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.

dolls’ new home in Australia

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Lucinda Hooper sent me these photos of some Ltd. edition dolls which I sent to her in Australia. It’s fun to see Dahlia and Bud & Ivy settled in their new home on the other side of the world.

Dahlia, Bud & Ivy with Mimi Kirchner’s tiny world pin cushion

The dolls feel at home with Mimi Kirchner’s tiny world pin cushion, which also found its way from Massachusetts to Australia. See more of her pin cushions in an earlier post here. Thank you for sharing these pictures, Lucinda!

Dahlia sitting by a river in Australia

Bud & Ivy with a “river stone” cottage made by Lucinda’s Mum

Close-ups (boys)

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I’ve spent a good part of my adulthood surrounded by boys; sons, friends and nephews. They have kept me grounded and brought a counter balance to all of this girly stuff I do, like sewing and fairy dolls.  Having sons has made me sensitive to the male point of view and I make an effort to include images of boys in my artwork, even though it’s easier to depict females. This first picture is from “Vineyard Family”, a piece I made as a naive young mother in 1985 and shows a rather idealized docile child.

 

vineyardfamily85WM

detail from “Vineyard Family” 1995

   This pair of boys are from “Fall Children” (see more here), which I made 10 years later in 1995. At this point, I’m trying to bring more motion to my figures, perhaps a more realistic reflection of children. Their sweaters are made from cotton socks and their shoes are leather.

detail from "Fall Children"

detail from “Fall Children” 1995

Here’s George reading a book in a chair made from old worn upholstery fabric. His clothing is also made from cotton socks. The full picture can be seen here.

 

detail from "George's Chair" 1996

detail from “George’s Chair”

This boy sitting in his real stick fort is from my book, You and Me: Poems of Friendship.

 

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

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

This is my favorite boy, “Dusty Bill from Vinegar Hill”, an unfamiliar rhyme I found and loved. His hair is made from a spiky acorn cap, which a friend sent from California. Even though I never learned how to crochet, I figured out how to construct his bag using a regular needle. Bill’s in an illustration from my upcoming book, Pocketful of Posies, which you can find out about here.

 

detail from "Pocketful of Posies" 2010

detail from “Pocketful of Posies” 2010

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

Doll Collection (Baltic twins)

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This boy and girl pair is from my family’s doll collection. From the look of their outfits, they may be from Russia or the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia.

They’re doll house size, about 4″ tall and have cloth wrapped wire limbs. The heads are painted plaster and the girl has a braided white blond wig. I remember playing with them as a child and always loved their yellow crocheted booties. The clothing is crudely made, but the their delicate features, well made heads, wigs and shoes are examples of fine craftsmanship.

Pocketful of borders (end papers)

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detail of end papers from "Pocketful of Posies"

I love the way end papers of a book can be purely decorative and bring a connection to the tradition of using marblized paper. There are no interfering words to accommodate and there’s freedom to work in a different way, but capture the essence of the book. For Pocketful of Posies‘ end papers, I used only flower thread and a background of wool felt,  which is plain and simple compared with the other illustrations.   

   

To make the border for this picture, I made patterns and cut out felt strips with a wavy edge. The four corners were cut out as separate pieces. The border sections were blanket stitched with my favorite variegated edging thread, Watercolours by Caron.   

   

Since the illustration was such a simple, flat chain stitched pattern, I thought the border could use some jazzy up. I embellished the border with glass beads and silk ribbon embroidery.   

   

I added some lavender rick rick to the inside edge of the border to help set it apart.   

   

All of the border sections were then sewn together into one continuous strip.   

   

Then, with pins, I positioned the border on the end paper illustration and stitched it in place on the upholstery background fabric.   

   

   

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

Faux Tiles

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When we built our house almost 20 years ago, I wanted to have a tile splash board behind the kitchen counters. The plan was to make my own hand painted tiles.

My friend Yvette showed me how to apply glazes onto unfired clay tiles. The tiles were fired in a kiln at the artisan tile business where she worked.

I made drawings and planned out a series of tiles that would create a panoramic landscape, decorated with animals and an occasional dish or basket of food. After a few test firings, I could see that the learning curve was too steep for me. The glazes were one color when you paint them and another when they are finished firing. The process was more involved than I had thought. The quality of my tests were not good and it would take a lot of practice to get the tiles to look the way I wanted.

Even though I really wanted to use ceramic tiles, I decided to make “faux tiles” instead. I ended up painting Masonite with acrylic paint and coating it with polyurethane.

I had fun trying to make them look like tiles, adding blue borders, with space between each painted square. With a jig saw, I cut out openings for the electric outlets. When people see our kitchen, they see a row of tiles, not paint on Masonite. The panel has held up well over the years and can be easily washed. I plan in making more for another area in the kitchen when we do some renovations.

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