Tuesday, September 18, 2007

on one of my first visits to kenny's parents' home (when we were dating or engaged...i can't remember which), i remember spotting something hanging on their basement wall that caught my eye. when i asked kenny about it, he told me it was an embroidered version of a painting he did when he was about 5 years old. his grandmother recreated one of his paintings with yarn. i fell in love with the idea and tucked it in the back of my mind.

a year or so ago, kenny's mom gave him a thick envelope filled with paintings and report cards, drawings and notes that he had done as s child. i think he was ready to throw it out, but being the nostaligc type, i opened it and examined each picture, read each note that he had written to his parents or grandparents, and put the envelope on a shelf so he couldn't throw it away. why throw away such treasures?

it wasn't until early this summer that i put two and two together and realized that in that envelope was the original "kenny smith painting" that his grandmother reproduced. and i'm now honored to have both!



the painting is a shark in the water and a helicopter above the water. the blue on the left says "kenneth" and the writing on the right says, "the helicopter is going down into the water and the shark is going to get it."

pure brilliance, i tell you.

all joking aside, i do appreciate that his grandmother stitched one of his paintings. i don't know if she did this for kenny's other three brothers' (???) works of art, but even if i'm the only one that appreciates it now, i think it was worth her time.

it's inspired me to preserve some of the boys' artwork. this summer, rowan and sawyer were very into drawing crabs. here are their originals, and the stitching i did of each. i'm thinking of fabric-matting the stitched work and hanging them above their beds...or whatever suggestions you might have?

sawyer's crab:




rowan's crab:




i know i'm their mother and everything, but those boys can draw! i plan to do a few more of theirdrawings. there is one of sawyer's that i love and i can't wait to stitch. eventually, i'd love to get a bunch of them and quilt them together.


Tuesday, September 18, 2007 4:15:51 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 7:17:14 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Color me impressed - with ALL of you!!! Kenny, his grandma, and esp. you and the boys' crab drawings!!! Sawyer - whoa. I don't Will could do anything like that. ;p

I adore and admire your initiative!!!
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 10:19:03 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
What a spiffy idea! I think Jonathan's drawings are great, too, so maybe I'll have to try my hand at reproducing one. Not sure if I'm as good a stitcher as he is a drawer, though.
Thursday, September 20, 2007 2:06:09 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
Love the crabs. What about pillows? You could do some simple borders or patchwork around it, and then they could hug their crabs. =)

Where did you learn to embroider? Book? Mother? I've been obsessed with stitchery lately (reading about it, not always *doing* it), including sewing, quilting, and embroider.

As a cute aside, did you know that my manly husband was taught to cross stitch by his grandmother as a child? We have the most darling teddy bear that he stitched...
Thursday, September 20, 2007 11:43:04 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
serina - i learned to cross stitch from my mom...but i'm kind of teaching myself to embroider through books that i'm getting from the library. and i found an online tutorial with video since i need to watch and learn, rather than look at pictures and learn. the crabs were done in backstitch - a stitch anyone can do. :) but i'm learning different ones by practice (it's harder than i thought!).
so cute about jason and his cross stitch art... :)
Thursday, September 20, 2007 8:01:15 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
I just found this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Sublime-Stitching-Hundreds-Embroidery-How/dp/0811850110/

I have it on reserve from the library, but I will have to wait a while. The author has a website, where she sells the cutest patterns and kits:

http://www.sublimestitching.com
Tuesday, October 02, 2007 1:52:30 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)
I LOVE this idea of stitching the kid's artwork! I just wish I was better with a needle and thread---I mainly use the machine!
Name
E-mail
Home page

(some HTML allowed)  

Enter the code shown (prevents robots):

recently...
hangouts...
bloggin' friends...
archives
rss feed
Feed your aggregator (RSS 2.0)
Categories
contact me
Send mail to the author(s) E-mail
search


www.flickr.com
This is a Flickr badge showing public photos from elizannesmith. Make your own badge here.