Sunset after Rain

An artist friend, Pam Holnback, says that no matter what you paint, it's a process of putting shapes of light and color onto the canvas. I'm not a painter, but I do notice light. As I was driving to town the other night, I was so awed by the light of the sunset reflecting on the wet highway that I pulled off the road and tried to photograph it. I like this image, but I wish it showed the driving lanes of the highway reflecting the light, instead of the shoulder. I'm not going to stand in the middle of the highway to take a picture, though!

Keely's Fair Exhibits

Well done!

This week, Keely entered two exhibits in the Marketable Crafts section of the fair in Hopkinsville (Western Kentucky State Fair). One exhibit was a "Wild Thing" she had crocheted (based on the Maurice Sendak book, Where the Wild Things Are). The other exhibit was a "Veil of Isis" shawl, knitted with lace-weight yarn.

We're very pleased that Keely's Wild Thing took second place in his category. The first place ribbon went to a cute Teddy bear.

And Keely's Veil of Isis shawl won first place in it's category and grand champion of the entire Marketable Crafts section. It's a large, light-weight, beaded lace shawl. The small size when folded is due to the very fine yarn used to make it.

Keely's already talking about what she might make for the fair next year. The other exhibitors may not realize it yet, but their competition is now a lot stiffer than it used to be.

Keely has been knitting for maybe four years. Her friends at work got her started, and she took to it like a duck takes to water, as the saying goes. I can't claim any credit at all for her knitting skills. However, I did introduce her to crochet when she was about ten years old. I hoped she would entertain herself with it for a few hours. As you can see, my plan was successful.

Keely's Been Knitting

Link, in yarn

Keely's always working on a craft project. She finished crocheting this little fellow recently. He's Link, a character from a video game, and he'll be a Christmas present to a friend. At far right, you can see part of a grayish-blue ball -- I think that's a body part of the knitted turtle that she was doing next.

Two Ideas for Lace and Ribbon Scraps

Using leftover sewing and craft supplies

(Warning: Guys, this post is "girly". Better luck next time!)

Lace and ribbon scraps, with buttons. Photo by rsharts)

If you sew or do crafts, you probably have some bits and pieces of lace, ribbon, etc. that are too big to throw away but too small for most projects. Here are a couple of easy ideas for using them.

Handmade ribbon and lace tassel

Keely and I saw a cute, Christmas-colored, ribbon and lace tassel in the "Homemade Christmas" ornaments at a store last December . It would be easy to make your own Christmas tassels with leftover ribbon, lace, rick-rack, other trims, yarns or yarn braids, etc.

A handmade tassel, attached to a cord or a wide ribbon or a band of fabric, would make a good curtain tie-back in a room with country or folk-art accents.

I found this blog tutorial that shows how to make a beautiful, fancy tassel. But you don't have to go to those extremes. Martha Stewart thinks tassels are a good thing, and she has a short tutorial on making ribbon tassels. Here's another tutorial with, I think, better instructions on making a simple tassel. Just substitute any of the narrower scraps of lace, ribbon, rickrack, and trim that you happen to have for the yarn that is shown in the illustrations..

Homemade "Creativity Kit"

When I was in the craft section of another store recently, I saw some quart-sized plastic jars of ribbon, lace, and rick-rack scraps being sold as creativity kits for kids. They were made by Simplicity, the company that makes sewing patterns, tools and supplies. The labels said the jars also contain buttons, pom-poms, sequins, ribbon flowers and a few other similar items.

Oh my goodness, I could probably make a few dozen little craft kits like those from my stash of leftover craft supplies!

Craft kits in little plastic containers would make nice prizes at school or Sunday School. Some people might have lots of donations if they received word that the kits were being assembled.

Maybe craft kits like these would sell at a flea market, church bazaar, or garage sale.  You could print and attach a cute, colorful label that said "Creativity Kit" in big letters. I suppose the labels should also carry some kind of warning, such as, "Not suitable for children under age 6."

What might go into the kits? "Googly eyes", glitter, buttons, pom-poms, sequins, beads, lace, ribbon, rick-rack, other trims, scraps of elastic, scraps of soft leather or velvet, felt scraps, fake-fur scraps, miniature balls of yarn, greeting card pictures, acorn caps, pretty pebbles or small rocks, small silk or ribbon flowers, florist's leaves, marbles, game pieces, Scrabble letters, face cards (King, Queen, etc.), shoelaces, pipe cleaners, and other fun, kid-friendly, crafty items.

Indignities Endured

Victim of excessive crafting

I saw this little angel, kneeling on a shelf at Goodwill in Hopkinsville. His huge ruff looks very uncomfortable.

There's something vaguely creepy about this little fellow. Sad to say, he would fit right into the set of a scary movie. In his current costume, he certainly could serve as a symbol of suffering!

Brooch Bouquet Update

Wedding crafts

Perhaps you wonder what I've been doing with my spare time lately. Well, I've been mastering the creation of metal daisies.

Here's a photo of some of the 50-or-so metal flowers I've made. Keely's wedding colors are sage green and chocolate brown, so I made my flowers as close as I thought I could to those colors.

The daisies are made from aluminum flashing. Each has two layers of petals and a fancy button at the center.

The tall sprays are made from some tiny brooches I bought on eBay.  I popped the pins off their backs and wired them to stems in groups of three.

And the two little flowers with orange centers and turquoise-beaded edges are buttons.

These will supplement the brooches in the bouquets for Keely's wedding (a smaller brooch bouquet for the maid of honor and a larger one for the bride.)

Last week, Keely wired (attached stems to) the brooches and assembled the smaller bouquet. She said she learned some things while doing it that will be helpful when she makes the larger bouquet. As you can see, the homemade flowers do help fill in the gaps.

I think Keely said that she might still attach some leaves. The stems will be wrapped with ribbon.

These photos don't really do it justice -- the flash was too harsh. It's very pretty. I was really amazed and happy that it looks so good. We're going to make the bride's bouquet this weekend.

I still have to make a few more flowers for the decorations. I will probably post a tutorial later about how to put them together, as I think my method is a big improvement over the instructions I started with. I'll also try to do a tutorial about how Keely wired the brooches and put the bouquet together.

Don't hold your breath, though. The tutorials aren't likely to appear until well after the wedding!

Related: 
Frolics, Larks, and Capers

Quilt and Craft Auction at Fairview, KY

Second annual consignment

Grandmother's Flower Bed
by art_es_anna
 

Fairview Produce Auction

According to a postcard I received in the mail today, the Second Annual Quilt and Craft Auction will be held at the Fairview Produce Auction on June 5, 2010.  The sale will start at 9:00 AM and will include (quoting from the postcard):

• Quilts
• Wall hangers
• Pillows
• Wide assortment of crafts

If you are consigning and you want your quilt to be included in the catalog, it must be received by 12:00 noon on Friday, June 4. The consignment fee is $2.00 plus 10% of the selling price for each item listed.

The Fairview Produce Auction is located at the intersection of Highway 1843 and Highway 68/80 at Fairview, KY. The entrance to the auction grounds is on Highway 1843, about 100 yards from the intersection.

The produce auction is a (largely) Mennonite-owned-and-operated enterprise. The vast majority of the quilts and other sale items at this auction will be consigned by the Mennonites and Amish of eastern Christian and western Todd counties. ¹  It promises to be an interesting event.

Call the Fairview Produce Auction at 270-887-0053 for further information.

_______________

¹ This area (eastern Christian and western Todd counties) is often called "Greater Fairview" -- haha, just kidding!

Bobbin Lace Making

Heartland Lace Guild exhibit at the Encampment, Fort Massac, Illinois, October, 2009

At the Fort Massac Encampment last fall, Keely and I enjoyed visiting the Heartland Lace Guild's demonstration of bobbin lace-making.

In bobbin lace, a number of threads are used. To keep the threads from tangling, each thread is wound around its own small wooden bobbin. A wide lace requires many threads and many bobbins, and a narrow lace requires just a few. The thread may be linen, silk, or cotton, and the lace will be stout or delicate, depending on the thickness of the thread.

In the photo above, the bobbins are arranged at the far end of the padded cushion. A paper pattern called a "pricking" is placed under the thread as a guide. The lace is held in place with pins as it is made. The pattern is created by crossing and twisting the threads. The bobbins act as handles for crossing and twisting the threads, as well as storage for the long threads that are needed.

13 Links to Enjoy

A "Thursday Thirteen" of all sorts

Most of these links were sent by friends and readers, and the remainder came from my own web expeditions.

 1. Download and install free software easily at the Ninite Installer website.

 2. Daily Sodoku -- Just one of many Brainbashers at this site

 3. Easy Bib -- If you remember typing footnotes and bibliography the old-fashioned way, this site will make you cry, "Unfair!"

 4. Slide show of cowboy and western paintings. If you enjoy rural scenery and images of ranch life, you'll also like these photos of the American Midwest

 5. How to make a folded German bell ornament -- for your spare time between now and Christmas

 6. Whooping Crane Reintroduction website with Operation Migration Crane Cam

 7. Print a calendar for 2010.

 8. A great set of corner shelves, cut from a single sheet of plywood

9. Eagle vs. fox  -- An astonishing encounter over a carcass (verified by Snopes)

10. Views of San Francisco Bay from a Zeppelin at 1000 feet -- very cool

11. "Foods That Heal" -- but don't stop your prescriptions!

12. "Guess Your Number" game -- How do these things work so well?!

13. Independence Day quiz -- Can you answer 20 questions once used on the citizenship test?

Thanks to all who have sent interesting links to share!

There's usually a large number of Thursday 13 posts listed at the Thursday 13 website.

Yarn Store Adventure

Enchanted Yarn & Fiber in Russellville, KY

Saturday, I went over to Russellville (KY) with Keely, Taurus, and Isaac. It's only about 35 miles from here, but we don't go there very often. Keely was on a mission to find a yarn store she had heard about (Enchanted Yarn & Fiber), and the rest of us went along for the fresh air and change in scenery.

Keely started crocheting when she was seven years old. I showed her how to do a chain stitch. She mastered that quickly, so I showed her how to single crochet. From there, she branched out. I don't know how many scarves, hats, afghans, and baby blankets she has made since then, and I'll bet she doesn't either.

Several of the ladies at Keely's workplace are knitters, and Keely has learned to knit since she started working there. She started with socks, moved on to hats and gloves, and she's now working on a fancy, lacy, alpaca shawl that she is going to wear on her wedding day.

All this history is background to an understatement: Keely really likes knitting and crocheting and yarn. She was so happy to wander around the yarn shop and choose a skein of nice yarn for a future project. (Knitters and crocheters have stashes of yarn just like quilters have stashes of fabric.)

The proprietor of the shop said that she is planning to increase the "specialty yarns" she carries. I guess those would be yarns that are harder to find. I did see many beautiful and unusual yarns. I saw on several labels that the yarn was made of or contained silk, and one group of yarn was made of sugar cane.

I think that "fiber" refers to a raw material, and it becomes "yarn" after it's spun. In the fiber category, I saw some braids of dyed wool, and some bags of silk thread that had been ravelled from silk fabric. The instructions said that the silk threads could be spun to make silk yarn, or they could be spun with other fibers to achieve special effects.

When we were at the Fort Massac encampment earlier this fall, we saw some Leicester sheep, so I was interested to see this Leicester wool for sale. Leicester is said to be a favorite wool of hand-spinners because it has long fibers. (And, of course, Keely would like to learn to spin.)

I have a feeling that if I keep hanging around with my daughter, I'll be visiting this shop again. (And again and again.) I may have to revive my crocheting skills.

"Quilt Barn" in Christian County, KY

Quilts and fabric in Kentucky Mennonite country.

This barn stands along Highway 68/80, east of Hopkinsville, KY. The "quilt block" on its front has been there for several years. It was painted, I believe, by a local economic development agency that had a "quilt barns" grant from the Kentucky Arts Council. The quilt barns are supposed to look folksy, promote tourism, and encourage a better appreciation of our quilting heritage and history.

I could be wrong about how this quilt square came to be. It appeared during the quilt barn explosion. Quilt blocks were painted on a few dozen highly-visible barns in several counties, and then lots of barns suddenly had quilt squares painted on them. Property owners liked the look so much that they started quilt-blocking their barns, at their own expense. The quilt barn idea "went viral", as they say on the internet.

I'm don't know who owns this barn, but I do know who owns the sign on its side wall. Mrs. Amman Snyder, a Mennonite lady, had her "Quilts" sign on the barn even before the quilt block was painted on it. She has a quilt shop at her home, about a mile down Highway 1027. When I worked in classified ads at our local newspaper, I helped her with her occasional quilt sale advertisements.

Mrs. Snyder has recently added fabric to her shop. She is responding to published reports that WalMart will soon be eliminating its fabric departments. The Mennonite ladies of Christian County have been regular fabric customers in Hopkinsville's Walmart. They'll need another fabric source if they can't buy it at WalMart any more.

Last year, my Mennonite neighbor Elsie told me that I should open a little neighborhood fabric store. She thought I could put it in the upstairs room of our shed. I entertained the idea for about 10 seconds, and during that short time, I had vivid imaginations of owning dozens of bolts of cloth that no one wanted to buy.

Mrs. Snyder will be a much better cloth merchant than I would be. She knows from personal experience what sorts of fabric and sewing notions the Mennonite ladies want and need. She's open for business to the "English" as well -- her signs on the highway proclaim it.

Cousin Alta's Quilts

(And some other examples of quilting and needlework)

I drove over to visit my Cousin Alta one day this week. She lives in Tennessee about 100 miles southwest of here. We had a pleasant afternoon of talking about family history and life in general. Alta and my mother, Doris Sees Hill, were first cousins. Alta's mother, Elva Sees Hix, and my grandfather, Harry Sees, were brother and sister.

We started talking about and looking at quilts when Alta's friend came by to return some quilting books. She brought along a pinwheel(?) quilt and an unfinished quilt top that she wanted to show Alta.

The fabrics of the quilt top are vivid turquoise, pink, and purple prints. Alta's friend laughed about her daughter who said, "Mom, that's just not you!" when she saw the colors.

After her friend left, we looked at some quilts Alta has made. I photographed them so the Prairie Bluestem readers can enjoy them too. However, the photos don't do the quilts justice because they don't show enough of the detail.

Alta made many of the blocks for her embroidered quilts when she and her husband went camping. The quilt in the photo at right is edged with eyelet lace.

Two more of Alta's embroidered quilts:

• White blocks, set together with blue -- sorry, this photo is a little fuzzy.
• Roses, embroidered on white blocks, with matching shams and throw pillow

We spread the quilts on Alta's bed, one on top of the other. Alta said she would leave them stretched out there for a few days to let their fibers relax. It's not good for them to be rolled up all the time.

The quilt at left is a friendship quilt that includes blocks made by relatives. Alta showed me this one to give me an example of how I might set together some quilt blocks that my Grandma Nora gave me.

When Alta and her husband first moved to the little village where she lives, she wanted to make a friendship quilt, but she didn't know anyone who could or would make a quilt block. She didn't realize how many quilters lived around there and how friendly they were! The quilt at right is the result.

Alta showed me three Log Cabin quilts that she has made.

• A diagonally striped quilt with matching shams and a coordinating pillow
• A diamond-patterned Log Cabin quilt -- notice the mini-blocks in the border.
• A diagonally striped Christmas quilt made of Christmas fabrics

I think Alta told me that she made the quilt in the photo at left for a quilting class she taught. The same fabrics are used throughout, but combined differently in each block.

As I was labeling these photographs and getting them ready to post, I wrote that this quilt has a pinwheel pattern, but now I'm wondering if they are windmills instead.

The quilt at right is a Fourth of July quilt. Each star is made of a different, star-patterned fabric. The back of the quilt is a star-patterned Christmas fabric, so it can be reversed for the winter holidays.

After she had quilted for a while, Alta realized that she had a big collection of quilt blocks that she had made as experiments, trying out different patterns and fabrics. She fitted them together and made a sampler quilt. A good name for it would be "The Joy of Quilting."

Alta's mother (my great-aunt Elva) was a quilter, too. Alta has a wedding ring quilt that her mother made. Also, Alta has framed a nice piece of embroidery done by her mother. Alta learned to hand quilt so she could finish some of the quilt tops her mother left her.

When Alta was a little girl, the Omaha World Herald published a quilt block every week, for the ladies to trace onto fabric and embroider. Alta used the World Herald patterns to make her first quilt when she was about ten years old - a Wild West quilt (photo at left).

Every embroidered block features a historic Western character, such as John Brown, Calamity Jane, and Sitting Bull. Alta's mother machine-quilted it for her after she had all the blocks set together.

Another interesting old quilt was given to Alta by a neighbor lady in Nebraska. This neighbor lady was single all her life and known for being grouchy. However, Alta was kind to her and became her friend. When Alta and her husband moved to Tennessee, the lady wrote to her every day for many years.

The quilt was handmade by the neighbor lady. It has an unusual Sunbonnet pattern, partly appliqued and partly embroidered. Alta says she has never seen the pattern in any other quilt.

Alta's current project is a baby quilt (photo at right). She traced the animal pictures from a coloring book and embroidered them.

These photographs don't represent all the quilts that Alta has made. She can't even remember how many quilts she has made and given away.

Related posts:
Friendship Quilt
A Beautiful Handmade Quilt
Crazy Quilt
Old Quilts Need Special Care
Cover Stories Worth Preserving

Ben Franklin Store in Hopkinsville

New crafts store open

When I heard about a new Ben Franklin Crafts store in Hopkinsville, I was interested. WalMart has been our primary source of such items since JoAnn Fabrics closed its Hopkinsville store a dozen years ago or more. Now, rumors abound that our WalMart will be closing its sewing and crafts section soon.

Keely and I decided to investigate. We drove about a mile west of town on Highway 272 (Canton Pike) to the Oak View Plaza. The Ben Franklin is located on the right of the Food Lion grocery store.

It is not a large store, but it has a decent selection of craft items. More items are to be added as stock arrives (oil and acrylic paints and supplies, picture framing.)

Scrapbookers will find a variety of papers and embellishments. For beaders, the store has an assortment of beads and jewelry findings. Several hundred printed cotton fabrics are in stock, along with sewing notions. We saw lots of doodads and gadgets for most of the major needlecrafts, as well as basic materials.

Not surprisingly, the prices are a little higher than we've been paying at WalMart. However, if WalMart's craft department closes, it will certainly be more economical to pay the Ben Franklin price than to make a 60-mile round trip to a Clarksville, TN, craft store. Meanwhile, I'm going to give the BF a little business so maybe it will still be open if/when we lose the WalMart craft supplies.

The store is owned and operated by Anne K. Koehne (at right in the above photo), and it's open from 10 AM to 7 PM daily, except Sunday when the hours are 1 PM to 5 PM. That's Keely at left, giving me a look for taking her picture.

I was surprised that the store is a Ben Franklin. I had imagined that Ben Franklin went out of business years ago.

We had a Ben Franklin store in Bassett, Nebraska, when I was growing up. Looking back, I realize that it always had lots of craft items. I remember crochet threads and yarn, fabrics and sewing notions, tubes of fabric paint, and lots of kits -- kits for embroidered pillowcases and kitchen towels and quilt blocks, latch-hook rug kits, and of course, paint-by-number kits in various levels of difficulty.

Great Email Ad Title

An advertising email this morning had an interesting title. It piqued my curiosity enough that I opened it instead of deleting it. The title was:

20 Gifts We ALL Want

I've included the link, in case you're curious what those gifts are.

The ad was from Tiger Direct, a big internet electronics firm, and it did include a few things that I would like to have. (I'm getting along OK without them, though. ) I have ordered a few things from Tiger Direct over the last several years, and I've never had any trouble with either the products or the firm.

Ghosts of Christmas Past

Happy Christmas memories

In 2006 I wrote about some Christmas memories in a series I titled, "Ghosts of Christmas Past." I hope you'll enjoy reading (or re-reading) these articles.

1. Arriving in Germany at Christmas

2. A Christmas angel my daughter made years ago

3. Grandma Netz's recipe for Cherry Bonbons

4. Our Christmas wedding

5. Christmas at Grandma Barb's house in the 1950s

6. Christmas in Berlin, Germany, remembered

7. Childhood memories of Christmas lights

8. The Christmas we got our new ice skates

9. A Christmas wreath that kids can make

10. Christmas programs in rural schools

11. The school Christmas program from a teacher's viewpoint

12. Visitors on Three Kings Day in Germany

Another Table Decor Idea

Perfect favor for a Valentines Day party

At the LWML luncheon last Saturday, one of these spoons was placed at each table setting. Purple and gold are the LWML colors, so they were made with yellow net and purple ribbon. Each spoon held three Hershey's kisses. I can certainly imagine them made with red net, a white ribbon, and a Valentines Day message on a heart-shaped tag.

Remember Popcorn Balls?

Old-fashioned popcorn treats

When I was a child in northern Nebraska, popcorn balls were a holiday treat. If there was a party, someone might bring a bowl of popcorn balls. After the Christmas program at school or church, you might get a little paper sack of hard candy with a popcorn ball tucked into the top of it.

The popcorn was held in ball form by an adhesive -- a syrup, cooked at a high temperature. When it reached about 275°, it was poured over the popped corn. Then the cook, working quickly with buttered hands, shaped the hot, sticky corn into balls. When the syrup cooled, it hardened. Popcorn balls were chewy, and sometimes scratchy.

Some people's popcorn balls were packed so hard that you could barely bite them, and other people's popcorn balls were barely stuck together. It depended on the cook's method, mood, and recipe.

The flavor of the syrup varied, too. Sometimes it was molasses-based. At Christmas time, the popcorn balls were often made with red or green syrup. I think some people used Kool-ade mix to add color and flavor.

Except for a batch of popcorn balls that I made about ten years ago just for fun, I don't think I've seen a popcorn ball for several decades. Have they fallen from favor, or am I just living outside the popcorn-ball zone?

I have six Mennonite and Amish church cookbooks. It is interesting that the only one that has any popcorn recipes is the Kansas Mennonite cookbook.

I checked several of my modern cookbooks and didn't find any recipes for popcorn balls, but my 1960s Fannie Farmer, Betty Crocker, and Good Housekeeping cookbooks all have popcorn ball recipes with several variations.

My 1947 edition of The Household Searchlight Recipe Book has a "Prize Winning Recipe" for popcorn balls from Winifred J. Wells of Mooers, New York. I've posted it and a recipe for an oven-baked popcorn crunch on my recipe blog.

Related site:
History of Popcorn, Caramel Corn, Cracker Jacks, Popcorn Balls. The Nebraska popcorn-ball "legend" at the bottom of the page is interesting. I've never seen heard of sugar cane growing in Nebraska, but maybe they mean sorghum? They do grow a lot of popcorn there.

Update:
Jello Popcorn Balls. My sister says the recipes at this site are similar to the popcorn balls she made when her older sons were little. (That would have around 20 years ago!) The Jello syrup doesn't require a long, hard boiling and a candy thermometer to make sure you've got it to the right stage.

Technorati tags: popcorn balls, popcorn recipes, popcorn treats, old-fashioned treats, old-time sweets, old-time candies

Sources for Color Palettes

Masterpiece color palettes

Whether it's your home, a brochure, a quilt, or a website, color is an important part of the design. It will have a tremendous influence on the final appearance.

One way to find a set of colors is to use a palette generator. Give it the URL of any Internet image, and it will produce a palette of colors. It doesn't get much simpler than that.

Color Inspiration from the Masters of Painting, a post on the Colourlovers blog suggests taking a color palette from a famous painting that you like.

The article includes some nice color combinations extracted from famous paintings by Van Gogh, Picasso, etc. (If you register, you can download the palettes, and vote for the ones you like by clicking the little hearts.)

Somehow, it sounds a little more sophisticated to say your palette is taken from a Rembrandt painting rather than produced by an Internet palette generator. And remember -- you can run the Rembrandt through the palette generator and see what colors come out.

The idea of finding a palette of colors in a painting appeals to me because

• I like to collect color palettes.
• I made the blue-green "plaid" background of this page by taking a little section of a Claude Monet watercolor and manipulating it with a graphics program.

Running the Monet through the palette generator, here's what I got:




I don't think the palette generator does the Monet justice. The colors it found are so gloomy! That painting doesn't seem gloomy to me. Here's my human selection of colors from the same painting:

Technorati tags: Monet, palettes, colors, color palettes, color palette generator

The Flower Fairies of Cicely Mary Barker

History and Old Stuff...

Sometimes I see an old-time illustration and it stirs a vague memory. I had one of those deja vu moments a few days ago when I was searching for an image of green ash blossoms to compare with the photo I had just taken.

Along with images of tree leaves, blossoms, twigs and buds, two images of beautiful little fairies appeared in the search results -- the Mountain Ash fairy and the Elm fairy. I can't tell you where or when I'd seen such fairies before, but I thought, "Oh, I remember them!" and it warmed my heart to see them again.

Intrigued, I followed the link and found a number of similar fairy illustrations listed on an eBay page. I was in a hurry but I wanted to know more, so I bookmarked the page. Today, I went back to enjoy the images and to find out more about the artist.

They are the work of Cicely Mary Barker, an English illustrator who lived from 1895 to 1973. She painted dozens of Flower Fairies. Some were part of a Flower Fairy alphabet. Others were Flower Fairies of the garden, of the forest, and of spring, summer, and fall.

I would love to put a Flower Fairy image here for you to enjoy but the art is still under copyright. You can see a good group of the Flower Fairies at Julie's Antique Prints, at Flower Fairies Pictures or at Prints With a Past.

The paintings have an air of innocent imagination and sweetness about them. Each fairy has a child's face and its wings and costume mirror and complement the flower that the fairy tends. The flowers are painted with careful attention to botanical detail.

When I read about Cicely Mary Barker, I learned that she had epilepsy as a child, so her parents did not send her to school. She studied at home with governesses. When she was 15, her father showed some samples of her paintings to a publisher, and he bought them and produced a series of note cards from them. That was the beginning of her professional art career.

After her father died, Barker helped support the family by selling illustrations and poetry to magazines. Fairies were a fad at the time, partly because Queen Mary was fond of sending fairy postcards, and so Barker began painting fairies and eventually published eight volumes of Flower Fairies. Perhaps I saw one of these books somewhere, sometime.

The models for the fairies were children wearing costumes that Barker designed and sewed. Each costume matched the color and the mood of the flower it complemented. As Barker painted, she had the fairy model hold a specimen of the flower so she could be sure of the flower's details. In each of the finished paintings, the fairy is the same size as the flower.

Barker's sister ran a kindergarten in the family home, so children were always nearby to serve as models, and Barker heard their little voices and their footsteps as she painted.

Barker also produced a lot of Christian art over the years. She donated art and designs to Christian mission and charity groups and created art for churches as well. However, she is most remembered for her Flower Fairies.

My daughter says when she has children, she's going to use bright primary colors in their bedrooms, but in their room at Grandma's house they may have Flower Fairies on the walls.



Technorati tags:

Flower Fairies
Cicely Mary Barker
fairies

The Valentine, Nebraska, Post Office Remembered

Post office mural at Valentine Nebraska

One of the odd things about getting older is that I'm becoming more and more like my parents. In the mirror, I have caught glimpses of my mother, my father, and my Grandma Nora in my face. 

 But the similarities go farther. I find myself saying and doing what my parents -- and especially my mother -- said and did. I suspect that even the processes of my mind are becoming like my mother. 

 For example, today I went to town with a plastic bag of bills that needed to be paid and mailed. I was sitting in my car in the parking lot of the post office, writing checks and licking envelope flaps, when it dawned on me that I was doing exactly what I saw my mother do a zillion times -- getting the mail ready at the post office. 

 I remember sitting in the car outside the post office or standing inside until I thought my legs would drop off, waiting, hoping, dying for Mama to finish getting the mail ready and finally drop it through the slot in the wall. I think sometimes she was writing to her sister. They carried on a regular correspondence. 

 This train of thought brought me to an early memory of the Valentine, Nebraska, post office. I remember several things clearly. I remember my mother standing at the table in the post office lobby, writing mail. I was sitting under the table on the hard square bar that connected the table's legs. That was uncomfortable, so after a while, I sat on the floor. The floor had some kind of ceramic or stone tile on it, and it was smooth and cold. 

And I remember the mural on the wall of the Valentine post office. It was the largest picture I had ever seen, and it had a train in it. I probably had plenty of time to look at it while my mother stood at the table and wrote.  This is an early memory. We must have still been living south of Johnstown, NE, and that would mean I was six or younger.  

I found an image of the Valentine Post Office mural on Wikipedia.  It really does have the train that I remember. The mural was painted in 1939 by Kady Faulkner, who was working as an artist for the Section of Fine Arts. The Section was a program of the Treasury Department that hired artists to create art in public buildings during the Great Depression. 

 Nebraska has a dozen post office murals. The mural at Valentine is the only one that is oil paint on plaster. All the others are oil paint on canvas.

The old Valentine post office as photographed 
by Ammodramus. Photo from Wikipedia.