Still, Still, Still is a carol the middle school chorus sang last year. I journaled the lyrics around this print of the stag. I first printed the reindeer directly on the page, but the print didn't work so well. So I printed onto tissue, then glued the tissue over the somewhat not-crisp original print onto the page. This made a sort of "echo" in the image. The background was done in Jane LaFazio's Mixed Media journals online class at Joggles.com.

For once, I actually thought ahead a bit.  Last spring, I did a presentation for my local quilt group, the Coastal Quilters, because they had been kind enough to award me a $50 scholarship to help pay for a class.  I took two online classes, one of which was lino-cutting with Dijanne Cevaal.  Last Christmas I had gotten this idea to make an ornament for my Frayed Edges friends for this year, so I noodled around Google Images to find pictures of stags and reindeer and prepared a drawing to use for a new lino-cut that is really a hybrid of about 20 pictures.  Then I finished the carving as part of my demonstration.

The resting reindeer, on tissue, on cloth, and in my sketchbook

In Fall, I finally got around to printing what I needed to make some ornaments.  At Thanksgiving time, I decided that I needed to make a few more, as it was time to give thanks, especially to some very special teachers at Camden-Rockport Middle School who have been wonderful to both of our kids.  Our younger son is in 8th grade, so this was our last chance to say a special thank you.

I made a run of 14 ornaments for family, friends and teachers.

The block is 6 inches, with the design carved on point.  I trimmed the prints on cloth to this “onion dome” (like you see in Russian churches) shape.  They are printed with Speedball Printing Ink, which I discovered the hard way last year is NOT water-fast.  Like a drop from the iron will make a blotch.  Erg.  So after printing these I sprayed with with Krylon Spray Fixative, which I hope will help.  The prints are fused to Peltex, a stiffener used in fabric postcards, and quilted with Superior Threads Glitter thread (the pearl color).  Unusually, I satin-stitched around the edge instead of using a yarn…nothing I had looked as good as a nice tight satin stitch.

A closer view of one with a more dense coating of ink that some of the others... I like it both ways.

I decided the ornaments needed a special card, so I used the stag I drew (see my earlier post this month) and photocopied onto a heavy card stock and made the note cards. Finding big envelopes was a challenge! You can see the back of the ornament at the top left, so you can see the quilting.

May tomorrow find you with those you love, with a moment of calm and joy and art and beauty.

While working on my sketching and watercolor class last fall, the L.L. Bean Hunting catalog arrived.  I was instantly taken with the stag on the cover, and wanted to try to sketch him…to my utter delight, it worked!

The Stag Christmas card....made just a dozen....

Here is a snapshot of the catalog cover and my sketch:

The initial sketch, before doing the water-wash to get the shading

Fortunately, when I shared that I had used their photo with LL Bean, they didn’t mind!  I used a Tombow water-soluble ink pen on this as well as a permanent India-Ink (Pitt by Faber-Castell) pen for the outlines.  The permanent pen doesn’t bleed or leak, which preserves the crisp outlines.  Then I shaded with the Tombow (a medium-dark gray) and used a Niji Waterbrush to spread the ink.  A tiny bit of the Tombow bled outside the inked lines in the antler, but so it goes.  Finally, I used an extra-fine tipped Pitt pen to write “Forever Wild” as a “frame” for the  sketch.  Back in the old days, Maine’s Governor Percival Baxter bequeathed a huge tract of land to the state which is now Baxter State Park.  His only requirement was that the land remain “forever wild.”

The photo or scan didn’t transfer all the shading to the cream card stock, but it looks good anyway!  PHEW!  Here’s a photo of the cards and the back of a gift ornament (post coming in a couple days) :

Card, ornament and 4-pen set of Pitt pens

Well, number two son Eli had a phenomenal end of season!  He won the Busline (local) League individual Championship, with his friend Ben coming in right behind him!

Eli wins the Busline League (midcoast Maine) Middle School Championships; friend Ben is not far behind

The boys team wins the Busline League as Undefeated Champions (second year in a row!)

The girls team wins the Busline League as Undefeated Champions (second year in a row!)

Happy Coach Morse and Happy kids!

Then they went to the Winthrop Invitational (thanks to a wonderful Coach, Jim Morse, who kept seeking more opportunities for the top runners), where Eli won with a new course record (!!!), and both teams won!

To our delight and surprise, Eli came charging up the final hill IN THE LEAD--and no one in sight behind him-- and won the Winthrop Invitational with a new course record!

Next was a larger invitational about 90 minutes north of here so the kids could experience a larger field.  Eli came in third, and both boys and girls teams won!

Aurora meet...Eli comes in third! and fourth is not even around the corner of the building....

While I was teaching at A Quilters’ Gathering in New Hampshire, there was a State-wide qualifying meet in Augusta.  Runners who placed high enough would get to compete in the USA Track and Field Association Junior Olympics Northeast Regional meet in Queensbury, NY.  Eli placed second in the STATE!

The last big event, the Sunday before Thanksgiving…get this!…. Seven of our runners went to the Junior Olympics Regionals!  A few more made it, but they were in 6th grade and the parents decided, maybe when they are older (smart!).  All of the kids raced, some ran their best times ever, and all came in somewhere in the middle of the pack.  Eli was the highest finishing middle schooler for Maine except for the kid who beat him at both Aurora and Augusta meets.  There were some older boys from Maine, Freshman, in the same age group, and they came in a bit ahead.  Eli was 63 of 116 which is pretty amazing since runners came from Maine, NH, Vermont, parts of NY, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. WOW!

Junior Olympics Northeast Regionals, age 13-14 boys; Maine kids are at the far right--taking off! As Eli put it, the leaders shot out, went into the woods, and weren't seen again!

Eli heads down the chute for the finish line at his first Junior Olympics race

Our Camden-Rockport kids standing under the finish line. It was great...we had kids in three or four separate races, and all the kids and all the parents stayed for all the races and finishes! We're so proud of ALL of them! Eli is the boy to the right, his friend from first grade on, Ben, is at the left.

It was a 6+ hour drive from Hope, Maine, to Queensbury, NY, so we drove  over Saturday for a midday race Sunday, then drove home after the race.  And slept in Monday–we told Eli he could go to school late!   While waiting to head over to the course on Sunday, I decided to sketch a bit…I’ll share more of this journaling later.

To pass the time on Sunday morning before the race, I decided to sketch Eli's tank.

It was a great season…we are so grateful to Jim Morse for his dedication to the kids, to the school for providing buses to all the meets and letting the kids wear their red uniforms for the after-season meets.

I have to comment the USATF and the volunteers in NY.  Over the course of the day there were some 2000 runners, and this was by far the best organized meet of this sort I’ve ever attended.  And best of all:  ALL the kids were enthused, learned from the reality dose from being the best of the best in Maine to among the best in New England, and ALL want to go back next year!

You know how the internet goes…one link leads to another leads to another…not sure where I saw this, but thought it would be fun to share:

For about the past 18 months, I have wanted a new tea cozy as the old one was seriously exhausted, stained, beyond redemption.   Then a few months ago, after a trip through the wash, the ribbon which gathered it up on the top came out and I never put it back.  It was getting annoying.  So a week or two ago, I took a break from “ought to do” stuff and did a “want to do” thing:  I made a tea cozy that actually fits the current teapots…smaller than the old one so it will keep the pot warmer (in theory).

Finally, new tea cozies and a mat/pad

The first one I made was a little bit too small, so it got turned into a little hot pad.  See, I make Irish steel-cut oats most mornings and, rather than dirty a dish, I just take the small pan to the table and eat from that.  In the interest of not scorching the placemats or table, and with the idea of something a little less decrepit than our kitchen hotpads, I made the hot pad.

The two tea cozies are the same size, but have four different Rowan/Westminster fabrics, those lovely color-saturated florals!  You can see three of the four fabrics in the photo.  So now I am going to go pull the cozy off the pot and have another cuppa tea!