We are once more experiencing our usual Autumn weather, and it has been wonderfully cold and wet for the last couple of days. The garden looks refreshed and the change is very welcome after weeks of heat with fears about fires or extreme winds. Thankfully the fires near me are now out, and things are returning to normal.
I have been working on another page for the Round Robin mentioned in previous postings. The theme word for my friend Carol was GREGARIOUS, and initially I had planned something to do about my chooks, who now wander the garden in a little group, with one or two occasionally breaking away on their own, but alway returning to the others to check out what they have found to scratch in or to rest together in the dirt under the weeping cherry tree. I think I must have seen something on the television about elephants and their social hierachy and life in the herd but I have changed my mind, deciding that these endearing creatures would be more appropiate for my friend who originated in South Africa.
Having trawled the internet for elephant photos and images, and checked out my special copy of David McKee’s Elmer, I remembered that I had a small wooden elephant purchased in a whim some time ago, just because I liked it – this then became the basis for two stamps that I made from thin green foam and attached to a slice of wooden pailing left over from the fence building.
I printed a photo of Mount Kilamanjaro onto fabric, and replaced the lower half of the photo with some hand dyed fabric, and then used the stamp to print some elephants. I added embroidery in stranded cotton and wool. The long straight stitches were worked with the embellisher to embed them, the tree was machine embroidered, the line of trees was made by couching some lumpy knitting yarn in the right spot, the mountain hand quilted with silk, and the sky quilted by machine. This is the finished piece, it measures 5 x 7 inches. It is a bit more wrinkled than I would have liked, but maybe that is ok as elephants have wrinkles too.
It’s just perfect, Sue. Love it. The tree’s so ‘African’ and reminds me of the Marula trees from which the elephants eat the over-ripe fruit and get very merry. The way you made the elephant stamps really interests me. Great idea. Thanks for a great page.
I like it – and the binding fabric is Just Right! Definitely deserves an elephant stamp!
Love the elephants Sue–and I’m glad the fires have gone.
So glad the fires are out, soon be time to light ones inside!
Love the elephants, but my favourite patch of the whole piece is the tree. Well done.
Judy B