An example is pictured below: a pair of fulled (felted) thick woolen mittens, lined with luscious, soft, purple lambswool from another sweater. The asymmetrical designs on the mittens are needle-felted. Now if we only had some snow…..

Much of the sewing was done by hand, which meant I could do it from bed. In addition to the clothing you see here, I created miniature sweaters for these two from re-purposed felted lambswool and cashmere sweaters.

The package is still on its way to them, a bit late.

Now I can return to my beloved banner project.

More storm photos at www.sanctuarywithoutwalls.com.

Earth, Water, Fire and Air ~ what you see below are the Earth pages. The book is made from an altered child’s board book, with stamping, collage, painting, chalk, and more. The tabs on the right are part of the original board book; they’ve been perfect for labeling each page. The photo of St. Francis was taken in the garden of a place I stayed near Asheville, NC.

The Water, Fire and Air pages are almost complete, so eventually you’ll find those here as well. In the meantime, backed-up custom orders absorb my time.

If you have made altered books, please leave a comment with a link. I’d like to see your work!

This has been in process since May. It makes my heart sing to work with colors I love and symbols that are important to me.

Made of cotton fabrics via applique´.

She wrote:

“The Crow Worthy Award:  It’s not just about attracting attention, though it is distinct enough to be identified in a crowded sidebar. Rather it is more about complimenting you who have shared your stories, photos, knowledge and, most importantly, kindness with your heartfelt blogs.  It’s a way to say thank you for the funny stories, the friendship, and all those words of wisdom sent as comments and emails. . . .That’s it; just a way to say thank you, I like you, and I hope you keep writing your wonderful posts.”

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And many thanks to you, for thinking of me! Visit Whimseytopia to see the marvelous creations there.

Ever wonder about this thing called “creativity?” How people actually get ideas, do the work, and share it with others? Today I came across this blog post that has some spot-on daily-living advice for creative people. It’s by Austin Kleon, and it’s worth a visit.

Here are a few quotes from it:

An artist is a collector. Not a hoarder, mind you, there’s a difference: hoarders collect indiscriminately, the artist collects selectively. They only collect things that they really love.

Your job is to collect ideas. The best way to collect ideas is to read. Read, read, read, read, read. Read the newspaper. Read the weather. Read the signs on the road. Read the faces of strangers. The more you read, the more you can choose to be influenced by.

Step one, “do good work,” is incredibly hard. There are no shortcuts. Make stuff every day. Fail. Get better.

Step two, “put it where people can see it,” was really hard up until about 10 years ago. Now, it’s very simple: “put your stuff on the internet.”

So let me (and AK) know what you think about what he has to say.

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The fire warms me as I work.

These rabbits were adapted from a design by Helen Philipps, in her book Simple Sewn Gifts. She used linen, cotton, embroidery floss and polyester stuffing; I used lambswool and cashmere felted sweaters, wool stuffing, needle-felted features, and I added tails (one per rabbit).

The girls discovered their dollies would fit in the rabbits’ straps:  Voila! Bunny-carriers!

Above is the beginning of the “Earth” page. It is made from a repurposed children’s board book, assembled with a collage of maps, a salvaged library pocket, paper napkins, ink-jet images, stamps (rubber and postage), and  more. The page is not done yet, so watch for another post  -  I cannot guarantee when that day will come. It’s a busy time in the studio!

And for fun: