Cover Girl

I love a happy surprise and last week I got a wonderful one when I received the news that some of my stitch work had been picked to grace the cover of the new 

2018 Feb/Mar issue of Quilting Arts Magazine! 

Pretty cool, yes?! But wait... what exactly are those? 

Well, glad you asked... I call them"Objects of Comfort", 

(which I actually started stitching before I began my "Objects of Curiosity" 

pieces that I've been sharing in some previous posts here on the blog .)

And what exactly is an "Object of Comfort" you may ask? 

Well, for me it was the idea of taking certain things that I have collected over the years and am attracted to; such as shells, beads & buttons, and marrying them together with bits of lovely fabric and hand stitching. And in doing so I found that these little talismans had been created, 

each made of some things that are soothing and familiar to me, 

and that I can now hold in my hand or stick in my pocket...

The idea first planted in my mind several years back while walking the beach in Cape May, NJ, 

(a place that holds special meaning to my family) 

when I came upon a large amount of beautiful broken hard clam shell fragments, 

(such as that quahog shell above with it's pretty touch of purple). 

I collected a bucket full, attracted to the soft pale colors, and their ocean smoothed edges, 

knowing that someday, somehow, I would select some to adorn with fabrics and threads.

And a few months ago the "somehow" finally came to me and I set to work making them, 

finding the whole process and the resulting finished talismans very comforting... hence the name.

Once some of them were were made I posted a picture on Instagram and Facebook, where they were spotted by Quilting Arts who then invited me to write an article about them... 

Little did I know that they would wind up on the cover, and I gotta say it's really nice feeling

 and a very happy uplift to this long cold winter, (that I admit is taking a toll on my mood)!

Here's a pic above of all of them together and showing the front side of them...

And here's a pick of their backsides.

Last but not least... if you would like to learn how to make your own, 

check out the issue and find out how!

xo