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We’re back on the grid! Going without power for the past two days didn’t stop me from stitching, though. The only electricity I usually need is for a lamp, so I adapted to the circumstances. I felt like a Jane Austen character, sitting and stitching near the light of the window during the day and sewing by lamp light in the evening. Sandy’s high winds blew down a lot of trees in town and some roads along Vineyard Sound were flooded, but we weren’t hit as bad as some places to our south and west. Our neighbor with a generator offered to put our frozen food in their freezer, so we saved some sentimental items from thawing, like soup from our garden veggies and striped bass that our son caught. Back in the spring, when I started working on Birds of Beebe Woods, robins were in abundance,  hopping around the yard. After making the larger, dominant crow, I added a robin to the piece, placing it in the center, down on the ground. Compared to the smaller, realistic looking birds that were made later, the crow and robin’s bodies are more abstract, with stylized patterns on their wings and breast. My approach to rendering the birds seems to have changed during the 4 months that I worked on the piece. Toward the end, when I sewed the nuthatch, chickadee and warbler, I referred to photographs more closely and was caught up in making them identifiable and naturalistic. I like to combine realism and abstraction. In keeping with the robin’s perky nature, I curved the bird like a sideways apostrophe, with its tail flaring upwards.  The red breast presented a opportunity to play around with warm tones and metallic thread. To see more posts about the making of Birds of Beebe Woods, see the archives here. A 18″ x 24″ poster (pictured at the beginning of this post) is available through my Etsy Shop. Also, the piece is part of “Intimate Woods”, a fiber art exhibit at Highfield Hall in Falmouth, MA. through November 16, 2012. Then it will be on exhibit (along with 2 original illustrations from Pocketful of Posies) December 1st, 2nd, 7th, 8th and 9th at the Plymouth Antiquarian Society’s Fairy Christmas at Hedge House Museum, Plymouth, MA. My friend and maker of wonderful things, Mimi Kirchner drove down from Arlington on Monday and we spent the day together. For those of you who haven’t discovered Mimi, visit her blog, Doll, as soon as you read this post. She  inspired me to write my own blog and just recently, to open an Etsy shop. We met 30 years ago, when we were members of the Christmas Store, a seasonal craft coop in Cambridge, MA. We always have a lot to talk about because we’re interested in the same kind of things and our lives have taken us in similar directions, both personally and professionally. Mimi brought a Tattoo magazine that features her tattooed dolls in their Christmas gift guide. She also showed me the new Land of Nod catalog that includes several of her doll designs. It was a glorious fall day and we talked about art and our lives as  we walked from my house, through Beebe Woods and into Falmouth center to have lunch. It was great to see you, Mimi!

Even though Halloween is just around the corner, I figure that there’s still time to fit in a seasonal giveaway. Three people (from the US and Canada) will be picked at random to win 2 autographed 18″ x 24″ posters, one of “On Halloween”, which is a double page spread from my picture book, You and Me: Poems of Friendship, and one Blossom Fairies poster, which features 16 fairy dolls from my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: Enchanting Projects. To enter the Giveaway, please leave a comment on this blog by midnight, October 25th, EST.

“On Halloween” posters are also being given away for free during the month of October, with a purchase of any poster in my Etsy Shop. Other posters for sale include Birds of Beebe Woods, Rabbitat, Blossom Fairies, and Self Portrait: A Personal History of Fashion. I wanted to include a warbler in the Birds of Beebe Woods piece and found that a handful of varieties live in our area, each with their own distinct markings. I liked the look of the black throated green warbler best and thought its color patterns and striped wings would show up against the brownish gold background fabric.

To start, I found many photographs of warblers in books and on the internet and sketched until I found a pose that fit into the  scene of birds. After making paper patterns, I cut out the bird’s shape from acid free matt board and cut pieces of white, green, black and yellow from wool felt. Thinking ahead, I glued cheap acrylic felt to the back of the matt board body, so there would be something to grab the stitches while the front felt piece was later being sewn in place. I also basted thick wool felt padding to the top of the matt board piece. I embroidered the texture and markings on the warbler’s green head. The bead eye is sewn inside a cut out hole in the yellow felt. Periodically, I would hold the bird up against the background fabric, to make sure there was enough contrast.

I used a combination of blanket stitch, fly stitch and lots of little single stitches. The wing’s stripes were defined by chain stitched lines. To finish, I made a little felt tail and added thread wrapped wire legs. Then, the black throated green warbler was ready to join the flock.

To see more posts about the making of Birds of Beebe Woods, see the archives here. An 18″ x 24″ poster (pictured at the beginning of this post) and note cards are available through my Etsy Shop. In the spirit of fall and the upcoming Halloween festivities, I will be slipping a free poster into every mailing tube that’s sent from Wee Folk Studio. From now until October 31st, customers will receive a free 18″ x 24″ On Halloween poster with the purchase of any poster from my Etsy Shop.