New Wall Hanging

I have just made a new felted wool wall hanging. The inspiration for it is the prodigal son. I love the sculptural quality of the felted wool. I wet-felted the initial picture with different colored batts of wool. Then I needle-felted and stitched to refine and define the picture. I sewed a border and a backing to it, and then prepared a wooden rod to hang it on.
I have just won first place fiber in the juried fine art show at the Williamson County Fair!

Sheep go to the city

I was asked to bring a sheep to a vacation Bible school in Nashville this week. I chose Meadow, a yearling ewe that is friendly to go. After putting the large dog crate in the car, which has to be taken apart to get it in, I drove to the city with baa-ing in my ear the whole way.
This was not the usual VBS. The church is ministering to Bantu children, whose parents came from Somalia and now live in the poorer part of town. The children are from Muslim families and the church does not yet speak to them about Jesus, only about God. They tell them stories about sheep and shepherds and play shepherd games. I shared with them from the shepherd's perspective about keeping the sheep safe from the coyotes, shearing, and using the wool to make yarn. I had the sheep that they could actually see and put their hands on; and Meadow was a trooper. One little boy was especially interested in all parts of the sheep. Many of the little girls were afraid of the sheep. They would jump, that would startle poor Meadow and she would jump; and the girls would fall on the ground laughing. Many of them asked if the sheep would bite!

This girl loved Meadow and did not want to stop hugging her.

French Angora Bunnies available

Well my rabbits have been busy and produced some very lovely babies, including rare red colored ones. All my bunnies are pedigreed and most are show quality. I will be at the middle Tennessee fiber festival as a vendor. I hope you might stop by and say hi. I will have these bunnies available there. You may contact me if you see one you just have to have!


This is Elaine's litter, born 3-23-10, out of a red doe and a red buck. They are: cream doe, cream buck, red doe, red buck, fawn doe, and fawn buck.



This is Esther's litter, born 3-23-10, out of a golden steel doe and lynx buck. They are: Chestnut buck and opal buck.



This is Lauren's litter, born 3-25-10, out of a black doe and a white buck. They are: Broken chestnut buck, broken chocolate chinchilla buck, broken black doe, black doe, broken blue doe, broken blue doe, and opal doe.



This is a red buck that was born 12-19-09.



This is Bianca's litter, born 4-11-10, out of a white doe and a red buck. They are:fawn buck, fawn buck, red buck, red doe, red doe, and red doe.



This is Calista's litter, born 4-20-10 out of a smoke pearl doe and lynx buck. They are: Squirrel buck, opal buck, blue buck, blue doe, squirrel? doe.

Canola Field Painting

I did go back to paint the canola field. Standing in that field of yellow felt electrifying it was so bright. It was fun to use my yellowist yellow!

Flood

This past weekend, we had terrible rains in middle Tennessee. Some places had up to 15 inches over two days. This caused widespread flooding, road closings, bridges, cars, and homes destroyed. Even though we have a creek that runs in front of our house and it got higher than I have ever seen it, we had no significant damage. I give Many thanks to the Lord for keeping us safe.

A Beautiful Field

On my way to Triune to get animal feed, I passed a breathtaking sight. It was a field of yellow flowers that I thought might be mustard. I stopped by the road and while cars were rushing by, I did a ten-minute pastel. As I finished, the owner stopped to get her mail and I spoke to her. When I told her I was an artist and asked if I could paint on her farm, she graciously agreed. She told me the farm had belonged to her grandparents and the field was planted in canola (for canola oil).
A few days later, I went to paint. I got to stand in the field of yellow and it felt electrifying it was so bright.
This is the initial pastel that I did from the road.

Getting the Garden Ready

With a working lawnmower and my tiller, I finally got to work in the garden. I tilled most of it just enough to get the grass and weeds, planted a few things like some lettuce and a hill of squash and cucumbers. I cleaned out the barn where the hay was and brought a bunch of chaff down for mulch. I left a spot where the sweet corn will be. I will till it later. I'm pretty pleased to have some of this wrapped up. I hope to better use my garden space to get more plants in. I also have been bringing my baby tomato plants outside during the day to harden them off. I usually don't get to that soon enough and have rather spindly plants.