Quilts in the Etsy Shop!

Right now I've got some lovely quilts in the shop looking for new homes - two vintage and two handmade. It's getting chilly out there so it's a good time to feather your nest with one of these beauties!
First up is this gorgeous vintage red and white quilt of colorful feedsack star blocks with red gingham sashing between. Charming as all heck.

UPDATE - this quilt is sold :-)

Below is the "Tangerine Dream" quilt i blogged about previously. I am so proud of it! I love that it features some gorgeous vintage prints in the middle and then makes use of some de-stash materials given to me by another quilting friend. One person's de-stash is another person's "Oh that's exactly what i need for a border!"

UPDATE - this quilt is sold :-)


Next up is another vintage jobbie - a lovely pink & blue checkerboard patchwork, this one is made of re-purposed fabric, in the classic "waste not, want not" fashion. If you look close you can see from the bottom photo that whomever made this quilt very carefully pieced the checkerboard fabric so that the grain is every-other and forms a herringbone pattern. Please check out this item in my shop, it would make a gorgeous bedspread for a girl's room or cottage-y guest room.


And finally, the Garden Patch quilt that I also bragged - er.... blogged about earlier. I love that my mom and I both had a hand in this one. Also, it's the perfect size for bringing along when you visit friends or relatives with le bebe - just spread it out on the floor and let baby play. :-)

These are going fast (thanks to an unseasonably cold New England autumn!) so if you are interested in any of these, snap 'em up!

COMING SOON: I just got in a great lot of vintage clothing, just in time for Halloween! Check back soon!

Garden Patch Baby Quilt / Play Mat

Just finished! This 45" x 46" quilt is perfect for a baby quilt or play mat for when you bring baby visiting, and is up on my Etsy shop now ready for purchase.

(click pic for a closer look :-)

This was an extra-fun project because it was a collaborative effort between my mom and me; she machine-pieced the quilt top out of cheerful pink, blue & green checks, ginghams, and garden prints (including a vintage-look seed packet material I am mad for!). Then she handed it off to me and I gave it batting, a backing of sturdy cotton in a morning glory print, and a contrasty binding of darker green. Quilted "in the ditch" both vertically and horizontally, and on the diagonal green inside border as well. Binding is machine and handstitched, as outlined here: http://crazymomquilts.blogspot.com/2008/10/binding-tutorial.html. I just love how it came out!

(the back)

This is a sturdy piece you can machine wash in cool water and hang to dry or machine tumble dry on low.

We hope you will love it as much as we loved making it for you!

A set of pillows called Alice

Youth had been a habit of hers
for so long that she could not part with it.
~ Rudyard Kipling ~


My friend Alice had a birthday.

Alice is a dear friend, a fellow poet and a fellow Crazy Cat Lady and loves purple as much as I do. She has also painted rooms in her house a delicious shade of mango and I couldn't resist putting together something for her that featured both of those colors. Of course, I had to put a cat in there somewhere, too.

The quilted covers have an envelope closure so you can remove them for easy washing; inside are homemade pillow forms. It was fun to see these in Alice's house; I don't always get to see where my handiwork ends up and I love to think my pieces are being used and enjoyed.

Happy Birthday, Alice! I adore you.

Birthdays are good for you.
The more you have, the longer you live.
~ unknown ~

a perpetual astonishment

Spring has returned. The Earth
is like a child that knows poems.

~ Rainer Maria Rilke ~


vernal pool under the power line




unfurling

horsetails in the vernal muck

snag. the mockingbird sang me
a song from that branch today.


Loyal Mr. Tim. Always up for
a walk through the bog.

each green slash a fern unfurling. in a
few weeks you won't be able to see
the ground beneath their green canopies



Every spring is the only spring -
a perpetual astonishment.
~ Ellis Peters ~


In springtime, love is carried on the breeze.
Watch out for flying passion or
kisses whizzing by your head.
~Emma Racine deFleur ~



In the spring, at the end of the day,
you should smell like dirt.
~ Margaret Atwood ~

in progress: the Neo-Boho Mango Cheezit Quilt

It started as a love affair between a nouveau-ish vintage paisley and a remnant from a be-ribboned curtain material. They lived together in my stash for a long time, then a friend who was de-stashing her fabrics gifted me with a load of great material (thanks Brooke!) that happened to have some perfect complements to these two, and Voila! a quilt was born.

I loved these so much I used a very simple
checkerboard center to keep the focus on the fabrics.

Modified log-cabin to surround the happy pairing.

A trip to Marden's scored me more yardage of that gorgeous
orange & mango flavored ... er.. patterned fabric.

A row of "stacked coins" on either end, with a different paisley for "end caps."

The top is done, all it needs now is a backing,
batting, quilting, and binding. The binding fabric
is a tiny vintage-repro floral that will bring out
more of those darker reds/oranges in the "stacked
coins" sections and tie the whole thing together.

Finished size will be right around 45" by 60" [correction - finished size is 43" x 63" ) - supposedly "crib quilt" size but goodness, it seems big for a crib; it would work as a coverlet on a twin bed or make a generous lap quilt for cuddling up with some Cheezits and watching LOST. Would also make a lovely wall hanging. If you are interested in using it as a wall hanging please let me know and I can add (at no extra cost) a sleeve into which you can slide a curtain rod for easy, neat hanging. I can put the sleeve on a long side or short, depending on how you'd like it oriented.

april poem-a-day challenge ~ day 12

Notification

So we decided to live our lives according
to the results of our Facebook quizzes, because
it seemed as good a method as any
to hoist ourselves out of the midlife rut of banality.
Never mind that the questions were written by 18 year olds
living in their parents’ basements; polls have shown
that those are the people scoring highest in happiness.
We started by moving to Florida, because we
like the sun but not too much and the “less many monuments,”
we embraced the famous persons we were in past lives --
your Picasso to my Queen Elizabeth, we became Sylvia Plath
and Courtney Love, we sent gifts of Pentagram Pizzas and
Smurfs and Albino Squirrels. We narrowed it down to our five
favorite everythings – five albums, five movies, five
breakfast cereals, all else became extraneous, unworthy
of mention. We joined the Freemasons, we allowed ourselves
to Say Anything. We accepted that our auras were most like
the color blue (or orange. or yellow.) and began to dress
accordingly, in our Blanche Devereaux outfits, with our red
high heels, and Keens, driving our Smart Cars to the
restaurant chains we were the most like, your Tim Horton’s
to my Chili’s. Now I know that Jesus thinks you’re a
sanctimonious prick, and now you know which crazy bitch
I am most like, so let us go forth.
Let us live our lives as though
we had truly been
Superpoked.

[I've been doing the poem-a-day challenge and using the prompts posted on Robert Lee Brewer's blog at Writer's Digest. Today's prompt was to start a poem with the words "So we decided to ..." ]

Plum Basket Quilt

Just finished today and up in the Etsy shop - a 38" x 39.5" quilt, just the right size for a lap quilt or crib quilt or, actually, what I would do with it is use it as a wall hanging. I used a combination of asian fabrics in plummy purples and blues, a lush Japanese kanji batik, and some calicos of aqua and yellows for something on the opposite of the color wheel. The pattern is a sort of basketweave adaptation. It's machine pieced and quilted and then bound using machine plus hand slip-stitching for an invisible bind at the back.

in progress, strips stitched and ready for sashing in between


quilting the "long lines" first

machine quilting around each square

to paraphrase my friend Brooke, here I am making binding my bitch ;-)
I used the binding method shown here in this tutorial: (click)

The back. I like how the quilting came out, with the stitching around each square.
The benefit to using dark thread to contrast
light backing fabric: it's eye-catching!
The drawback to using dark thread to contrast
light backing fabric: it's eye-catching!
(ie: it shows every misplaced stitch or tension glitch. yikes!)

another closeup of the back with
contrasting hand slip-stitched binding.

Available now in my Etsy shop.
[note: this item has sold]

my son's locks of love

He's been growing his hair out for this for about two years and today was the day. We didn't really plan it that way, but what a great way to mark the first day of Spring!

Jacob's hair will go to Locks of Love, so that a kid who has lost his or her hair to chemo or alopecia or any other medical condition can have a hairpiece made for them. Isn't my kid awesome?

Here's my little hippie before:

Here we've got the hair all sectioned off so that when we cut it we could get as much of the length as possible.

He thought that looked pretty goofy. ;-)

And here's the first section, coming off.

And here's my handsome boy after:

Yay for Jacob, for having the patience to see this through (not to mention putting up with me constantly nagging him about keeping it washed and brushed and out of his face! haha!)

I'm a very proud mom. :-)

two new pieces

Just posted in my Etsy shop this morning. These are two new mixed media collages, made from recycled materials and mounted on stretched canvas. The first shown here is the second in my new series which is an homage, of sorts, to the Buddha and to Chief Seattle.

"The Earth does not belong to Man.
Man belongs to the Earth.
All things are connected,
like the blood which unites one family.
We do not weave the web of life.
We are but a strand in the web of life.
What we do to the web we do to ourselves.
All things are connected."

~ Chief Seattle ~

"We Are All One" c. 2009 annie farnsworth
original mixed media collage on 9" x 12" stretched canvas

The next is another "second in a series" - the birthday homage with words excerpted from a favorite Henri J. Nouwen essay (see my previous blog!). These make great birthday gifts as the piece is both the card and the gift, and the piece is ready for hanging as is. And I can giftwrap and send these to the intended recipient, gift wrap is free. :-)

"So Glad You Were Born" c. 2009 annie farnsworth
original mixed media collage 9"x12" stretched canvas

Is one of your favorite someones having a birthday soon? Drop me a note and I'll make a custom birthday piece; you specify colors, favorite places or hobbies, totem animals, astrological sign... whatever... and I can whip something up that will resonate for that special someone. I LOVE custom work. :-)

recent work with words and images

"So Glad You Were Born" c. 2009 annie farnsworth
original mixed media collage on 9"x12" stretched studio canvas

Henri J. Nouwen wrote:

"Birthdays need to be celebrated. I think it is more important to celebrate a birthday than a successful exam, a promotion, or a victory. Because to celebrate a birthday means to say to someone: "Thank you for being you." Celebrating a birthday is exalting life and being glad for it. On a birthday we do not say: "thanks for what you did, or said, or accomplished." No, we say: "Thank you for being born and for being among us."

On birthdays we celebrate the present. We do not complain about what happened or speculate about what will happen, but we lift someone up and let everyone say: "We love you."

Celebrating a birthday reminds us of the goodness of life, and in this spirit we really need to celebrate people's birthdays everyday, by showing gratitude, kindness, forgiveness, gentleness, and affection. These are ways of saying: "it's good that you are alive; it's good that you are walking with me on this earth. Let's be glad and rejoice."

This was a gift for my sister.
Happy Birthday, Joani!
I am grateful you are walking with me on this earth.


"So Glad You Were Born" c. 2009 annie farnsworth

"We Are All One" c. 2009 annie farnsworth
original mixed media collage on 9"x12" stretched studio canvas

This was a "thank you" piece for my friend Eric who was kind enough to do a shamanic journey for my son and me when we were going through a hard time. I credit Eric for much of my healing and am ever grateful for his work. If you are interested in energy work or having someone take a journey to the ethers on your behalf, contact me and I will get you some contact info.

The finished piece is mounted on a 9"x12" stretched canvas. I've been doing that with my collages lately because it really gives them more presence and heft and they are ready to hang as is. The edges are "finished" and hanging hardware is included so no fussing with mats or framing is required.

"Everlasting Truth" c. 2009 annie farnsworth

I was grateful to have this little piece of "pocket art" included in an Etsy treasury recently. And it sold! Alas, it is so tiny I somehow "misplaced" it! I had put it in a nice safe place so it wouldn't get lost - (ha ha fat lot of good that did, yes?) Anyway, it did turn up just a few days later (indeed it was in a safe place!) and it is now winging its way to Hawaii where, coincidentally, another of my hummingbird ACEOs ended up. I love that they are both there in that beautiful, sunny place. Both pieces part of my ongoing "Yogi Tea Tag "series of ACEOs, of which more can be seen in my shop. :-)

I have two more mounted collages finished and ready to put up in my Etsy shop; will try to get some decent pics of them today since it's a sunny day, the Maine weather isn't blowing snow or freezing rain, and I can take photos outside in natural light. Have also been working on two quilt projects that will be ready soon..... stay tuned! :-)