That green fabric surrounding my Raven quilt has a pattern that makes it tricky to photograph well. I think once I hang the quilt on my wall the colors will show more accurately. It’s frustrating not to be able to get a good picture of it at this stage.
But I’m still working on it, so that photo will have to wait. I’ll bring it outside the get the colors right if I have to.
For now, I am just about done piecing the top together. It’s just those blue strips on the sides that need to be sewn on.
Jon had an unexpected visit to his foot surgeon this morning. He’ll have another surgery on his foot next Monday (you can read about it here).
But that didn’t stop me from working on my quilt and even if it’s not all sewn together, now I know what it will look like when it’s done.
My plan is to finish the top tomorrow and start working on the backing.
Saturday morning I woke up thinking about my Raven Quilt. I had done some work on it and at that moment I knew it wasn’t right.
So Saturday afternoon I went to my studio and took apart what I had done the day before. Then I laid out some fabric that felt good to me. It all came about quickly, but I didn’t have time to sew it all together.
On Sunday I woke again thinking about my quilt.
This time I saw one of the mushrooms I had made when working on my Raven fabric painting. It didn’t make it into that piece, but I knew it would be perfect for my quilt.
The mushroom, ( the color isn’t quite right, I’ll try again tomorrow when the light is better)
I only got to my studio after lunch because I was busy mailing out my Flour Sack Potholders in the morning. But when I got there, I didn’t have to think about what to do next, the fabric was already laid out on my floor.
Standing Raven
Next, it was time for the standing Raven and the mushroom. They needed to be grounded on the bottom of this section of the quilt.
I wanted to keep working, but it was time to feed the animals, and I knew I wouldn’t get back to my studio. So I stayed just long enough to lay out the next step….
I got a little work done on my Raven Quilt today. I’ll add another of my Raven paintings to the quilt. This one is on the ground.
I painted the back of the grounded Raven to show the old hand stitching on the quilt I painted the bird on.
I’ll do more of the same with the strips of fabric to incorporate this second image into the quilt.
I don’t know if I’ll have time to work on it tomorrow. I want to finish up my Flour Sack Potholders. Half of them are already sold, but there are 16 of them, so there will still be plenty for me to sell in my Etsy Shop.
The Ravens continue to show up on the Farm. One flew right over Jon’s head as he was taking pictures of his flowers this morning.
For only the second time this summer, I heard the call of a young hawk. In the past a pair of hawks have nested close enough by for me to hear the young hawk’s repetitive cries, and see the parent Hawks, hunting in the fields.
But this year is different. The Ravens seem to have taken their place.
Last night, when I got up to go to the bathroom, I heard a Great Horned Owl. I went outside and listened to a conversation between two owls, one close by and the other some distance away. There were also screeching sounds that I think were begging calls coming from a young owl.
I heard these last year too. It’s the young owl calling out to its parents for food.
Nancy sent me this photo of her Maine Coon, Pete, and my Raven fabric painting.
I spent the morning mailing out my Raven Magnets. Twenty-five orders filled and 40 magnets sold so far. There are still some available, you can buy them here.
Then Nancy sent me a couple of photos of my Raven fabric painting hanging in her home. Her daughter helped her hang it.
That gorgeous cat, sitting on the sill next to it, is Pete. Nancy said he just kept staring at the Raven when she first hung it up.
Tomorrow I’ll send out the Raven Magnets that people have been buying since I posted them for sale in my Etsy Shop yesterday. But this morning I was able to get to my studio and work on my Raven quilt before driving Jon to the dentist.
I got some more done and have the next step laid out on my floor for when I get back to work tomorrow afternoon.
My Raven Magnet is $7 including shipping you can buy it in my Etsy Shop.
My Raven Magnets came in the mail today. They are 3″x 2 3/4″ and are $7 each including shipping.
Somehow, this magnet has a different feeling to me. Like in this form, by making it smaller, my fabric painting has been transformed into a talisman or fetish. A charm that has some mojo to it.
You can buy my Raven Magnets in my Etsy Shop, just click here. Or you can email me at [email protected]. I take checks, PayPal, and Venmo.
It was a few months ago, just before I began making the five quilts for Ellen, that I laid out the fabric on my floor.
But I never got any further with it. When I started working on Ellen’s quilts I put the fabric pieces in a baggie and put it aside. I took a picture of it first, so I would remember.
After the quilts came the Raven.
But when I had a bunch of painted ravens hanging in my studio, I pulled out the bag of fabric. I knew it would somehow work with one or more of my painted ravens.
Today I started sewing the fabric strips together and one of my flying Ravens fit with it perfectly. This is the beginning of my next quilt.
I put my order in with our local printers for my Raven Postcards. I hung the fabric painting on a piece of dyed black fabric and took a photo of it. The black has a bit of modulation to the color that I liked. Then I added the gray border.
Below is what the magnet will look like. It’s about 3″square. I hope to get both sometime next week. I’ll be selling them in my Etsy Shop.
I’m thinking of making a poster too, but am still working on that.
My Raven Fabric Painting (in the box) ready for shipping. And some of the Potholders I finished up this week and already sold, ready to be shipped.
“Did you hear the Raven?” I asked Jon when I got back into the car. We were at the postoffice and I had just sent my Raven fabric painting off to her new home.
He had, it made it’s raucous caw as I walked through the parking lot, the box in my arms.
I have to admit, it took me all morning and half the afternoon to put my Raven fabric painting in a box. I always love to see my art make its way into the world, to live its life, but my Raven was a little hard to let go of.
And putting a Raven in a box, well, that’s a whole other thing.
The day before Jon and I were getting ice cream after burying Minnie. We tend to treat ourselves to lunch or dinner out when one of our animals die. We sat in the car, eating our ice cream and talking about how good my Raven fabric painting would look in our living room. I could picture it on the wall above where the fish tank used to be.
Jon said he’s love to have it, but as we talked he said he had a feeling that it was sold.
Even when he looked in my Etsy Shop and it wasn’t there, I didn’t believe him. So I pulled up my email and there it was a message from Etsy and a message from Karen who bought it.
Karen wrote that she’d been following my blog as I made my Raven fabric painting and thought it was sold. When it wasn’t she bought it. She lives near a lake and loves the wildlife around it, especially the ravens. “I’ll send you a picture of it hanging when I get it”, Karen wrote.
As I read the email out loud to Jon, two ravens flew over the car.
Now that she’s on her way, I’m thrilled that my Raven will soon be home. I can’t wait to see a picture.
I’m working on making postcards and magnets of my Raven fabric painting.
I’m also going to make a Raven piece for me and Jon. Because as Jon wrote on his blog this morning, Raven has gotten under his skin and into his soul in a way that a wild animal never has before.
My Raven fabric Painting. It is Sold for sale, you can buy it here.
My Raven fabric painting is Sold. for sale. It is 40″x 44″ and is $450 +$20 shipping. You can buy it in my Etsy Shop, just click here. Or you can email me at [email protected]. I take checks, PayPal and Venmo.
Now, let me tell you the story of my Raven.
Four times I thought it had found a home. I got four emails from four people who really wanted my Raven. But one by one, they changed their minds all good reasons, like the size wasn’t right or they couldn’t afford it, that I understood.
The unusual part was how excited each person seemed about it, but then something stopped them from getting it.
Raven took me on a bit of a ride. And when it was done, I was in a different place.
Raven is a powerful symbol. One so powerful it took me a year to start creating its image. I read how it would bring transformation even death in one form or another. I wasn’t ready for that. But Raven kept showing up and eventually, I was ready.
When all the emailing between me and potential buyers was done, I could feel myself headed for a bad place. Was my Raven too big, too expensive maybe not even a good piece of art?
So I went into my studio to see.
There on the wall hung my Raven. My stitched and painted image of the Raven on an old quilt. There were the old hand-sewn stitches, highlighted in blue paint, brought back to life. There were my woodland mushrooms, just where they were supposed to be. And there was the raven in flight, moving from one place to another.
It was a good even powerful piece of art, I could see that, I could feel it. Looking at it I knew, from now on, when I want to conjure up Raven magic, it will be this fabric painting that I envision.
I also knew I could go down that dark road of self-doubt I’d been before, or I could take a lesson from the Raven. That powerful bird who encourages us to be the enchanter in our own lives.
“You must put aside your fear of being a voice in the wilderness….as you learn to allow your personal integrity to be your guide…”
“Shapeshift that old reality and become your future self,” write Jamie Sams and David Carson in Medicine Cards.
I took a lesson from Raven and decided to trust myself and my art. And I trust Raven too. I believe that my Raven knows where she wants to be.
If that person is you, you can buy my Raven Fabric painting in my Etsy Shop, just click here. Or you can email me at [email protected].
My paintings of the ravens come from photos I took of the ravens who live on the farm. The mushrooms are painted from photos I’ve taken of mushrooms on my walks in the woods in the past few years.
After I painted them, I stitched the images using my free-motion sewing machine. You can read and see pictures of the whole process from the beginning. Just click here.
All the mushrooms come from the photos I took while walking in the woods.
I painted the image of my flying raven from a video I took of the Ravens on the farm flying from tree to tree.
