is included in “Enchanted Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor” at the
Albany Institute of History and Art in Albany, NY.

Enchanting Threads opens!

Posted on August 4, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m excited to share photos of my new exhibition, which opened last weekend at the Albany Institute of History & Art. Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor will be on view for 7 months, through March 2, 2025. So, there’s plenty of time to plan a trip to Albany, NY with your friends and family! For those who live too far away to visit, I’ll try to give you an idea of how the show looks.

The museum’s exhibition team did a fantastic job designing the layout and hanging my artwork, which is spread throughout 4 galleries. It’s one of the most artful and tasteful presentations of my life’s work that I’ve seen!

For the first time, visitors will see both original embroidered artwork and 8 ft. tall printed enlargements of some pieces, including Summertime, from my series of seasonal landscapes. I’m glad that Rob took hires photos, so that the blown-up reproductions are clear enough to see every stitch. It feels as if you could step inside the scene and pick raspberries!

The framed 24″ high originals in the four seasons series are displayed together. Over the past few years I’ve documented the process of making Mossy Glen, Summertime, Harvest Time, and Frosty Morning with photos, videos and commentary.

Enchanting Threads includes just about everything in my personal collection, from the doll house I made in 1975 to Birds of Beebe Woods. Past exhibitions have included several pieces on loan from private collectors, but I figured that borrowing artwork from their owners for 7 months was too much to ask.

The show features over 100 framed tableaus, original picture book illustrations, and sculptural objects from the past 40 years, including fairy houses, walls crowded with wee folk dolls, and the cast of characters from my stop-motion film Liberty and Justice.

Characters, props and scenery from the stop-motion film, Liberty and Justice.

Bedtime Stitches, the touring exhibition of the entire collection of original illustrations for my most recent picture book, MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World, is included, too. To find out where Bedtime Stitches is going next, please visit the Exhibitions Page.

I had an opportunity to walk around the galleries with museum staff and docents, and answer questions that they thought visitors would be curious about, such as how long it takes to make a piece (2 to 6 months) and if everything is really hand stitched (it is). I’m looking forward to returning to Albany to give a talk about my work to the general public in early December (date TBA).

At the opening, I had the pleasure of meeting Janny Mironchuk, a long-time fan, who is responsible for bringing my work to the Albany Institute of History & Art. At my urging, she contacted the museum’s curator and suggested that they consider hosting an exhibition of my work. I’m grateful to Janny for approaching the museum and helping to set the stars in alinement for this exhibition to happen!

Over the years, I’ve come to realize that landing an art show is an art in itself, with no sure path to getting there. For me, attracting the attention of exhibition committees and curators hasn’t been easy. I’ve sent out countless proposals that go unanswered, but every once in a while, I hear from a venue that wants to work with me. These opportunities often involve fans who are passionate about my work and want to see it in person, close to where they live. A personal recommendation from someone who is part of a museum’s local community can sometimes convey enthusiasm better than an artist’s own entreaty can, especially if one’s art is not easily defined. Happily, plans are underway for two solo exhibitions in 2025 and 2027, which will be listed on the Exhibitions Page when their locations and dates are confirmed. That being said, I certainly welcome inquiries from museums and art centers who are interested in hosting future exhibitions.

I believe that my embroidered pieces have the most value when they are put on public display, where people can become emersed in their detail and 3-demensional quality up close. That’s why I’ve decided not to deplete my supply of original artwork by selling it. (Books, prints, cards and puzzles are for sale in my shop.) Otherwise, it would take many years to create enough new pieces to fill an exhibition space. Now, I always have a body of work available to show. After 50 years of single-minded dedication to making art, I feel a shift taking place. Instead of stitching every spare minute, I’m happy to take time to play with my grandchildren and weed the garden. I don’t know what’s coming next, but my wish is to keep living an artistic life and to share my vision with the world.

Summertime: Part 2 – Treehouses

Posted on July 14, 2024 by Salley Mavor

In the series about making Summertime, I share photos of different stages of the project and explain what went through my head while I was working on it. In this post (Part 2), I show how I made the thatched roof treehouses nestled in the tree trunks. Part 1 was about forming the tree trunks and future posts will cover other elements of the piece, including plants, raspberries, roses, wee folk, and the Baltimore Oriole.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of four seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world. Note cards, prints, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025.

Thatched Roofs
I hardly ever buy new materials because I have enough fabric, wire, beads, and thread to last a lifetime. However, sometimes I feel pushed to look beyond the containers full of miscellaneous supplies in my studio for something unique. That’s how I found straw silk made by Silk Road Fibers. I first came across it when searching for thatching materials for the roof in the South American scene in my picture book, MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World.

MY BED: South America, bas-relief embroidery, 16 x 20 x 2

So, when it came time to make the tree house complex for Summertime, I knew exactly what to use to thatch the roofs.

Straw silk is different from other silk embroidery ribbon, which can be too slick for my taste. Straw silk’s rough texture and variegated colors give it the kind of natural appearance I’m looking for.

Doorways and Huts
To make the doorways, I cut out holes in pieces of wool felt and edged the openings with a combination of straw silk and pima cotton.

I liked how the herring bone pattern around the doorway created a three dimensional effect, so I continued covering the entire hut that way.

At some point, I realized that the doorway openings were too flimsy and needed reinforcement, so I stitched wire (Memory Thread) around the open edges.

After stitching the roofs to the top of the huts, I decided to add loops around the bottom edge, like a pixie haircut with bangs.

Each landscape in the Four Seasons Series includes housing for the wee folk, either perched in trees, dug into hillsides, or in underground tunnels. The slideshow below features examples of a variety of cozy shelters found in Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen, Harvest Time and Summertime.

When I first imagined Summertime, I pictured thatch roofed huts clustered at the base of the center tree, with at least one elevated high enough to warrant a balcony.

I formed the balcony out of rubber coated electrical wire and wrapped it with embroidery floss.

Then, I sewed the balcony columns to the tree trunk.

It felt good to create homes for the wee folk and move on to others parts of the project!

Stay tuned for future posts in this series about Summertime. In Part 3, I will share photos, videos and commentary about how I made leaves and branches. If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Summertime: Part 1 – Tree Trunks

Posted on July 3, 2024 by Salley Mavor

In this Part 1 of the series about making Summertime, I share photos and commentary about how I created the tree trunks, which provide the framework for the whole composition. In this post, I reveal what’s inside the trunks and show how I covered them with felt and embroidered embellishment. Future posts will discuss other elements of the piece, including the treehouses, plants, raspberries, wee folk, and the Baltimore Oriole. So far, I’ve written an overview of the piece, Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems & branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore Oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, and Part 8 – stitching flora.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of four seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world. Posters, note cards, prints, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025.

Before threading the first needle, I pictured the scene in my head for months, mostly while taking walks or riding on the bike path. During this early stage of the process, I made a lot of thumbnail sketches and worked out the basic design. Once I could clearly see a path forward, I enlarged a drawing to the full 19″ x 24″ size and used it as a simple guideline. All of the color choices, design changes, and stitching details would come later, as the piece evolved.

I formed the structure of the tree with insulated electrical wire of different thicknesses that I found at the hardware store. To make forked branches, I stripped the plastic coating at the ends and wound the exposed copper wire around the adjoining branches. The whole idea was to make an armature that was flexible and strong enough to bend and manipulate as needed.

To build up the thickness of the tree, I wrapped the wire with cut strips of cotton quilt batting, which I roughly stitched in place.

The next step was to cover the padded wire with wool felt. I started by stitching felt pieces to the back of the tree trunk and branches, making a flat surface that would eventually be sewn to the background sky.

Then I stitched pieces of felt over the curved front. The photo below gives a view from the back, as I overlapped the front strip of felt over the back piece. The messy seams will all be covered with embroidery and hidden in the back.

After covering the tree with felt, I stitched a zigzag “bark” texture up and down the branches with pima cotton.

At first, I liked how the pink and tan variegated thread looked, but soon realized that it alone was too subtle and needed more saturated accent colors to help it pop in contrast to the sky background.

I added bright turquoise and then decided to go even further with hot pink, which I also used to create a cross-hatched effect along the sides of the trunks.

I used finer gauge wire to form the smaller branches and wrapped them with embroidery floss.

I sewed some glass beads that have been stored in my stash for 20 years to the tips of the branches. It felt so good to finally put them to use!

Stay tuned for future posts in this series about Summertime. In Part 2, I will show how I made the thatch-roofed treehouses nestled into the tree trunks. If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Summertime overview

Posted on June 2, 2024 by Salley Mavor

With warmer weather approaching, it seems like a good time to begin a new multi-part series about making Summertime, the fourth of my seasonal landscapes. It feels so good to have completed all four seasons in this project! I started making them during the pandemic as a way to focus on something positive and healing. UPDATE: So far, I’ve written Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems & branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, Part 8 – stitching flora and Part 9 – moss, sky and stone wall.

Over the coming weeks and months, I will share photos, videos and commentary about different aspects of the project, from raspberries to tree houses and their inhabitants to a life size Baltimore Oriole.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world. See the Four Seasons Series and dozens of other works in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor at the New England Quilt Museum, Sept. 9 – Dec. 31, 2025.

Posters, note cards, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen, and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

The following video shows how I arranged different parts of the scene before sewing the pieces in place.

I know that you like to see my fingers in action, so I took videos of different parts of the process. Sometimes I weeded the garden and stitched on the same day, so I hope that my dirty fingernails aren’t too distracting! Here are 2 previews of making the bird’s beak and sewing raspberries. There’s lots more to show, so stay tuned! If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

Upcoming Events

Posted on May 12, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m excited to announce some upcoming virtual and in-person events that you may be interested in attending. Please read ahead for details.

May 29th at 2PM EDT – Textile Talk, Textiles in 3D (online only)
June 14th at 1PM – Slide Talk, Once Upon a Stitch: The Artistic Journey of Salley Mavor at the Osterville Village Library in Osterville, MA (in-person only)
July 27, 2025 – March 2, 2026 – Exhibition, Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor at the Albany Institute of History and Art (in-person only)

TEXTILE TALK – May 29 at 2PM EDT (GMT/UTC-4 Textiles in 3D with Salley Mavor, Barbara Schneider, and Jean Sredl

Join us for an engaging discussion with three artists creating with fiber in 3D! Link to sign up: www.saqa.com/textiletalks
Textile Talks are always free and open to everyone. They are presented each week by Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), International Quilt Museum, Surface Design Association, and Quilt Alliance.

Once Upon a Stitch: The Artistic Journey of Salley Mavor
Osterville Village Library in Osterville, MA on June 14th at 1pm.
I will give a slide talk about my life’s work and offer some insight as to where it came from, how it’s evolved and why I do it.
A book signing will follow the presentation.

UPCOMING EXHIBITION
Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor
Albany Institute of History and Art, Albany, NY.
July 27, 2024 – March 2, 2025
Opening Reception for the Artist – Fri., July 26, 5:30 – 7:30PM

Opening reception with the artist on July 27th. Artist talk TBA later in the fall.

Starting this summer, The Albany Institute of History and Art will host a major exhibition of over 80 bas-relief pieces and sculptural objects from my collection. Enchanting Threads: The Art of Salley Mavor will be on view for 7 months, from July 27, 2024 – February 23, 2025. The show will include a large selection of my artwork from the past 30 years, including Bedtime Stitches, the touring exhibit of original illustrations for my most recent picture book, MY BED: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep around the World. Also on display will be recent works that explore cultural diversity, migration, fashion, the natural world, and a range of social narratives, from the everyday to topical subjects.

Bur Oak Fairies

Posted on April 25, 2024 by Salley Mavor

After a 4 year delay, I’m finally sharing photos, videos and commentary about how I made a pair of larger than usual fairies. A while back, a fan from the Midwest kindly sent a boxful of bur oak acorn caps. They are humongous compared to regular run-of-the-mill acorn caps that I used as hats for the 3-inch tall dolls in my how-to book Felt Wee Folk.

I really liked the hatlike quality of these caps, but to use them, I had to adjust my design to accommodate larger 5 to 6 inch figures with 1 1/4″ heads. To start, I painted faces on a bunch of wooden beads and ball knobs, until I was satisfied with a few impish ones with upturned pointy noses.

I increased the size of their pipe cleaner bodies and made hands to scale. It was also an opportunity to use larger faux flower petals from my collection for the skirt.

I made a peplum jacket pattern and cut it out of felt, which I embellished with a flower petal collar, beads, embroidery floss, and metallic thread.

Because these fairies have nice big feet, I could more easily cobble shoes for them. This pair of slippers are made out of felt, with a bit of wire reinforcement to give them a pointy elfin look.

Here’s a video of my work table that I shared on Facebook and Instagram in 2020. The response to the video was mixed. Some people were uncomfortable with the disorderly jumble, while others were relieved to see another creative space that looked as messy as theirs.

I attached felt wigs to the bead heads using the same techniques that I teach in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. This doll’s hair is made with variegated single ply Merino wool. I created tangled ringlets by stitching yarn up an down the long tresses.

Just as with the smaller fairies, I made wings out of faux flower petals. But because of the increased scale, these wings were too floppy. I gave them extra support by sewing wire along the outside edge, going around a few times until the wire was completely hidden by thread.

In this video, you can watch over my shoulder while I stitch wire to the outside edge of a wing and embroider a felt tailcoat.

I dressed one of the fairies in an embroidered felt vest and leafy cravat…

and a green felt tailcoat embellished with metallic thread.

At 5 and 6 inches tall, they are the largest and best dressed fairies I’ve ever seen!

The Bur Oak Fairies’ permanent home is in the West Falmouth Library, downstairs in the Moira Shea children’s room. You can find them hovered over a fairy house made by Andrea Riggillo.

Eddie’s Baby Banner

Posted on April 10, 2024 by Salley Mavor

I’m happy to share the news that our new grandchild Eddie was born on Feb. 15th, 2024. He’s named Edward, after his maternal grandfather, but his parents, Mary and our son Peter, call him Eddie. So, that’s the name I put on his baby banner. Our family is growing so fast, I can hardly believe it! Little Eddie and his cousin Elias were born 13 months apart and we hope they become good buddies (see Elias’s banner here).

MAKING THE BANNER
Read ahead to see photos, videos, and commentary about making Eddie’s baby banner. I’ve divided the post into different sections, including wrapping wire letters and embellishing felt borders, which are are some of the more distinguishable features of my banners. To see posts about this and other celebratory banners I’ve made over the years for family and friends, scroll through the archives here.

WRAPPING WIRE LETTERS
After choosing a color scheme and picking out pieces of felt and thread, I wrote out Eddie’s name in cursive handwriting with a pencil on paper. Fortunately, his name could be written in one continuous line, which doesn’t always happen. I then wrapped a length of DMC memory thread (a kind of wire) with 3 strands of variegated embroidery floss (see video below). Using the drawing as a template, I bent the wire to form his name and stitched the letters together where they touched.

In this video, I demonstrate wrapping DMC memory thread with 3 strands of embroidery floss to create numbers and letters for Eddie’s birth weight. I thought it would be easier to see the process using contrasting wire and thread colors. Of course, using the same color wire and thread is better for hiding gaps and inconsistencies. It takes a lot of practice to get the hang of wrapping the wire. If you’ve learned to wrap arms and legs for the wee folk dolls in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, you’ve got a jump start on mastering this technique.

EMBELLISHING FELT BORDERS
I love embellishing with blanket stitching, especially with variegated thread. It’s a simple, but effective way to create an edge that looks clean and assertive, while also displaying a handmade quality. For me, it’s important to show that a real person made it, not a machine. For this banner, I created layers of felt pieces, which I blanket stitched with pima cotton (Watercolours by Caron).

In this is a video, I demonstrate embellishing borders for the banner.

The border around Eddie’s birth date needed perking up, so I added beads.

CANDY CANE STRIPES
When I finished making numbers for the year 2024 and laid them out, they looked kind of plain. So, I decided to wind a single strand of orange embroidery floss around the wire numbers (see video below).

I looked through my driftwood collection and found the right sized stick that would work as a hanging bar. I braided cord to make a strap and drilled holes in the stick big enough to thread cord through.

This video shows how I chain stitched spirals on the scalloped flaps at the bottom of the banner.

We’re pleased as punch with little Eddie and look forward to getting to know him as he grows!

Cover Madness at The Horn Book

Posted on March 25, 2024 by Salley Mavor

UPDATE: I just received word that my 2012 cover was voted the winner of The Horn Book Magazine’s Cover Madness contest in the January/February category! As part of this year’s centennial celebration of the magazine’s founding, this “very-subjective, not-serious event” will continue with more contests to pick covers from previous issues published in March/Aril, May/June, etc. By the end of Cover Madness, 6 different covers will “emerge as winners”.

What a wonderful surprise this is! Even though the children’s book community has always been very supportive, I sometimes feel like an imposter because of my singular vision and nontraditional illustration medium. So, I’m especially honored to have my work recognized this way. Of all the groups my work is lumped into, from embroidery to doll making, the storytelling genre of children’s books is where I feel most at home. I hope that you enjoy this account from 2012 about how I made the cover!

This is an edited and republished version of a post that was first written in 2012.

The Jan/Feb 2012 issue of The Horn Book Magazine is out, with my illustration on the cover. This issue has many wonderful articles and book reviews, including the 2011 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award speeches, which were delivered at the colloquium on Sept. 30th, 2011.

In this post, I share the process of making The Horn Book cover illustration, which I worked on for about 6 weeks this past summer. The original size of the scene is about 12″ wide and 18″ high. The original piece was purchased by an art collector who is connected to the children’s book world.

As the Horn Book Award recipient for Pocketful of Posies in 2011, I had the honor of illustrating a cover for the magazine. You can find out more about my award here. Signed copies of the book are available in my Etsy Shop.

THE TREE
I first found a twisted vine to use as the central tree and made a sketch with the Horn Book logo and child characters. I then drilled holes on the vine where wire branches would go.

To form the branches, I covered wire with felt and embroidered them to match the real vine/tree trunk. This coiled branch has thread-wrapped wire thorns attached.

The Horn Book logo was rendered in wire branches and found objects. For one of the O’s, I sawed the back of a walnut-shell, so that it would lay flat and not stick out too much. The O in the word Horn is a nest-like acorn cap from an oak tree in Iowa and the B’s spiky acorn caps are from northern California.

THE FELT BACKGROUND
I thought that a solid color background would looked too plain, so I stitched together scraps of naturally dyed wool felt to make a more interesting field for the action.

I made a little fairy to fit in the walnut-shell.

THE CHILDREN
I didn’t want the characters to be animals, but children dressed in animal costumes. So, I made every effort to make them look like children by giving them bangs, ponytails, hands and shoes. These figures are made with similar techniques found in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

During the process, I changed some of the characters in the original sketch and substituted a boy in a dinosaur costume pulling an acorn cap wheeled wagon full of books.

I printed out the words on acetate, so that I’d be sure to leave enough room at the bottom edge. I then embroidered plants and leaves to the felt background.

This little child/mouse is getting red shoes.

The Horn Book staff suggested I include a reading child, so I made a felt book for the face-painted mouse.

All of the parts piled up as I worked. It’s a miracle nothing got lost!

It was really fun thinking up costumes to make for these kids. I wanted to create a scene of children immersed in imaginary play and story.

I added a sun to the upper left corner and embroidered a wavy chain-stitched border. Then, I sewed the felt background to a sheet of foam core board, pulling it flat and straight.

Then, I stitched the tree, characters and other props in place, right through the foam core board. After everything was in place, I took it to the photographer, so he could take its picture. After that, I removed it from the foam core board and remounted the felt background and all of the parts on a cloth-covered stretcher. It is now framed behind glass and was recently bought by a collector. It was a joy to work on this project with Lolly Robinson at the Horn Book Magazine! Having my illustration on the cover will be a great opportunity for many people to discover my work for the first time.