“Robin On The Hay Bale” Potholders

Maybe the potholder was really an excuse to be outside on this warm spring day.  Or an excuse to sit in the pole barn and spend some time with Robin and Lori.

If so it was the perfect excuse.

I wanted to get a feel for Robin that comes with observing, with knowing.  I’ve found that one way to know anybody or anything is to draw them.  When I draw something I pay attention in a particular way.  Not to replicate realistically in dimension and detail but to evoke the feeling of the being or thing.

I’ve never drawn a lamb before. Whenever I want to draw something for the first time, I’m never sure I’m going to be able to do it in a way that satisfies me.

But I’ve also learned that repetition is the way to get to where I want to be.

So this morning as I sat in the pole barn watching Robin, moving when he did to get a better view of him, I drew him and parts of him again and again to get the lines right.  And when I got it right, I practiced drawing them again and again, until I found myself drawing each line with a confidence I didn’t have when I first began.

All the while, I was keeping in mind that I’ll be stitching my final drawings with my sewing machine on fabric so it’s all about the line.

Back in my studio, I did a few more drawings, placing Robin on top of the hay bale.  I first saw him standing on a hay bale yesterday when we got back from our trip.  His jumping onto and off the hay bales speak to his playfulness which is the part of him I was interested in capturing.

After I got the pencil drawing right, I threaded my sewing machine and tested out just how small I could make his nose, mouth, and eyes, so they would still be expressive.  Drawing with my sewing machine is a very different experience than drawing with a 4B pencil on paper.

But from the beginning, free-motion stitching came naturally to me.  So the translation from pencil and paper to sewing machine and fabric didn’t take long.

When I felt just as confident with the stitched lines as I did the pencil lines,  I propped up my drawings of Robin for guidance and began to sew.

I’m going to fill in the haybale a bit more, then I think it will be just right.

I’ll make some more drawings of Robin on the Haybale this week then sew them into potholders.  I’m not sure how many I’ll be making probably 10 or so.

They will be $30 each + $5 shipping for one or more.  You can email me if you think you’d like one, or I’ll be selling them in my Etsy Shop, probably sometime next week.