resurrection fern

beautiful mend

a gorgeous liberty of london silk scarf

found mended ( a thrift store find)

by my sister helen

an ottawa valley woolens blanket

alice blue

patched and mended

found by me

in an ottawa thrift store

the quilt is finished

auntie tamara finished her first quilt this weekend,

a gift for her the little one

that is expected to arrive near the end of the month

it is so beautiful

the backing is soft organic unbleached flannel

i wonder if she will make me one:)

tiny happy missing pieces stone

Most of you know I made my first missing pieces patchwork stone way back in 2008. They are very special to me, each and everyone and very dear to my heart.

I don't make many of them but  when I do I really pour my heart into them from the choice of stone, its shape and color right down to the details in the fabric choices and placement and the artful joining of the pieces. The negative spaces are just as important to me. I think of them as pieces of art and each piece is always signed and dated. 

The last stone I made was a custom one that was won by melissa as a giveaway. When I knew she was chosen, I had an idea and quickly fired off an email to her to ask if she had any little scraps of her custom designed fabrics that I could incorporate into the design. I wanted it to truly be a tiny happy stone. Well not that tiny but you get the idea. Her fabrics are so beautiful and to have them as a starting point really ignited my creative energy. 

and a cozy hand made felt envelope to cozy up in for its trip across the world.

I am thinking of taking a few orders for custom missing pieces stone when things settle down a little over here. I am also working at night to get together a collection of stones for a shop update with the proceeds to go toward doctors without borders for their work in japan. Stay tuned.

xxoo

m

a celebration and a few missing pieces

There is a tradition at my home when we celebrate important family events that we set an extra place at the table for those that are no longer here on earth to celebrate with us. My children sometimes laugh but sometimes I have been known to do this even on a not so special sunday dinner. To me everyday is a day to celebrate something. To celebrate a hug, a snuggle, a smile, a kittens whiskers, a snowflake. I do so wish I could have giveaway's ( a great native tradition according to one of the comments yesterday) everyday. Today is a my third year blog anniversary and it is also a exactly a year since one of the most important people in my life died.  

Her memory warms my heart even on the coldest of winter days.

(last picture taken of the two of us last christmas).

In celebration I am offering the chance for you to own a custom made missing pieces stone. It will be similar but not identical to one of these stones I will show you below. I will choose a winner from the comments left below. You will have up until this Sunday at midnight to leave a comment. Once a winner is chosen , I will contact them about colors, fabrics, size, shape, etc. 

thank you so much for being part of resurrectionfern.

xxoo

margie

 

 

NOTE: the giveaway is officially closed as of midnight yesterday. Thank you to everyone for the thoughtfulness of each and every comment. I will be announcing the winner later on today. 

with love,

margie

january 17, 2011

A Liberty Rowan Christmas Present

 

Hello to all Resurrection Fern readers, I hope everyone is enjoying the holidays and they are filled with joyful and cheery blog posts. Some of you dedicated readers may know who I am, my name is Deborah and I am the youngest of Margie's four children. This year for christmas, my sister Rebekah and I wanted to stray from the usual scarf or gloves as gifts for our wonderful and caring mother. My sister stumbled across a vintage knitting guide on eBay, where the knitting company Rowan and our favourite Liberty had a collaboration. Various designers such as Kaffe Fassett designed chunky knit sweaters inspired by Liberty patterns. The book instantly sparked inspiration and Rebekah knew what she wanted to do for our mother's christmas present.

 

As I was visiting Halifax to check out universities, we took the opportunity to make this gift happen. She assembled looks using only vintage Liberty pieces she had collected through the years, and big chunky hand knit sweaters that were often found at thrift shops. Although it had been solid rain all week, the weekend I arrived Mother Nature seemed to know I had arrived with a purpose and the weather could not have been better on the day we ventured to Point Pleasant Park to do the photoshoot. The story is a young traveller, new to the East Coast and excited to explore with nothing but her Liberty, knits, and suitcase.

I hope you all have a very safe and happy New Year's Eve! With 11 being my lucky number I am eager to see what good things this year will bring. If you want to see more photographs from the shoot please feel free to check out my Flickr here :)

"What more felicity can fall to creature, than to enjoy delight with liberty."

- Edmund Spenser, 1591 

liberty and linen fir cones

A sneak peak at something I have been working on. I have been making fabric pine cones for the past two years but I am trying to refine them and at the same time make then smaller. This little peak is the progress thus far. I have made a few liberty tana lawn and natural linen fir cones that are just over three centimeters in length. 

more to come

the missing pieces stone making process

I have been wanting to take you on a patchwork stone making journey because for me the process is far more important than the final result. Each step was photographed except the crocheting of the little bits since they were already made earlier and resting in my sewing basket. This stone contains the usual circles of liberty tana lawn fabric but is unique in the fact that it also has some modern screen printed fabric from repeat studio ( arounna and roisin) and also from ink & spindle ( lara cameron). I hope you enjoy this journey.

 

     

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have more detailed pictures of the completed stone and some taken in a special location that I will share with you tomorrow. I don't usually name my stones but I have decided to call this one "repeat in red" . To say I am attached to this one would be putting it mildly. 

xo

m

           

up close and personal with the birthday stone

I have been in a patchwork stone making sort of mood lately. These missing pieces stones are very labour intensive and quite finicky in getting them to fit together properly. I guess I have been up for the challenge. I appreciate working on one thing for a longer period of time rather than churning out more smaller items. The process has changed since I first started making them and I think they have become more artful along the way. Here is the stone I made for Rebekah's birthday. She really liked the piece that I screen printed in her favorite color, as well as all the liberty fabric circles.

 

                   

We serve wooden plates with stones and flowers on our porch.

Rebekah begins her journey to the east coast on saturday. She got a new camera for her birthday so hopefully I will be able to share some pictures of her new ocean life. Of course she will be beach combing for special things to send home to mom. 

 A gull flew overhead while I was watching my youngest daughter's soccer game this evening and just as the sun was setting low in the sky.  By the way have I told you how much I love my new camera.           

another missing pieces stone for a special friend

Just finished it one the weekend and now it has set out on a long journey across the sea. 

It passed the rigorous cat inspection by both arwen and edgar ( by the way he is feeling almost perfect now and has been allowed outside again).

xo ( from the sky and I) and thanks so much for all your visits and kind words abut the purl bee tutorial.          

missing pieces stone a gift for arounna

I haven't made one of these in along while but at the trunk show arounna was admiring my stones and asked if I had made any of those specific ones recently. I had not but after hearing it was her birthday a short while ago and a visit to her studio for letter pressing was happening I just knew I had to make her one. They take quite a great many hours to make but I was determined to stay up late into the night to finish it for her before last friday. She has already posted it on her beautiful blog and I have already noticed it popping up in different places (thanks jan and catherine) , so I thought I should at least show the pictures I took before it was hand delivered. The gorgeous stone is from california. You might notice some of my mushroom experiments on the back yard table. I was spore printing and dyeing with mushrooms last week after the rain. 

Hey arounna, don't you think those spore prints would make lovely letterpress images?

xo

m