​ Ok - the photograph of the piece could have turned out better but....

I decided to make a learning tool for the babe of a friend who loves her animals.  I wanted something that was more than a blanket - something that could be used to tell stories and help a kid learn to talk about their world, to discover colors and all that good stuff.

Luckily, I found the best fabric and interspersed it with the rather large collection of animal fabrics I already possessed and tada! 

The piece is 44inches by 36 inches; each piece was first sewed onto the backing before each edge was embroidered over top.  The binding was attached by sewing machine (thanks mom!).  

I'm thrilled that both my friend and her wee bairn love the piece and get a lot of use from it! 

About two weeks ago, while I was still waiting for the final bits I ordered for the NJF piece I am working on, I decided that I needed to do a challenge piece.  By challenge piece, I mean have someone challenge me to do a piece that was all one color.  Now this could also work for things like all floral prints, all solids, etc.  For this one, it was color and my partner picked blue (and thus the title of my post!).

I also decided to restrict the piece by size (no more the 15" x 12") and I could only use items I already had in house - no ordering decorations or fabric or anything! luckily, I had navy blue binding I could use for the edges!). 

I also sewed a pocket on the back to insert a dowel in order to make it easier to hang up the piece.

Overall I love the look and am pretty happy with how the piece turned out.  My first finished piece of 2015!

Creating wall hangings was the start of my 'artistic career' (so to speak).  I create them for a specific person/group of people; they contain images and textures that reflect the individual person/people. Some of these pieces have been incredibly easy to create; others have been excruciating - not because I didn't want to do it or hated the subject matter - but because I agonized over each piece of fabric, each charm, each placement. I wanted it just right and I wanted the subject(s) reflected by the piece to feel good about my interpretation.

Over on my road trip blog, I recently made a post about Michael. We have known each other for 21 years and have had more ups and downs then a Dorney Park roller coaster but back in 2009,  I felt very strongly that I needed to create a piece about him.  We weren't actually a part of each other's lives at that time, but it was a project my heart really wanted to do so I got to work.  I gathered all kinds of fabric and utilized some new techniques (such as printing photos onto adhesive backed fabric). I even went into my 'Michael memory box' and pulled out some really special treasures that I felt should be a part of the piece. 

But when it was time to put the piece together - I just couldn't - my emotions just made it impossible to put something together that looked half decent.  So I packed it away and hoped I would feel up to the challenge of finishing it at a later time.

Fast forward 5 years to a completely different emotionally complicated now - but a now that was inspiring me to complete this piece.  A big part of it was that although he has given me the gift of his photographs (go see here) on more then one occasion,  I hadn't every gifted him with any of my original artwork. So after he arrived in Chicago, I spent a solid 4 days and finished the piece.

I'm not going to share every intimate detail here about what everything means, some stories are left for telling by someone else.  But I did want to point out some of the bits that you might find interesting or special.

• There is a photo of Michael and his dog, Molly on a hike - that is a photo printed on adhesive backed fabric (as is the tiny photo of the two of us together)
  
• There are license plates from the 3 states where he has lived/is living - Illinois, New Mexico and Pennsylvania.  These are all cut from fabric printed with license places from each state. (If anyone has any of this laying about that they aren't using - I'd be happy to take it off your hands!)
• When we first met - he had a grey '88 Grand Prix - I LOVED THAT CAR! I honed my driving skills driving cross country in "Esmeralda".  It had over 205,000 miles on it when it was finally dragged off to the junk yard (kicking & screaming, I'd like to think). There is actually a name plate from the car sewn onto the piece along with my car keys....2 very special items that are difficult to part with but add so much meaning to the finished artwork. The name plate was yanked off the car and came away in 3 sections so isn't in the best condition - it took a lot of thread to anchor it securely.

A close-up of the name plate & car keys....

This piece really was a labor of love and I'm pretty pleased with the final result. The finished piece is one of the largest I've done - approximately 22 inches x 34 inches (give or take a few inches each way) and while that doesn't sound large, trying to get into the middle of piece that large to do the embroidery while maneuvering around lots of pins can be a challenge.  But I'm pleased to say I managed not to bleed on it and it looks rather nice, I think.

I have tried to sign every piece I make but I usually just write on the back with a sharpie (unlike my mom who carefully embroiders her name, date & the recipient on the back of each of her creations! so gorgeous!) but this time I used the 'print on adhesive backed fabric thing' and stuck it to the back.  Of course the sharpie still made an appearance because I had to edit the label.

Yesterday, I carefully packed up the piece and sent it to him in Chicago.  No one else has seen it yet - I wanted him to be the first.  I won't publish this post until after he sees it - just because, you know? Art usually speaks when the body can't.