Women of the Corn

My latest needlefelting project is this wall hanging for a raffle fundraiser benefiting Mujeres de Maiz Opportunity Foundation, a grassroots non-profit organization based in Sequim, Washington helping young women in Chiapas, Mexico. Mujeres de Maiz provides access to education for indigenous women in a seamstress cooperative, including literacy training, secondary school, vocational courses and college or university degrees. The raffle prizes will also include some beautiful quilted art by my mother, and other local handcrafted items. To learn more about this organization, visit their website at http://www.mujeresdemaizof.org/lang/en-us/.

Beneath the Harvest Moon

Beneath the harvest moon, pumpkins grow ripe, round and full in the fields...

Moonlight sparkles on a dancing brook and patches of chanterelle mushrooms reflect the warm colors of autumn.

It's just the right time for a moonlit walk to find that one, perfect, magical pumpkin.

Harvest Maidens

When the Autumn comes rolling in, I love changing our seasons table to honor all of the abundant fruits and vegetables, and the fiery leaves outside. Seasons table figures are an idea I got from Waldorf classroom seasons tables, and I have loved making many Lady Springs, Queen Winters, and Harvest Maidens over the past few years (I still haven't made one for summer, likely because we're out camping so much). This Acorn Maiden, Wheat Maiden, and Harvest Maiden represent all that I love about this season. Harvesting food is such a sacred, sustaining activity and a good, honest days work. There is a fullness and abundance in the earth right now, everywhere you look. Autumn deserves some honoring.

This is the Harvest Maiden I needlefelted for our family's seasons table. She stands in our living room on bright orange and rich brown silks, surrounded by painted corn, jars of red vine maple branches, acorns and wheat.

This is the Acorn Maiden. Here is the Willamette Valley, we are blessed with an abundance of oak trees with big fat acorns. I gather them with my children every year, and we turn them into acorn meal for pancakes and muffins. They taste a little like maple syrup. Mmmmmmm.

This Wheat Maiden makes me think of the vast, rippling fields of ripe wheat in Washington State's Palouse region where I went to college. In the late summer, all you can see for miles and miles are these golden waves moving in the breeze. I always try to snag a few stalks for my seasons table when I'm driving through that area. This year I was lucky to have some spring up in my straw sheet mulch!

Happy Harvesting to All!

Underneath the Apple Tree

Underneath the apple tree, a little gnome is taking a well-deserved rest. He gathered all the apples he could pile in his basket, and now it's time for the squirrels to do their harvesting. I wonder what sorts of dreams he is having, nestled in those roots...

A Little Family

I made this little family of sunflower faeries for my friend's birthday. Taryn and Jeff, are expecting a baby in the coming weeks, and I wanted to make her something honoring the beautiful little family they are creating. Sunflowers are very special to these folks. They had them in their wedding, they have beautiful photographs of them in their house, and they pop up from time to time on Taryn's blog. I decided they absolutely needed a sunflower family. I had a lot of fun making a little beard, so you might be seeing some little bearded fairy men on my Etsy store sometime soon. I also have more teeny tiny baby acorn hats!

Wave Rider

I just finished this needle felted wool wall hanging as a custom order. The parents from a Kindergarten class at our Waldorf school wanted to give their teacher a gift that honored her other big passion in life, surfing.  Although I have never surfed myself, as I was working on this, I thought to myself that it looked like a lot of fun! Standing there on the shore with the waves spread out before you, as you prepare to travel upon them must be a great feeling.

 Living here, in the Willamette Valley, I am always impressed by the diversity of regions and landscapes within such a short distance, and all the ways in which folks get out there to enjoy the outdoors. Surfing, skiing, kayaking, white water rafting, mountain climbing, backpacking, canoeing, and the list goes on and on. I'm glad to see all these people getting out there and connecting with the earth in their own individual ways. We all need it, really. It's just a matter of finding what your way is.

Happy surfing, Miss Robyn!

Homestead Mornings

It's that wonderful time of year again. When I go out in the morning to feed the chickens, the air is cool and crisp, the roosters are crowing, and it feels like fall is here.  This is my favorite time of day, full of the possibilities of the golden autumn day to come. Soon the smell of wood smoke will fill the air from our neighbors chimneys and our own.  Squirrels are busy up in the oak trees building nests and storing nuts (and driving our dogs crazy!) I'm busy right along with them, gathering, harvesting, and storing food for the coming winter. I love every minute of it.

I needlefelted this wool wall hanging a few weeks ago in celebration of these sorts of mornings. It was so popular, apparently, it sold to two different people at the same time! Both to someone at our Waldorf School store, and an Etsy customer in Greece on the same day. What are the odds? It must mean that other people out there love homestead mornings as much as I do.

I am busy at work creating an identical one right now.