Author Archives: Salley Mavor

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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.

Close-ups (dogs)

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Ceilidh

I’d like to present this group of dogs in honor of my pet and studio companion, Ceilidh, who died last month. Her name, pronounced Kay-lee, is from the Gaelic word for a folk music and dance party. This is the last photo I took of her this past winter, just before she turned 14.  She was a lab/golden mix and a real sweetheart who gave us many wonderful years.  

The first picture in the series is a faux tile I made in 1990 for our kitchen.  See all of the tiles on an earlier post here. 

Faux Tile, 1990

 This white dog is in the “Sidewalks” poem illustration from my book You and Me: Poems of Friendship.  

detail from "You and Me: Poems of Friendship" 1997

 Here’s the dog who laughed to see such sport in Hey, Diddle, Diddle!  

detail from "Hey, Diddle, Diddle!" 2005

This little dog is made from a key, hook eyes and other found objects. See an earlier post about the whole piece, “Walking the Dog”, here.   

detail from "Walking the Dog" 2005

This dog is dancing in a ring around the rosies from my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies.  

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

Note: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Bike Path (going north)

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West Falmouth salt marsh

To counteract my sedentary activity of sewing, I ride my bike along the Shining Sea bike path everyday. Early morning is best, when the air is cool, the path is less crowded, and the light is good for photography. 

West Falmouth brackish stream

I live near an entrance to the path, in the middle of its 12 mile length from Woods Hole to North Falmouth. Some mornings I go south, along Vineyard Sound (see this post) and other days I head north through West Falmouth on the Buzzard’s Bay side of town. 

West Falmouth

Going north is a different experience, with salt marshes and brackish ponds and streams. Just out of sight are beaches along the coast of Buzzard’s Bay. 

West Falmouth pond

The landscape changes rapidly from open marshes to woods with tall trees. Here’s the back of Bourne Farm, looking toward the barn. I find this biking ritual good for my body, mind and spirit.

Bourne Farm, W. Falmouth

Pocketful of borders (Pat-a-cake, etc.)

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pages 18/19 from "Pocketful of Posies", Houghton Mifflin 2010

This double-page spread pictures 3 rhymes from my upcoming children’s book, Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes. I’m preparing the fabric relief illustrations for a traveling show, which you can learn about here.  

Illustration mounted on foam core board

 I chose a border of dark felt to contrast with the light lavender background. The outside edges were blanket stitched with variegated pima cotton. 

  

The corner pieces have the usual squiggles, along with my initials and the date. 

  

 

The 4 side border pieces are green, with variegated embroidery floss loops. These pictures show the tea house, which illustrates the rhyme, “Polly put the kettle on”. 

detail from "Polly put the kettle on"

 Here’s the cobbler shop from “Cobbler, cobbler mend my shoe”. I cut out the wooden signs with a jig saw and painted them. The shoe sign is a little over 1″ long.   The cobbler’s apron is made of leather.

detail from "Cobbler, Cobbler, mend my shoe"

Here is the finished border mounted on the stretched upholstery fabric background. 

pages 18/19 with the finished border

This shows the bakery for “Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake”. The baby buggy is made with floss wrapped wire, coiled around like a basket. Yes, I admit that it’s a bit obsessive. 

detail of "Pat-a-cake, Pat-a-cake"

detail, page 19, "Pocketful of Posies"

Note: See other posts from the Pocketful of Borders series here.

Mushroom houses

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These mushroom house have been packed away for over 30 years and earlier this spring I brought them outside and took some pictures. I made them for a story that was included in an elementary school text book. This was my first real illustration job after graduation from art school. I recently wrote about the project  in a post about my first picture book, The Way Home, here.

The Great Cleanup was a story about some ecologically minded insects who organized a recycling effort to reuse the trash that was dumped on their neighborhood. I’ll show some pictures of the insects in a future post.

I was still using my Singer Featherweight back then, which was good for top stitching and maneuvering around tight corners. There was plenty of hand stitching, too, around the mushroom cap roofs and front landings.

The houses are 8 ” to 9″ tall and the stems are hollow, with walls of 1/2″ foam rubber. The caps are filled with fiber fill stuffing.

I can remember picking out textured and knobby fabric for the stems, caps and chimneys. It was good to dust them off and display them in the grass.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog (top right column on the home page). 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 and/or Instagram.

Woods Hole in May (land and sea)

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view of Great Harbor from Woods Hole Yacht Club

 This weekend, we went out in our motor boat and took an early evening tour of the local area. We left Great Harbor in Woods Hole and cruised through Woods Hole Passage to Hadley’s Harbor on Naushon Island.

Bull Island, Naushon Is.

Boat House on Hadley's Harbor, Naushon Is.

Some summer people are starting to arrive, but it’s still quiet. It’s still too cold to go swimming! We cruised along the shore of Buzzard’s Bay.

Penzance Point, Woods Hole from Buzzard's Bay

We came back to the Woods Hole Yacht Club. In a month, the dinghy lines will all be full.

Woods Hole Yacht Club

Across the street from the yacht club are some great houses on Bar Neck Rd.

house on Bar Neck Rd., Woods Hole

My family rented this house with the red door, when I was about 6 years old.

Bar Neck Rd., Woods Hole

 The Woods Hole May Festival, which my mother started about 40 years ago, was on Saturday at the ball park. It’s a chance for the year ’rounders to come out of hibernation and socialize. Here’s my cousin showing his ’38 John Deere tractor, which he and his father put together from old parts.

'38 John Deere

  And there’s always a May Pole dance with live music. Summer has almost begun!

May Pole at Woods Hole May Festival

Close-ups (strollers)

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With the warm weather, parents are out in droves pushing their young ones in strollers. I went through my books and found some details to show you. The strollers are made with wire frames and button wheels. This first one with the red-haired mother is from my 1997 picture book, You and Me: Poems of Friendship.

Sidewalksstroller2WM Here’s a stroller from another page of You and Me with a baby that’s about 1″ long.

detail from “You and Me: Poems of Friendship” 1997

This mother and child is from my 2001 book In the Heart. Autographed copies are available here.

ITHmomstrollerWMThis double stroller is being pushed by the old woman who lived in a shoe,  from my  book, Pocketful of Posies. The children are about 1 1/2″ tall.

PFOPstrollerWMNote: See other posts in the Close-ups series archive here.

Pocketful of borders (Simple Simon)

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Illustration for Simple Simon from "Pocketful of Posies"

 When I finished making all of the fabric relief illustrations for Pocketful of Posies, they were stitched onto foam core board. I added registration marks and then sent them to the photographer. Now that the book is being printed, I’m busy making the artwork presentable for their 2nd jig as framed pieces of art.  

  

Each picture needs a different border to match. Strong, bright colors would compliment the illustration for the Simple Simon rhyme, with its fair booths. I made side and corner patterns and cut them out of felt.  

  

I then blanket stitched around the outside edges of the felt pieces with some variegated thread. The Caron Collection has some great colors to choose from.  

  

The inside of the border looked too abrupt, so I tried some rick rack along the edge, to soften the transition.   

  

I chain stitched some loops, the date, and my initials in variegated embroidery floss. Since it’s hard to write on wool felt, I don’t use any guide lines for embroidery, but work free style. I decided to change the rick rack to a golden color, which set the border apart from the inside illustration. So, instead of softening the transition, I ended up giving it more definition. 

  

There was space for a wider border, so I put some green open weave trim around the outside. I added some dark green bias tape underneath the trim, to give more contrast and show the holes.   

  

There’s always a question of how busy a border should be and how many borders within borders to make, like ruffles on a skirt. It could go on and on and you could have a tiny image in the middle, with a huge border around it. Many quilts and fiber art seem to be made up of just borders, which is fine with me. 

  

Note: See other posts from the Pocketful of Borders series here.

Early morning bike ride

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7:00 am on the bike path looking toward Martha's Vineyard Island

I went for an early morning ride on the bike path Friday morning. Honeysuckle perfumed the air as I rode towards Woods Hole. Everything was still, without the usual strong off-shore breeze and  I could tell that this was going to be the most beautiful day.    

Looking across Vineyard Sound

The Rosa Rugosa are just starting to bloom along the bike path, which travels along the shore on the old train track right of way. Trains used to go from New York and Boston to the dock in Woods Hole, where people could board the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard.  

Woods Hole's tricentennial t-shirt design, 1979

Here’s a drawing I made for Woods Hole’s tricentennial t-shirt in 1979, which shows the train on the ferry pier. It’s based on a map from the 1800’s.

detail of Woods Hole Train Station

Rosa Rugosa growing on the edge of the beach

Rosa Rugosa

Across Vineyard Sound there was a clear view of Martha’s Vineyard Island, which is 3 miles away. After the morning excercise, I felt I could go inside and sit and stitch for a few hours.   

View of Nobska Point, Woods Hole

Pocketful of borders (back to work)

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pages 40/41, "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

It’s great to get back to work again and my wrist is feeling much better. I’ve been bicycling a lot and leaning on the handle bars is good therapy. The borders for the originals from Pocketful of Posies are coming along nicely and I’ve finished a couple this week. It’s like matting 2-dimentional pieces of artwork before they’re framed, only I’m creating felt edging to go around the perimeter. Here’s a double-page spread of several rhymes grouped in the same scene.

I added a dark brown rick rack around the outside of the felt border to help separate it from the background upholstery fabric. This shows Mary at the cottage door and Peter the pumpkin eater’s wife in a pumpkin.

Here’s Little Tommy Tittlemouse with his fishing pole.

Molly My Sister and I, from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

This rhyme, Molly My Sister and I, has a little wider border. The artwork already has a lot of detailed embroidered foliage, so a plainer border seemed appropriate. 

I added the green ruffled trim at the end, to echo the greenery of the topiary in the interior scene.

Note: See more posts in the Pocketful of Borders series here.