Blue Blossom Fairy has been cooped up inside for a few years, so I took her for an outing. We first went to visit an old beech tree.
And then flew over to my patch of zinnias, which were perfect little cushion covered stools.
She’s average height for a fairy, about 3″ tall.
The one woman border stitching factory is running double shifts to get the illustrations finished and framed in time for my Pocketful of Posies traveling exhibit, which you can read about here. This one is from the page for the rhyme “Ring around the rosie”. The border turned out to be much more involved than I planned and took several days to complete. From now on, I can’t afford to play around, trying out different approaches for each piece. It’s time to get serious. My goal is to complete one a day, so I’ll have all 51 ready by mid Sept., when we hang the show.
I picked out some upholstery fabric for the background and then chose the felt border colors.
I like to lay out different skeins of pima cotton from the Caron Collection next to the artwork and pick a color scheme that matches.
Then I edge the border pieces with a blanket stitch.
There’s a lot of open green space around the dancing figures in this illustration, so I thought that the border could take some embellishment. I did a little sketch of some leafy curled stems and embroidered them.
One thing led to the next and before I knew it, I was filling the leaves with orange floss and scattering french knots around like confetti.
When I put the finished border piece next to the artwork, it looked too busy and the many colors detracted from the circle of characters. It was clear to me that the first try didn’t look right and instead of wasting time trying to make it work, I quickly moved on. I put it aside and decided to make another design that was still embellished, but was limited to green chain stitching.
They were true doodles, done free hand, with every border section different. That way, I don’t have to plan it out and repeat exactly the same design for all 4 side pieces. Also, without a set pattern, the border more accurately reflects the lighthearted and uninhibited mood of the characters.
I then embroidered the date and my initials on the bottom corner pieces.
And continued doodling…
After sewing the side and corner pieces together to make a square border, I thought that it needed a little lift off the surface, so I added some wire around the outside edge.
Later, after I’d sewn the wire all around, I realized that I should cut and adjust the wire to conform to the curves of the corner pieces.
I then covered the wire by wrapping it with variegated embroidery floss.
And to help define the form, I slipped some wire through the stitches on the backside of the inside edge, like a underwire bra.
Now, I sewed the whole wire supported border to the artwork and bent waves into the outside scalloped edge.
I’m half way through making the borders, with about 25 to go! I’ll try to remember to pause and take pictures as I go, but know some steps won’t be documented because I’m so intent on finishing this project.
Note: See other posts from the Pocketful of Borders series here.
Rose hips are everywhere this summer. The rosa rugosa plants are not native, but brought over from Asia hundreds of years ago. They love our climate and grow like weeds along the bike path, on road sides and along the edge of the beach. First, they bloom with the most brilliant deep pink flowers.
And then form rose hips that look good enough to eat, although they don’t taste very good. Years ago, I made the mistake of calling these beach plums (which are a totally different edible fruit), but the “botany police” corrected me.
They turn wonderful shades of orange and red and look as exotic as sea creatures, like mini octopi.
This fairy is in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk .
I took some time this summer to make some children’s clothes for my friends who are having babies. This little chinese style padded jacket is for Evan, who is 8 months old. I found some batik fabric that looked like a grassy meadow, cut out the pattern and lined the pieces with cotton batting. Then I embroidered his name on a scrap of contrasting batik fabric.
Then, I cut the scrap into a leaf shape, turned it under, and appliqued it to the jacket front piece. I added a stem and vein to the leaf and stitched a pointed tooth edging around the leaf.
I then sewed the pattern pieces together and made a lining out of a different cotton fabric.
I finished the outside edges with some bias tape I made from contrasting batik fabric.
I added buttons and button holes.
And sewed in a cloth label that I had left over from the days when I made felt purse kits.
It should fit the handsome little guy through the fall and winter. See another baby jacket here.
My husband Rob has been spending several weeks in his basement workshop making picture frames this summer. He has made frames for my fabric relief artwork for 30 years and this is the biggest job yet. The frames will look like this, cherry wood, shadow box style with glass.
He is making 51 frames for my Pocketful of Posies exhibit this September and has made good progress. I thought I’d show you how far he’s come!
He first cuts the lengths from cherry boards.
Then he rips the pieces on the table saw to get an L shape.
Then he cuts 45 degree angles and glues the corners together.
He cuts 1/4 inch thick slats that will be placed inside the frame to keep the glass separate from the artwork.
This a special design that Rob figured out years ago to solve the problem of how to display and protect my relief artwork.
For extra strength in the corners, he cuts across the corners and adds slivers of wood.
Here he is wiping off excess glue.
He calculated that cutting and gluing the corners takes 1/2 hours per frame, so just that step took about 25 hours for all the frames.
Now the corners need to be trimmed and sanded. I’ll show the final steps when they’re all done. Thanks, Honey!
detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010
I’ve just finished adding a border to the double page illustration for Jack and Jill, which is part of my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies. For those of you who are new to this blog, I am preparing 51 illustrations for framing, so that they can be displayed in a traveling show.
The artwork was previously mounted on foam core board for photography purposes. Now, it will be dressed up and given a new border and background. I stretched upholstery fabric and picked out felt colors that complimented and contrasted with the blue and green scene.
I looked through my basket of Watercolour pima cotton threads from the Caron Collection.
And used bright blue and variegated light pastel thread for the blanket stitch edging along the felt border pieces.
I then chain stitched my initials and the date on the bottom corner pieces with variegated embroidery floss. I’m enjoying the mindless doodling of the chain stitching.
The outside blanket stitch and the embroidery floss curls pick up colors from the illustration.
Then the border pieces are sewn to the inside artwork and onto the stretched back ground.
Now, it is ready for framing!
Note: See other posts from the Pocketful of Borders series here.
My husband and I took a day trip down to the Penikese Island School a few weeks ago. The school’s boat was out of service, so we volunteered to ferry some of the school’s teachers and visitors from the Mass. Dept. of Education in our boat. From Woods Hole, it took about 45 minutes to motor down Buzzard’s Bay along the chain of Elizabeth Islands to the very end, where the private island of Penikese lies.
Penikese Island School is a therapeutic boarding school for struggling teenage boys, located on this tiny island that also serves as a bird sanctuary.
The school is modeled after 19th century family farm living and the main house has no electricity and a large supply of kerosene lamps…
a vegetable garden…
and chickens.
Their environment is simple and natural, without the distractions of modern society and media.
We headed back that afternoon full of admiration for the dedicated and visionary staff at the school. It’s a truly remarkable place.
This is a series of shell images, starting with a fabric scallop pin, which I made in the late 70’s. See the story about my pins in earlier posts here.
The scale and natural delicacy of shells make them suitable props for my little dolls. Here’s a 2″ mermaid photographed on the beach.
This is an appliqued felt purse from the 90’s, which is like the ones featured in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects.
Shells make good sleeping places, too. This is a detail from an illustration in Wee Willie Winkie, from the page which reads, “Are the children in their beds?”.
Here is a detail from “Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?”, which is included in my picture book, Pocketful of Posies; A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes.
This is from “the old woman stands at the tub, tub, tub” verse, which is also in Pocketful of Posies. Her washing tub is made from a “boat” shell that is commonly found on our local beaches.
Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.
Recently, I took a break from sewing felt borders and made some children’s clothes for friends. This green bird dress is made with the same Burda pattern as Alex’s dress. The fabric is Gypsy Song by Susan Winget for Benartex. This time, I remembered to add on seams when cutting out the pattern. Last time I used this European pattern, I neglected to read about this difference and ended up with a much smaller dress than intended.
I used a green checked fabric for the collar and pockets. It was fun to play with my sewing machine, which hardly ever comes out of storage. I used a decorative leaf stitch around the collar.
It didn’t show up well enough, so I ripped it out and replaced it with a yellow scalloped stitch.
I found some bird buttons in my button box.
This dress might be too big now, but it should fit my little friend for a while. I hope she calls it her green bird dress.
detail from "In Spring" Pocketful of Posies 2010
The pressure is mounting to get these borders finished by September for the Pocketful of Posies show. I’ve completed four in the past week, including this one of a seasons rhyme, which begins “In spring I look gay decked in comely array”.
It took several tries to get the background fabric and border colors right. I can’t explain why one shade or pattern works better, but it helps to compare and narrow it down until you’re satisfied.
I chose a bright red floss for my initials and the date embroidery on the bottom corners. The photo doesn’t show the subtle variegation in the red thread. I have my eye out for variegated thread to purchase and find myself reaching for it first. It adds a complexity that mirrors nature better than solid colors.
I had just finished writing the post about lettering and was inspired to add some words to this one. So, instead of doodling along the border, I wrote out the names of the seasons on the four side sections.
Sometimes I write on the felt with a pencil and then embroider over it, but it can show through and look messy. For the seasons, I wrote out the words on a piece of paper to get the spacing and then eye balled the stitching.
I made sure there were some doodles in the corners and sewed it all together.
This piece is relatively shallow compared to the other illustrations from the book. To get an idea of scale, the birds are under 1 inch long.
Note: See other posts from the Pocketful of Borders series here.
SALLEY MAVOR 