Part 10 concludes the series about making my piece Summertime. This post features photos and videos documenting the process of creating the wee folk characters seen frolicking in the warm summer breeze. A complete list of previous articles about making Summertime is at the end of this post.

Summertime is the summer scene in a series of four seasonal landscapes that capture the wonder and magic of the natural world. Posters, note cards, prints, bookmarks, and jigsaw puzzles of Summertime and the other scenes in the series (Frosty Morning, Mossy Glen and Harvest Time) are available in my Etsy Shop.

WEE FOLK
In the beginning, I’m never sure who is going to appear in these landscapes. The wee folk just show up one by one and claim their spots. After spending many months building places for them to live, it feels satisfying to finally meet the little characters and see them settled into their new homes. You can meet them yourself in the following video.

The figures are similar to the acorn-capped dolls described in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk, only smaller in scale (1.5″ – 2″ tall).

Rather than bending pipe cleaners, I used 24-gauge jewelry wire to form the armatures. With this choice, you have to wind a lot of floss around the wire to beef up the limbs so that they look proportional and not too spindly. One advantage of this method is that it eliminates the hassle of dealing with pipe cleaner fuzz, resulting in smoother and more refined doll bodies.

In the figure below, I used both cotton embroidery floss and tapestry yarn to wrap the wire armature. To give the illusion of a knitted vest, I chain stitched yarn around the torso.

For some of their outfits, I embellished wool felt using cotton embroidery floss.

The following 3 videos demonstrate how I made different figures from start to finish, from winding armatures with thread, to stitching clothing, to fashioning hair.

STITCH MINUTE VIDEOS
If you’ve followed me on Instagram and Facebook recently, you’ve probably seen some of my Stitch Minute videos. These short clips offer a glimpse into different aspects of my creative process, like peeking over my shoulder as I work.

While I enjoy sharing these visual moments, I kindly ask that you refrain from seeking in-depth explanations of my techniques beyond what is already shown on my blog or described in Felt Wee Folk. Much of my creative work is guided by intuition, and I feel that examining my process too closely might take away from the magic that makes it special. For those interested in understanding my philosophy on teaching and sharing knowledge, I invite you to read my post to teach or not to teach.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed learning about the making of Summertime. For a more comprehensive understanding of my process, I encourage you to explore previous posts in this series: Overview of the piece, Part 1 – Tree Trunks, Part 2 – Tree Houses, Part 3 – leaves, stems and branches, Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body), Part 5 – Baltimore Oriole (head and feet), Part 6 – rose vine, Part 7 – raspberry plants, Part 8 – stitching flora, and Part 9 – moss, sky and stone wall.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!
As time ushers us into 2026, I want to express my appreciation to all of you who follow this blog and take an interest in my work and life as an artist. As we enter its 17th year, I marvel at the constant influx of new subscribers every day! I hope that my words and photos inspire you to create your own artistic life. The blog format may have faded in popularity compared to other social media platforms, but an in-depth and thoughtful approach is more in keeping with my style of working. This is where you’re more likely to find out about what I do and why I do it, not just the little snippets that I post on Instagram and Facebook. So, now that you’re here, please come along as I review the past 12 months and share posts (linked in blue letters) published in 2025.

SUMMERIME
During 2025, I posted 7 more segments about the summer scene in my series of seasonal landscapes. There’s one more part to go (Part 10 – wee folk), which will be published in 2026. Post links:
Summertime: Part 3 – leaves, stems, and branches
Summertime: Part 4 – Baltimore Oriole (body)
Summertime: Part 5 – Baltimore Oriole (head and feet)
Summertime: Part 6 – Rose Vine
Summertime: Part 7 – Raspberry Plants
Summertime: Part 8 – Stitching Flora
Summertime: Part 9 – Moss, Sky, and Stone Wall

FELT FILIGREE SCULPTURES
I shared photos, videos, and commentary about my new “Felt Filigree” sculptures. Felt-covered wire has been a mainstay in my pieces for several years, but this is the first time I’ve created works that are entirely made with covered wire.
Post link: Felt Filigree Sculptures

TO EVERY SEASON at the New England Quilt Museum
It was an honor to exhibit my work at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA this past fall. A big thank you to all of you who made your way to Lowell to see my work in person! Visitors saw a wide selection of framed bas-relief embroidered scenes spanning 40 years of my career, spread out in multiple galleries. Soon, I will be returning pieces that were loaned for the exhibition.

There were also four glass cases filled with wee folk characters set up in miniature seasonal environments made with houses, furniture, trees, and foliage saved from other projects. Post links:
To Every Season at the new England Quilt Museum
Making a Scene

BIRDS OF BEEBE WOODS revisited
I shared thoughts about what inspired this collection of hand stitched birds and gave a behind the scenes peek at how I made it 13 years ago.
Post link:
Birds of Beebe Woods revisited

Exhibits at Mariposa Museum
It’s been such a pleasure collaborating with the Mariposa Museum & World Culture Center this past year. They hosted 2 exhibitions of my work in both of their locations, on Martha’s Vineyard, MA, and in Peterborough, NH. Bedtime Stitches & Other Works has been extended through Jan. 4, 2026 in Peterborough.

Post links:
Bedtime Stitches on Martha’s Vineyard
Exhibit at Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH

Wee Folk Family RAFFLE
I was happy to make a family of 5 dolls for a special fundraiser to benefit the Waldorf School of Cape Cod (my children’s alma mater). A big thank you to all who bought raffle tickets! You helped raise $4150 for the school’s newly renovated kindergarten classroom. That’s a gift that will give for many years to come.

I really enjoyed all aspects of making this little family, from painting their faces, to embellishing their felt outfits, to sewing their wigs. Different parts of the process were documented in photos and videos. Post link:
Wee Folk Family RAFFLE

Posies Tree and Storytime at Cahoon Museum
My collection of nursery rhyme ornaments were displayed in the Pocketful of Posies Holiday Tree at the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, MA. In the post, I explain how the collection of ornaments originated back in 2012.

I enjoyed reading a selection of my books to a delightful group, which ranged in age from 2 to 82! Post link:
Posies Tree and Storytime at Cahoon Museum

HAPPY WINTER SOLSTICE!
I invited you to watch a one minute video that features a selection of my art that celebrates winter. I also sing the first part of the carol, “In the Bleak Mid-winter.” Post link:
Happy Winter Solstice!

Elias & Eddie 2025 ornaments
The yearly tradition of making personalized ornaments of my grandchildren to give to their parents continued. I shared photos, videos and commentary about making wee folk depictions of Elias and Eddie in their winter outfits. Post link:
Elias and Eddie 2025 ornaments

Looking ahead to 2026
I’ll soon be in winter hibernation mode. It’s that special time when you can become immersed in projects without the distraction of warm weather! My goal this year is to resist the temptation to push myself to accomplish so much professionally. Don’t worry, I’m not disappearing — I’ll keep sharing glimpses of my process and posting stories on this blog for a while yet. Creating art will always be my source of true contentment, but I also want to savor these moments with my family, especially when my grandchildren are little. The writer, Anne Lamott recently spoke about this subject in a way that felt real to me. We are the same age (70) and she said, “There’s a huge change as you get older. The striving quiets down and the longing for being instead of doing grows stronger.”
Wishing you a year of good health, happiness, and unforgettable moments.

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Since becoming a grandma, I’ve started a yearly tradition of making personalized ornaments of my grandchildren to give to their parents. This year I made Elias (almost 3) and Eddie (almost 2) dressed in their winter outfits. The dolls were constructed the same way as the 4″ figures in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

The cousins are starting to converse a bit and I’m looking forward to eavesdropping on their conversations as they get older. They are still very much in parallel play mode, which seems perfectly natural to me. In fact, I’ve spent much of life in a parallel state, happily focused on my own thing, while others do their own thing.

Making the dolls

The first step was to paint the boys’ faces on wooden beads. Then, I formed their bodies with pipe cleaners, tapestry wool and cotton batting. Stitching their felt clothing was the most fun! For the Elias doll, I copied a navy blue jacket with red trim that he’s been wearing.

The following Stitch Minute video shows the process of stitching Elias’s clothes.

I used silver metallic thread to chain-stitch the zipper on Eddie’s jacket.

When it came time to sew on the hood, I glued a rectangular felt piece to the top of the bead head. That way it would say put while I fussed with a needle and thread. After sewing the front and sides of the hood to the jacket neck, I trimmed the felt piece to fit around the back of the bead head.

Here’s another Stitch Minute video that shows the process of stitching Eddie’s outfit.

I’m already looking forward to making next year’s ornaments! If you want to receive email notices when I publish new posts, please subscribe to this blog using the form below.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

Happy Winter Solstice! On this shortest day of the year, I invite you to watch a one minute video that features a selection of my art that celebrates winter. I also sing the first snippet of the carol, “In the Bleak Mid-winter.” The winter wonderland that you see here is hardly bleak, but I think that Christina Rossetti’s words beautifully evoke the coming season. She wrote the poem in 1872, and it was put to music in the early 1900’s by Gustav Holst.

In the bleak mid-winter.
Frosty wind made moan.
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow, on snow.
In the bleak mid-winter. Long ago.

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Winter arrived overnight on Cape Cod and snow is still falling as I write this. It’s the kind of snow that comes down gently and sticks to every branch. No howling wind and drifts to shovel, just a blanket of peace and quiet. What better way to feel the spirit of the holidays?

With that in mind, I’d like to let you know about the opportunity to see my Pocketful of Posies tree and come to an all-ages Storytime at the Cahoon Museum. For those of you from far away, I’ve posted photos of the tree, with lots of closeup views.

Pocketful of Posies Holiday Tree
If you live locally, please stop by the Cahoon Museum of American Art in Cotuit, MA. My collection of nursery rhyme ornaments are displayed in the Pocketful of Posies Holiday Tree thru Dec. 21st.

Storytime with Salley Mavor
Please join me on Sat., Dec. 20 at 11 AM for an all-ages Storytime. After I read selections from My Bed and Pocketful of Posies: A Treasury of Nursery Rhymes, I’ll be available to greet visitors, sign books, and answer questions.

I originally made these ornaments in 2012 to decorate a tree for the Concord Museum‘s annual Family Trees: A Celebration of Children’s Literature event. Every year, the museum organizes a slew of volunteers who craft handmade decorations for dozens of story trees inspired by classic and recent children’s books. When I was notified that my book, Pocketful of Posies, was selected as one of the titles in 2012, I offered to decorate the tree myself.

Over a period of 2 months, I made a collection of vignettes that feature different nursery rhyme characters from the book, from Humpty Dumpty to Old Mother Hubbard to Little Boy Blue.

The rhymes are acted out inside felt covered wire and wood frames that serve as little stage platforms. When I made these, I’d just completed Birds of Beebe Woods and was looking for other ways to incorporate felt covered wire into my work.

The figures are variations of the doll projects in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. I loved revisiting the nursery rhyme characters in a totally 3-d form!

The ornament collection was recently displayed with my Self Portrait: A Personal History of Fashion, in my exhibition, Bedtime Stitches & Other Works at the Mariposa Museum & World Culture Center in Peterborough, NH. Before the show was extended, I’d already promised the ornaments to the Cahoon Museum, so they were taken down and shipped home. Everything else in the show is still at the Mariposa thru Jan. 4, 2026!

I hope that you enjoy this glimpse at the vignettes. Season’s Greetings to you!

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

Today, I’d like to revisit Birds of Beebe Woods (2012) and share thoughts about what inspired this collection of hand stitched birds, as well as give a behind the scenes peek at how I made it 13 years ago.

See Birds of Beebe Woods in person
The framed bas-relief piece is currently on display at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA, in my exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor thru Dec. 31, 2025. In January, it will return for an extended stay at Eight Cousins Bookshop (199 Main St. location) in Falmouth, MA.

Origin Story
In the spring of 2012, I was invited to make a piece for a group fiber art show celebrating Beebe Woods, the beloved town forest in my hometown of Falmouth, MA. The exhibition, titled The Intimate Woods: A Celebration of Beebe Woods was shown at Highfield Hall in the fall of 2012.

The assignment was to use fiber techniques to make art inspired by Beebe Woods. All of the artists in the group where local and quite familiar with the numerous paths and stone walls crisscrossing the 388 acre wooded conservation land. Normally, I wouldn’t be able to fit in a months-long project like this on such short notice, but thankfully my schedule was open. It helped that I’d (temporarily) sworn off doing another children’s book after the recent 3-year marathon to complete Pocketful of Posies.

The 12 Birds
Listed clock-wise from the top, the birds are female cardinal, nuthatch, black-throated green warbler, male cardinal, wren, downy woodpecker, blue-jay, robin, goldfinch, cedar waxwing, American crow and chickadee.

Show and Tell
It was clear from the beginning that I wanted to do more than just convey the natural wooded environment in Beebe Woods. A landscape devoid of characters, whether they be human or animal, wouldn’t hold my attention for long – I need eyeballs to connect with! I chose to portray birds, making them realistic enough to be recognizable, but patterned and abstracted in a way that made them fun to stitch. I wouldn’t call myself an avid bird watcher, but after closely studying birds for this piece, I’ve become more in love with them.

The first step was to jot down ideas in thumbnail sketches. The drawing I liked best was a group of birds perched on branches, framed by a woodsy border. At this point, the birds were pretty stylized and more like place holders. Looking back, I realize that I must have been influenced by my grandfather’s Victorian glass dome with taxidermy birds that sits in my studio.

Next, I concentrated on the border, which set the stage for the collection of birds.

This may be my first example of making “felt filigree” sculpture, which involves covering wire with strips of felt to form intersecting lines. Felt covered wire has been a mainstay in my pieces for several years, including the recent collection of botanical sculptures hanging in the gallery entrances to my exhibition at the New England Quilt Museum.

After constructing the felt filigree border, I researched bird species that visit our corner of Cape Cod and picked out ones of a variety of sizes and plumage colors. I cut out paper birds and juggled them around. The finished composition wouldn’t be clear until the very end, after all of the birds were completed. I remember thinking that different birds would never mix together this way in real life. Then I reminded myself that I was making art, which didn’t have to conform to reality.

I printed out photos and illustrations of the birds to use as reference. The crow insisted on being made first and then I added the other birds one at a time.

I knew that the success of this piece was hinged on the dominant positioning of the crow and the strategic placement of the smaller birds around it.

My approach to rendering the birds changed during the 4 months that I worked on the piece. Toward the end, when I sewed the nuthatch, chickadee, wren, and warbler, I referred to photographs more closely and was caught up in making them identifiable and naturalistic. 

The birds aren’t exactly life size, but they are close. The little wren could stand on its own, so I took its picture before sewing it in place.

I cut the basic shapes of the birds out of wool felt and then embroidered their feather patterns.

I’m glad that I made the decision back in 2012 to not sell Birds of Beebe Woods. Before that, I sold just about everything I made, except for my Self Portrait, which was too personal to let go. Now, I don’t sell any original work. By holding on to these pieces, I am ensuring that there is a well-rounded and representative body of work ready for exhibition purposes. This way, many more people can experience my work in person!

SHOP
Printed reproductions (puzzles, posters, note cards, and bookmarks) of Birds of Beebe Woods are available in my Esty Shop.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

Everywhere you look, pre-holiday sales are going on, so I thought I’d get into the act and offer a Cyber Week Sale in my SHOP. You can save 25% on all jigsaw puzzles and note cards from Nov. 24 through Monday, Dec. 1st.

If you’ve followed me for a while, you’ll know that my original art is not for sale, so that a representative body of work is available to exhibit. However, I am pleased to offer printed reproductions of my hand-stitched little worlds. Please visit my Etsy Shop, to see a selection of autographed books, jigsaw puzzles, notebooks, prints, posters, note cards, and bookmarks that feature my artwork.

JIGSAW PUZZLES
The detailed miniature aspect of my work makes it a perfect match for jigsaw puzzles, don’t you think? The 300 piece 12″ x 16″ puzzles are suitable for older children as well as adults. At this size, the puzzle pieces can easily spread out on a card table instead of taking over the dining room table. And it won’t take an interminable amount of time to piece together the image.

NOTE CARDS
A wide variety of images of my work are printed as note cards. They are available in 4 and 8 card sets, as well as themed samplers, including winter, birds, seasons, and fairies. This sale is a great opportunity to stock up on holiday cards, too!

Please visit my SHOP HERE. Puzzles and Note Cards are listed with the 25% discount.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook and/or Instagram.

WEE FOLK FAMILY RAFFLE
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know that I no longer sell my original work. But occasionally, I can be persuaded to make something for a special fundraiser. So, I’m thrilled to announce this rare opportunity to win a Wee Folk Family of 5. Tickets are $25 each and proceeds are supporting the newly renovated kindergarten classroom at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod (my children’s alma mater). Raffle tickets can be purchased here. The winner will be announced on Dec. 10th. Good Luck!

The Wee Folk Family is based on the doll projects featured in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk: New Adventures. The dolls’ armatures are the sturdy variety, with reinforced frames that hold up better to repeated bending and handling. Their sizes range from 2″ (baby) to 4″ (adult) tall.

I really enjoyed all aspects of making this little family, from painting their faces, to embellishing their felt outfits, to sewing their wigs. After years of mass-producing fairies, it was so satisfying to put all my energy toward creating one special family. Different parts of the process were documented in videos, which you can watch near the end of this post.

Wee Folk Family Raffle tickets can be purchased from the Waldorf School of Cape Cod here. The winner will be announced on Dec. 10th.

It was fun setting up the winter scene and posing the dols for their family portrait. Rob photographed them outside in a light box, which helps defuse harsh shadows.

The following videos give a glimpse at how I made the Wee Folk Papa, Mama and children. Instructions and patterns for making the dolls and their outfits are in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk.

Wee Folk Family Raffle tickets can be purchased from the Waldorf School of Cape Cod here. The winner will be announced on Dec. 10th. Good Luck!

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

This fall has been particularly fruitful in my needle and thread universe and I’m pleased to share a growing list of good things that are happening. I’m astounded by the number of fans who are driving long distances with carloads of friends to see my art in person at both the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH and the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA.

A year from now, those of you in southern California will be able to do the same when my touring exhibition, Bedtime Stitches is shown at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego!
Please read ahead to learn about multiple displays, a wee folk raffle, and other opportunities to experience my art and meet me in person.

• SHOW EXTENDED at the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH
• ARTIST TALK at the Mariposa Museum in Peterborough, NH
• TO EVERY SEASON at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA
• Wee Folk Family RAFFLE to benefit the Waldorf School of Cape Cod
• Holiday Tree and Storytime at the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit, MA
• EXHIBITION SCHEDULED at the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, CA

SHOW EXTENDED
My exhibition at the Mariposa Museum & World Culture Center in Peterborough, NH is being extended through Jan. 4, 2026! The show, Bedtime Stitches & Other Works, has been so popular that the museum decided to keep it open for another 2 months. I’m so happy that more people will have a chance to experience the 3-dimensional quality and detail of my art in person.
ARTIST TALK
I look forward to returning to the Mariposa Museum to talk about my work on Sat., Nov. 22 at 2:00 PM. This is an opportunity to learn about where my art comes from, how it’s evolved, and why I do it. Seating is limited. Please register here.

TO EVERY SEASON
Since my show opened at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA an unusually high number of visitors have been spied walking around with smiles on their faces. One visitor named Susan summed up her experience this way – “Absolutely loved this show. I felt overwhelmed with joy!” How wonderful is that? My exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor is on view thru Dec. 31, 2025.

A big thank you to the lovely folks who came to hear my talk at the museum on Nov. 1st. I was surprised to learn that some people got up in the wee hours of the morning to drive from as far away as New York City, Vermont, and the mid-coast of Maine. It was was such a pleasure to meet everyone and hear about their creative lives!

WEE FOLK RAFFLE
If you’ve followed this blog for a while, you’ll know that I no longer sell my original work, including dolls. But occasionally, I can be persuaded to make something for a special fundraiser. So, I’m thrilled to announce this rare opportunity to win a Wee Folk Family of 5 that I made based on the projects in my how-to book, Felt Wee Folk. Tickets are $25 each and proceeds are supporting the newly renovated kindergarten classroom at the Waldorf School of Cape Cod (my children’s alma mater). Raffle tickets can be purchased here. The winner will be announced on Dec. 10th. Good Luck!

HOLIDAY TREE and STORYTIME at the Cahoon Museum
I’m so happy that the Cahoon Museum in Cotuit, MA is displaying my Pocketful of Posies tree this Holiday Season. The tree is decorated with a collection of nursery rhyme ornaments based on my picture book, Pocketful of Posies. I made them in 2013 for the Concord Museum’s annual Family Tree event. Since then, the individual ornaments have been shown alongside my framed artwork in numerous exhibitions.
Winter Open House – Sat., Dec 20th – 10 AM to 4 PM
Please join me at the museum at 11:00 AM for a STORYTIME. All ages are welcome. Please register here.

EXHIBITION at the MINGEI MUSEUM
I’m excited to share the news that next year, Bedtime Stitches, the touring exhibition of original 3-dimensional embroidered artwork for my picture book, My Bed: Enchanting Ways to Fall Asleep Around the World, will be shipped across the country to the Mingei International Museum in San Diego, California. The show will be on view for a nice long while, from Oct. 31, 2026 to April 18, 2027.

The Mingei /min-gey/ (art of the people) is an extraordinary museum dedicated to furthering the understanding of folk art, craft, and design from all eras and cultures of the world. Having my work shown in such a well-matched venue is truly a dream come true!

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.

My current exhibition at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA features a collection of botanical sculptures hanging in the gallery entrances. In this post, I share photos, videos, and commentary about my new “Felt Filigree” work. The show, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor, will be on view through Dec. 31, 2025.

Felt covered wire has been a mainstay in my pieces for several years, including in Birds of Beebe Woods, Cover Up and Whiskers.

This is the first time I’ve created works that are entirely made with covered wire. For me, they are a way of drawing lines in space, without the interference of a background.

Where did the idea come from?
When visiting the museum last year to choose which areas to display my work, a cluster of four small galleries drew me in. Having visitors experience my art in intimate spaces where they could spend time peering into my little worlds was a priority. But, the floor to ceiling doorways leading into the galleries seemed too imposing and hard-edged, especially for a nature themed show. My first inclination was to do something to soften the edges and create more welcoming entrances. In other words, embellish!

I ended up spending all winter and spring making a group of intersecting felt-covered wire forms to frame the upper portions of the doorways. When installed, they would look like valances and parting stage curtains that invite people inside. At this point, I didn’t know how to describe what I was making, let alone what to name this new concept.

During the process, I took a photo of my son Ian holding up one section, so I could see how they would look.

The process:
To prepare, I measured the doorways and made sketches on some ancient graph paper passed down from my grandparents. I then scanned the drawings and enlarged them using Block Poster.

I printed out the sheets and taped them together to make full sized patterns to use as guides. I formed leaves, branches and other linear shapes with 18 gauge insulated electrical wire. Working with wire was tough on my hands, so I took to wearing gloves.

I wrapped layers of yarn around the wire shapes to smooth out the bumps and add a little thickness. Watch the following video to see how I stitched strips of felt around the wire.

Manipulating the wire and getting it to lay flat was tricky at times. Pliable materials like thread and yarn are much easier to handle, but what I envisioned required a strong structure that would hold its shape. No droopy, floppy, stringy fiber art for me!

I’d like to make more pieces like these and can imagine covering large expanses with felt filigree. My original thought was to create larger works that took less time, but I can’t seem to help myself from making little stitches. Still, the ratio of working hours to square footage is a big improvement.

Speaking of tiny stitches, the following video shows how I covered wire shapes with felt and embellished branches with seed stitches.

Even though these felt filigree sculptures are site specific, they can be reused in other ways in future exhibitions. For more versatility, I purposely made them in sections that can be arranged in different ways. Also, in addition to being suspended in open spaces, they could be mounted on light or dark colored walls.

The following video shows how I stitched strips of felt around the wire intersections.

I hope that you’ve enjoyed this peek at my process. The exhibition, To Every Season: Works by Salley Mavor will be on view at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA through Dec. 31, 2025. I will be giving an Artist Talk on Sat., Nov. 1 at 10:30 AM. Please register here.

To keep up with new posts, please subscribe to this blog. Your contact info will not be sold or shared. If you’d like to see more frequent photos tracking the projects in my studio, please follow me on Facebook, Instagram and BlueSky.