Kristin Shields Quiltmaker

The Spirit of the Wood

My Novel Idea quilt is done!  The Spirit of the Wood was inspired by The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, which was chosen as the Deschutes Public Library Novel Idea Book this year.  This fabulous story was itself inspired by the Russian folktale of The Snow Child or The Snow Maiden.  It is set in Alaska in the 1920's and tells the story of a childless couple who somehow come to know a small girl who survives in the Alaskan winters in the company of a red fox.  Previous posts are here and here.

I read this book during the snowiest part of our winter, just after Christmas, and it was magical.  There are so many passages that are evocative of the time and place, so many opportunities to be creatively inspired.  I took notes and could have made a dozen different quilts.  It was very hard to pare it down to the things I most wanted to have in my quilt.  In fact, if I had the time I have two other ideas I'd love to make into quilts!

The fox was the very first thing I wanted to have here and it was a bit of a challenge to try to get an approximation of the colors and the eyes.  Faces are always a challenge for me, but in the folk art tradition, eyes do not have to be symmetrical and perfect.  In this quilt, the Spirit of the Wood may be the fox, the owl, or even the trees.  I needed a title that wasn't just "The Snow Child" and spent a 1/2 hour browsing the pages to find something that would fit.  How perfect is this name given that embroidered "S"!  

While there were many different animals mentioned in the book (I made a list of over 30), I didn't notice owls.  However, this one just begged to be included and adds the touch of color I wanted up there by the moon.

The "S" could signify snow child, snow, snowflakes, snow angels, stars, swan feathers, spirit or even Shields.  I think it looks a bit like a cloud in the sky.  

Subtle elements I included are the snow angels and swan feathers, both important to the story.  In addition to the wonderful plot of this book, there are many references to hand sewing and embroidery.  I tried to emulate Mabel's hand stitched snowflakes.

The book title is couched to the bottom of the panel with some of my hand spun yarn and embroidery floss.

The panel itself is made from a vintage table runner that already had the crocheted edging.  I cut it in half and dyed it in indigo last summer, before I knew about the book project.  I love reusing vintage textiles this way.  In fact, the "S" fabric is an indigo dyed vintage hanky, the snow is made from two different vintage (and well used) kitchen linen towels.  The edging at the top is an indigo overdyed linen table cloth.  It's the only part that was machine sewed because I was running out of time and my fingers were too sore to contemplate hand sewing it down.  The trees and fox were hand dyed by me (except the trunks which are a commercial batik).

I hope you enjoyed this mini tour of The Spirit of the Wood.  This piece will hang in the QuiltWorks gallery for the whole month of April.  The reception is Friday, April 5, 5-7 pm and there will be 50-60 quilts in this Snow Child exhibit.  I've seen many of them and it's going to be amazing!  We hope the author will have a chance to see the quilts when she comes for her lectures the first weekend of May.

Cross Currents Stitchwork

I got some unexpected free time this afternoon, so another in progress post!  Today I was working on adding surface design by stitching by machine and by hand.  Adding interest to individual blocks before putting them together is something I've been doing in my work in Jude Hill's classes as well.  Here I am mixing both machine and hand stitching even in the same blocks.  When looking at Rosalie's pieces, it's very interesting to see how she has combined all sorts of techniques. 

One of the things she mentioned is to not say to yourself I can't do that, but, rather, how can I do that?  All of these things I've done could be accomplished by either machine or by hand and you get different looks.  It's nice to see the difference and variety though.

I brought home several blocks with the intention of adding more surface stitching before starting to join them tomorrow.

Colors in the above photos are rather washed out, but the colors below are a bit better.  I am looking forward to getting this piece out into natural light for a real photo shoot.

Tomorrow is a very full day, so hopefully I'll be able to post more on Friday.  More later!

Purple Heaven

My Mitered Crosses Blanket continues to grow!  Yesterday I got my package from Ann at Mason-Dixon Knitting. What a cool prize it is!  Lots of yarn- way lots, Rowan pattern books, a fingerless mitts kit, circular needles and a DVD!  I think I'm going to have to share.  Chloe already has her eye on the mitts pattern.  Thanks Ann and Kay for having this drawing!

Well whad'ya know- I won!

Over at Mason-Dixon Knitting, Ann and Kay held a little drawing for a basket of knitting goodies.  In order to enter you had to post a project on Ravelry made with Kay's new Mitered Crosses Blanket pattern.  This pattern is designed as a fundraiser for Mercy Corp in Japan and has already made about $10,000!  That's a lot of patterns people!  Plus, there are 268 projects for this pattern on Ravelry.  I did not expect to win!

I jumped on the pattern before the contest because the blocks were fabulous.  Now the blanket is complete and it's even more fabulous.  Those are my first two blocks above and I'm on the third.  I'm still having carpel tunnel issues and maybe even some arthritis.  Knitting is going to go slowly for me, but I'm determined.  

Just for fun, I have to post these photos below.  I had the great fortune to meet Ann and Kay  at the Magical Moebius Festival with Cat Bordhi in 2007.   What a fun time that was.  Ann and Kay are just as hilarious in real life as on their blog.  

I also got to meet Ann Buechner on the left who designed the fabulous Flying Geese Blanket in Mason Dixon Knitting.

Fun times were had by all!  Thank you so much Ann and Kay for your generosity, both to me and to the people of Japan!

Little Tree

This very special little tree is from Kaite, all the way from Australia!  It's made from Kaite's beautiful handspun yarn.  I'm saving this for one of my slow cloth pieces.  Thank you so much Kaite!

Christmas Knits

There were several Christmas knits this year.  Above are Ryan's Maine Morning Mitts.  This is a favorite pattern that makes a gender neutral mitt.  I used leftover balls of Kureyon and so they go together, but do not match.  And, I just realized one of them is upside down!  I'll have to show Ryan how that thumb gusset works!

Chloe's Forbes Forest Scarf is finally done after two years in the making.  She loves it and had forgotten about it, so it was a surprise.

This amazing, soft as a bunny, alpaca and merino poncho was made by my sister.  Cheryl has started a new blog where she is showcasing her glass art.  Please go take a look!  I don't know how she found time to knit this gorgeous piece, but I'm so thankful to have a multi-talented sister!

I also made two dog sweaters using the Soho Cables pattern.  My parents' new pup, Bo, is still young enough that chewing is a major problem.  We didn't even try the sweater on him and I forgot to get a photo of it before gifting.  Scrabble, being an old pro with the sweater routine, was happy to oblige with this picture.  Speaking of being an old pro, Scrabble turned 6 in December!  

HKF

Just call me the Hat Knitting Fool.  This week, it's all about the hats.  I'm desperate to use up the yarn stash and I have tons of single skeins of yarn.  Some are hand spun like the second one down and the two at the bottom.  Some are hand dyed like the third one down.  I know I said no knitting here, but sometimes you just need some blog fodder.  Thanks very much to my beautiful model Chloe.  The first hat is the only one that is hers and luckily, the one she loves most!   All the details can be found on my Ravelry page (id- stitchinghands).  

Finally feeling like myself again

I'm finally feeling like myself again after nearly a week of fever, coughing and general malaise.  I can't believe I missed what is known around these parts as near perfect fall weather.  Of course, now that I feel good, the temps are dropping and the precipitation is heading in.  Meanwhile, I kept myself busy taming a huge pile of hand dyed Blue Faced Leicester roving.  I hand dyed these myself with food colors a couple of months ago.  My wheel sometimes goes for months without a workout, but the time seemed right to get some of that taken care of while watching dvd's and Netflix.

This pretty pink will become a ribwarmer vest for a little someone I know.  The one below is from roving my mom got me in Alaska.  She said specifically to make something for myself, so this is a scarf for me!

I was able to enjoy some of the good weather from the back patio, glorious as it was.  Tomorrow we are off for another college visit!  There are still a few more schools to see in November before Chloe takes the plunge and decides which to apply to.  

Have a great weekend!