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.

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.

Last week, I made a border for the title page from “Pocketful of Posies”. As I mentioned before, all 50 original illustrations need to be mounted and framed for the traveling exhibit this fall. Because the title page artwork was designed to bleed to the page’s edge and is without any kind of border, it requires a similar but different treatment than “Mary Had a Little Lamb” .

First, I picked  upholstery fabric from my stash to stretch for the background. Then I tried out different felt colors and chose ones that I thought complimented the artwork. This process can be tricky because I have to try many color combinations before I’m happy with the dynamics. For this one, I chose a contrasting pale violet for the corners to give the border a strong visual impact, without overpowering the artwork.

Each border section was blanket stitched with 3-ply pima cotton (Watercolours by Caron).

I then chain stitched the year and my initials on the bottom left and right corners. The corners needed something to set them apart, so I doodled a chain stitch with 2-ply variegated yellow/green embroidery floss.

Now, the sides, top and bottom pieces looked plain, so I decorated them with some chain stitched loops of flower thread. There wasn’t enough contrast, so I outlined the loops with stem stitches, using 1 ply variegated pink/purple embroidery floss.

I sewed the corners to the side pieces, measuring to make sure they were even lengths. Then, using a corner ruler, I squared up the border and pinned it on top of the artwork.

I then sewed the border in place and sewed it to the upholstery fabric background.

This title page shows a landscape filled with different characters and buildings from the rhymes in the book. The title and other information will be printed in the open areas in the sky.

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

x-ray of my wrist

I’ve recently resumed working in my studio after months recuperating from my fall and broken wrist in January. It was  a bad break that required surgery to put in a plate and several screws.   Two orthopedic surgeons told me the break was too complicated for them to fix and that I needed a hand specialist. Now, I look at the x-ray of my wrist and appreciate the intricacies of the hand surgeon’s fine detailed work. I’m glad that I waited the ten days after the break to have her do the surgery in Boston. Today, after 2 months of hand therapy, I’ve regained most of my wrist’s rotation, but still have limited flexibility and strength. Even though the break was in my subdominant left hand, I need the full use of my wrist to hold materials that I stitch with my right. As I work, I can feel the tendons in my hand and wrist pulling and aching, but I’m determined to sew! My physical therapist told me that she will work with me another month, to see if we can get back as much use as possible.     

"Mary Had a Little Lamb", pages 26/27 from the book, "Pocketful of Posies"

detail from "Mary Had a Little Lamb"

 Before the accident, I was going to spend the winter making borders for all 50 of the original illustrations from my upcoming book Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes . So, I have a lot of work to catch up on.     

The pictures now need to be given borders and mounted on stretched backgrounds before being framed under glass for the traveling exhibit. The illustrations were photographed a year ago for reproduction in the book and now can be reworked for their 2nd life as framed pieces of original art. I just finished the border on the double-page spread for the rhyme, “Mary Had a Little Lamb”. There was already a felt border, but I needed to finish the outside edge. I made a scalloped pattern and cut around the outside so that the corners were rounded.     

Then, with some variegated cotton thread (Watercolours by Caron), I sewed a blanket stitch around the curved edge.  I added a decorative curly-cued chain stitch made with 2-ply variegated embroidery floss (DMC).     

The scalloped border looked too flat, so I sewed 26-gauge wire to the underside, near the outside edge.     

I embroidered the date and my initials to the bottom border. Then, I bent the wire to make a wavy edge, just like you’d do with pie crust around the outside edge of a pie pan. The felt artwork is then sewn to a stretched piece of upholstery fabric.    

Here’s the finished picture. In the book, the words from the rhyme will be printed in the large open spaces and the book’s gutter will be in the center.     

"Mary Had a Little Lamb" ready for framing

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