ART and STITCH by Judy Hartman

Tuesday, September 29, 2026

Autumn is here!

 I love this time of year and we've had some nice fall days, but, this being New England, the weather report says that it could be in the 80's by the end of this week! Putting away summer clothes will have to wait. And the leaves are only starting to change so it will be awhile before it really feels like Autumn.

I just finished a couple of fiber art pictures for our local arts collaborative's October exhibit. For the first time, I actually did a fall scene, using rough decorator fabrics and all sorts of lace and trims. I was pleased with how it came out!


My other picture was a more summery scene, a bit of a windy day, full of movement. I used  silk ribbon, fabric and even a few twigs for the trees! Unfortunately the twigs kept breaking as I worked the branches with embroidery thread, so they are mostly embroidered!


In addition, I did a couple of 5x7" pieces for the exhibit's fundraiser to benefit PAWS, our local cat rescue organization, from which we have adopted 4 wonderful furry friends, so I was happy to contribute!


And finally, one day I was in a playful mood and put together this little autumn collage! I really want to do more collages and get better at it, but I always feel like mine are not collage-y enough!! Of course, that's silly because there is no hard and fast rule about stitched collage! The point of them is to have fun, so I'll just make more and enjoy the process!!


I'm happy to be back to blogging. It was such creative place for me for so many years and it's nice to be able to record personal events and things that I've made. October is going to be a busy month for us as we are having our attic insulated and have to be out of the house for a few days. I'll have to be sure to bring a project or two to keep me busy while staying in the hotel!

Happy Autumn!




Tuesday, August 11, 2026

Celebrating #49!

Bill and I celebrated our anniversary last week in the same way we've always done it, 

visiting the historic Longfellow's Wayside Inn where we had our wedding.

As always, our first stop was the Inn itself, where we had a delicious lunch 

in the main dining room.





After visiting the gift shop we drove to a nearby country store, along the way
passing the Martha Mary chapel in which we were married so many years ago.
There is also a little fabric store which I just HAD to investigate, but the quality of 
the fabrics was pretty bad so I only bought 1 yard!




It was a sunny, hot day, much like our wedding day,
and having this meaningful place to visit after all these years
is so special.



It always brings us back to that wonderful day in 1977 when 
we became man and wife.


Happy Anniversary to us!! ❤️

Thursday, August 6, 2026

Finally Back!!

I am breathing a huge sigh of relief today! Can you hear it?
The reason is that, after a very long struggle with Blogger, I am finally able to post 
photos on my blog and continue writing it! Hurray!!

Here's a project I finished recently for my great niece, Madi.
I started with an I Spy play mat, after collecting scraps of animal 
fabrics from all different sources. Then I thought, what if there were 
little duplicates of the squares to put on top of each square, 
to make a matching game? The little squares became pillows
and I even made a matching drawstring bag to hold everything!



It seems like Madi loves her gift!


Madi is my older sister Carol's granddaughter. Carol passed 

away in 2020 of Covid, so she never met this little sweetie, but Madi 

looks a lot like her grandmother when she was little, so that is lovely.


I'm so happy to be back on my blog and hope you enjoy visiting here!!


 

Friday, April 17, 2026

Seasons Book Completed!

 I was happy to finish my Seasons embroidered book recently. As I was working on the last page featuring winter things, I realized that this would be the perfect gift for someone who has been very good to me and would really love it. I hurried to finish that page and the cover and it was a joy to gift it to my friend Susie for her birthday. Susie hosts a group of us every week in her quilting cottage, generously gives away fabric when we need it and makes little charity quilts for the babies in the NECU unit in a Boston hospital. She is a treasure and l was so glad to give her this little treasure. I was delighted to see how happy it made her!