“Sunshine and Happiness”

May 7, 2013September 16, 2014thegreensheep 16 Comments

This blanket makes me think happiness! every time I look at it. The colors are fantastically WARM and luscious and gorgeous together.

It’s like the wild California poppies in the empty lot next door to the house I grew up in.

And the spring-green tumbleweeds across the red-dirt desert of northeast Arizona.

It’s the jumble of marigolds and cosmos in my Midwest garden.

And shopping in a Mexican market.

It’s the hot sleepy feeling of lying on the beach in August.

And chili-smothered pork, roasting in the oven, to be shredded and eaten with tortillas.

It reminds me of just about anything with sun and heat involved.

How about you? What does it make you think of?

Sunshine and Happiness (Size: 55″ x 68″)

This blanket is no longer available for sale.

“Rainy Day”

May 6, 2013March 27, 2015thegreensheep 4 Comments

I’ve had the sweaters for this blanket matched up for some time, just waiting. Even before they were a blanket, I thought they were comforting together — like being indoors — cozy, warm, and contented — on a rainy day.

Just about the time I put the blanket together, my daughters put together a book they had worked on through this semester for my younger daughter’s watercolor class. The assignment: to paint a series of paintings as illustrations. Daughter #2, the painter, asked Daughter #1, the writer, if she would contribute poems to this project. Their collaboration took its final form as this book.*

They created a painting/poem pair that fits so well with the spirit of a rainy day that I asked the daughters if I could share their work with you.

They said yes :)

Here is “Early Spring,” a painting by Hope Olson, and “If Only,” a poem by Grace Claus.

“Early Spring”

(Painting reprinted with permission of Hope Olson)

If Only

(Reprinted with permission of Grace Claus)

On a day like today,

inspiration is nowhere

to be found. It has stolen

like a fox into the woods

and has curled up beneath

a silent bush, damp but

asleep while the rain slaps

the leaves, weaves between

branches, slips down

trunks, shoots, roots,

and seeps into the soil.

If only I were a fox

and could leave this stale,

drowsy house, sheltered

from the rain, and let

one immaculate drop

startle my shoulder,

bead against my fur,

and disturb my sleep.

Proud momma? I s’pose you could say that :)

I could’ve tied this all together better if I had had a cloudy and dreary day to shoot these pics. How did I miss all those cloudy, dreary days?? Even the turtles at the local park came out to sit in the sun.

Anyway, to me, the cream-colored squares in the blanket are like two windows, letting in wan but welcome light. Up close, you can see scrabbling vines “outside.”

The gray wool with the diamond pattern is sprinkled with a handful of clear sequins, looking like little raindrops balancing atop the wool.

This blanket is very cozy, cushy, and a nice throw size. In person, the colors are absolutely gorgeous together. (It’s difficult to capture that aspect in these photos.)

“Rainy Day” (58″ x 74″)

This blanket has already gone to a good home.

(“On a Day Like Today” by Grace Claus; illustrated by Hope Olson)

“A Quiet Creature” (the hummingbird blanket)

May 4, 2013September 16, 2014thegreensheep 7 Comments

My friend Gloria is a sweet fan of The Green Sheep. Along with choosing a blanket for herself, she has let me have fun designing for her grandkids (see 11, 12, Dig and Delve and I Love Minnie). Once, when she saw a small baby blanket I had made in purples and greens, she said, “You can make an adult-sized one of these for me!” I kept my eyes open for more of those colors.

Months later, with a nice collection of hues, I contacted Gloria to see if she was still interested. Yes, indeed, she replied. Her email contained a little postscript with a smile: “I like appliqués. I especially like flowers or hummingbirds.”

Just in time for hummingbird season, here is A Quiet Creature.

“A Quiet Creature” (the hummingbird blanket) (60″ x 75″)

This is a custom-order blanket.

“The Pond”

April 30, 2013September 16, 2014thegreensheep 2 Comments

It’s true what they say about fish, I think, and about water and ripples and quiet babbling — babbling of the watery sort, that is.

(I have been known to babble to myself on crazy-busy days at our rehab clinic. In our back office, we have 14 therapists and 2 student interns — plus SIXTEEN DESKS in a room the size of a large living room. It’s no wonder! That, however, is not the babbling I mean.)

Fish and water are able to lend their sense of peace and calm, quiet and order to our racing minds and bodies. Contrast the soothing, gliding movements of fishthrough water to the hurried, harried, schedule-bound movements of us racing out the front door to our next important thing.

I’m convinced I have a sort of homing device inside that is always seeking out calm: the quieter place, the isolated sunny spot on the grass, the good book to carry along. I fully believe that our minds and hearts and souls need it.

So grab a blanket, find a pond — even an aquarium! — lay out in the grass or at home on your sofa and soak up the soothing calm of the fish and the water. You may find that a nap will be in order. That kind of peace is a godsend.

“The Pond” (Size: 58″ x 72″)

(This is no longer available for sale.)

“Terra-Cotta Red”

April 26, 2013June 15, 2020thegreensheep 4 Comments

In the back of my mind, I always have an idea for “the next” Arts & Crafts style-inspired blanket I want to do. Two that have come to fruition are That 70s Throw and Ginkgo Leaves. And the same influence is visible in Life is a Gift (the poppies blanket), The Spruce Tree, and even in the flowers on Night Garden.

This blanket is a little different. Terra-Cotta Red was prompted by a photo I have of an old terra-cotta wall with a fountain set into it. It’s from a book about Craftsman-style homes.

The connection here to Arts & Crafts style is less about motif and more about the materials — particularly the earthenware tiles.

The photo — and now this blanket — mentally transports me between Italy and California and back again. The reds make me feel the absorbed heat of the tiles and the dry Mediterranean air. The greens hint at the shade of towering trees to tame the heat. The sound of trickling water sweetens the setting. I imagine a worn wooden bench nearby where I can relax with a friend over coffees and conversation.

It’s a bit of an anachronism to have this hanging on a picket fence in the Midwest’s thin spring sunlight. But hey. We do the best we can.

“Terra-Cotta Red” (60″ x 75″)

“The Spruce Tree”

November 2, 2012July 12, 2014thegreensheep 2 Comments

A blanket isn’t really safe in my hands until, well, until it’s out of my hands. Exhibit A:

I created “Asleep in the Meadow“ with a summer sun in the sky. It was light and airy.

As I pulled it out now, with thin autumn light at the windows, I had a completely different vision. I had to follow through. Let me introduce “The Spruce Tree.”

Evergreens have been a frequent backdrop in my life. I grew up in the foothills of the San Bernardino Mountains where we’d go sledding every winter – under the pines.

As a teenage counselor at summer camp, on another California mountain, the butterscotch scent of Jeffrey Pines intoxicated me.

Here in northern Illinois, a stately blue spruce on the corner of our house silently protects us in inclement weather. This blanket is in honor of all these lovely trees.