A Banner for Grace Church, An Inspiration for Future Children's Book Illustrations

In the fall of 2010, the pastor at Grace Episcopal Church in Anderson, SC asked me if I could design a banner for the church.  Since the church is so much more than the building in which it is contained, he did not want the banner to contain an image of the church building itself.  Instead, he wanted to focus on the four gospels.  In the Book of Kells and other Medieval manuscripts, the four gospel writers (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John) were symbolized as a winged man/angel, a winged lion, a winged ox, and an eagle.

Grace Episcopal Church has beautiful stained glass windows, and it was these windows that served as the inspiration for my banner.

My concept for the banner involved designing the banner to look as though it were a stained glass window in the church.

These shapes at the edges of all the windows were incorporated into the sides of the banner as well.

After I completed the banner, the local Anderson Independent Mail newspaper ran an article about the banner.

I also incorporated the symbols for the four elements behind the four gospel writers: water, fire, earth, and air.

My process involved drawing the design in pencil, then inking it with Pigma Micron pens.  Each intersection between lines is contoured to resemble the leading between stained glass panels.  I then scanned the illustrations so that I could complete them in Photoshop.  After photographing the actual windows in Grace Episcopal Church, I used the computer to "paint" the colors and textures from the stained glass into each "pane" within my drawing.

I uploaded my design to www.Spoonflower.com, an amazing resource in North Carolina that prints onto all kinds of fabric.  My finished banner was approximately 36" wide and 42" long.  Spoonflower was able to print my banner onto upholstery weight fabric.

After nine months of working on the banner, it was finally dedicated in the summer of 2011.

Best of all, the technique I employed for the project inspired me to illustrate a children's book manuscript in the same manner!

After sending my manuscript to Bronze Man Books at Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois in February 2012, I was formally invited in March 2012 to illustrate a manuscript that they currently had in production.  The book, Am I Like My Daddy? by Marcy Blesy, is scheduled to be released in December 2012.  Am I Like My Daddy? is already available for pre-order on Bronze Man Books website:  http://www.bronzemanbooks.com/books/AmILikeMyDaddy/index.html

Future posts will offer a sneak peak into the story and illustrations for the upcoming book!  

A custom-designed quilt for a special little girl

For my daughter's nursery, I used the Penelope pattern from Pottery Barn. I fell in love with the adorable little birds on the crib sheets. Eventually these sheets inspired my sweet girl's whole room. What would we do when our baby grew up and needed a big girl bed with big girl sheets and quilt?

Around that time, www.spoonflower.com held a contest to design a "cheater quilt". (A "cheater quilt" is fabric which appears to have been quilted together, but it is actually a patchwork design printed onto a single piece of fabric.) I decided to collage different elements from my little girl's nursery into a patchwork design. The result: 2 yards of quilting weight fabric formed the center panel on a twin size quilt!

I picked up an adorable pink floral fabric to surround my custom-designed fabric on all four sides. The back is a single piece of bright pink fabric. I used 3/4" quilt binding and a zig-zag stitch to bind the edges, and the edges of all center squares are "quilted". In other words, the squares are not pieced together, but I sewed on all of the lines.

My design incorporated sections of the green rug in her room, a collage I had made for her wall with birds made of scrap-booking paper, a polka-dot design from flower pots I painted for her room,...

...photos of an origami mobile my husband and I made for her room, a stylized photo of wavy lines I painted on a dresser drawer pull, and a photo of her minky fabric changing table.

Perfect!!! Now my baby can grow up in style and still enjoy her little birdies!

If you are interested my fabric is available for purchase here.

I am also hoping to use the crib sheets someday to make her twin-bed-sized pillowcases, using a pillowcase tutorial from www.dana-made-it.com, available here.

Peaceable Kingdom Quilt

So, I had never "quilted" before last fall... I can still say, I've never quilted"correctly".. As with all creative endeavors, I jumped in feet first, figuring it out as I went along.

I wanted to be a part of an art exhibit in Anderson, SC that took its inspiration from the Peaceable Kingdom in theBook of Isiaah:

⁶ The wolf shall live with the lamb,

the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
the calf and the lion and the fatling together,
and a little child shall lead them.
⁷ The cow and the bear shall graze, their young shall lie down together;

and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.

⁸ The nursing child shall play over the hole of the asp,

and the weaned child shall put its hand on the adder’s den.
⁹ They will not hurt or destroy
on all my holy mountain;
for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord
as the waters cover the sea.

After designing my work on the computer, I had my design commercially printed onto quilting weight fabric, using www.spoonflower.com, a company in North Carolina. I wanted to machine quilt the design. In retrospect, I realize a different sewing machine presser foot would be helpful in this endeavor. :) Next time... However, I completed the project without breaking a needle!

The design depicts animals peacefully surrounding the Earth. There is subtle variation within all of the colors, as there is in batik fabrics. The quilt was machine-quilted on the edge of the world, as well as in a design surrounding the animals. The edges are finished with blanket stitching, using embroidery thread that matches the colors of that portion of the quilt.

As a former Montessori Primary teacher and current stay-at-home mother, I designed it with a classroom or nursery in mind!!

Designing custom fabric for educational quilts

Over a year ago in August 2009, I posted about my desire to find a company that would print onto fabric. I had just discovered www.spoonflower.com, the answer to my wish. It is difficult not to get carried away designing fabric! I even hope to use some to make dresses for my little girl, and I used some of my test swatches to make her soft, fabric blocks for Christmas (pictures to come in a future post).

However, my initial desire stemmed from the amount of time I spent piecing together individual educational quilts for classroom teachers. Finally, I have designed fabric, had it printed, and made a new line of quilts that will be more affordable for teachers and for parents! My color wheel quilts have the vividness of my collage quilts, but without the laborious job of piecing them together or edges that might come up over time and with years of use.

I FINALLY posted my first one on Etsy!!!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/19444116/color-wheel-categorization-quilt-without

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With this activity, the child selects items that you provide to them (in a container or basket); the items are of different colors/shades/tints, and the child categorizes them on the matching portion of the color wheel. This material is designed so that you, as a parent or teacher, may provide your own materials from your house or classroom as objects. You may also wish to change the objects often or encourage your children to find objects to add to the box. Although I designed this educational material for a Montessori classroom, it is appropriate for lessons within a Montessori classroom or your home. Even very young children are curious about our colors in the world around them; this lessons capitalizes upon a child's interests. In Montessori primary classrooms, young children receive lessons in the primary and secondary colors with Box I and Box II of the Color Tablets. Although Maria Montessori, a pioneer in early childhood education, designed beautiful materials which are still relevant today, the Color Tablets are a rare exception of materials which were potentially more attractive to children in Montessori's culture (than they are today). In my experience as a Montessori Primary Directress, children rarely choose to return to these materials after their initial lessons. I this designed this Color Wheel Categorization Quilt as an extension of the traditional Sensorial curriculum. In using this material in my own classroom, I find that it draws children back to the color materials; children choose the color wheel quilt on their own, thereby giving the teacher continued opportunities to explore primary and secondary colors with the students. Included in this set: Color Wheel (measuring approximately 10.4" from flat side to flat side and 12.25" from point to point across) - there is quilt batting inside and the back is solid black; BOX AND OBJECTS ARE NOT INCLUDED IN THIS PARTICULAR LISTING. Please note: Materials are an original design and cannot be reproduced for sale. Images and Text - Copyright 2010 by Amy M. Kuhl Cox

PLEASE TAKE A SECOND TO VOTE FOR MY FABRIC ON SPOONFLOWER.COM!!!!!

I am a design-finalist in Spoonflower.com's Christmas Fabric Contest, and I need votes to try to win some free fabric!

You are only allowed to vote once, and it will only take a second (REALLY!!!). PLEASE CLICK ON THE TITLE OF THIS POST WHICH CONTAINS A LINK TO VOTE for Amy Kuhl Cox's "Christmas Lights". (I am hoping this takes you immediately to the voting page.)

...If that doesn't work, try this: http://blog.spoonflower.com/
Scroll down until you see the header, "Vote in the final round of our Christmas Fabric of the Week." Then click on any piece of fabric, & it will take you to a page where you can vote. (The photo of my design doesn't represent the fabric too well unfortunately - it is too much of a close-up. :) But vote for me as #1 anyway!!!)

YOU ARE THE BEST!!!! I think each computer can vote once. Do you have a computer at home AND work or does your spouse/fiance/boyfriend? I need as MANY votes as I can get!!! Are your parents, siblings, friends, strangers on the street willing to take just a second? Can you send the link to them or whomever you feel comfortable asking? I would be VERY GRATEFUL!!! :)

THANKS!!!

New Exploration with Fabric for Educational Quilts

I've had so much fun being creative during my son's naps this summer! Having designed a number of batik, educational quilts for children over the last year, I have been researching ways to make these quilts more effectively, retaining quality while bringing the price down for teachers.

It seems like a new website in Beta testing may be my answer. Previously, I was cutting out individual shapes of batik fabric and fusing them together into a unique collage. While I enjoyed the process, I am currently seeing whether I might be able to photograph my designs to have commercially printed onto fabric, thereby eliminating the time-consuming labor of love that is piecing the quilt together!

Three of my educational quilts are available for sale on www.amykuhlcox.etsy.com
I have also been designing some new, language, educational quilts that focus on the beginning sounds in words - they are "I Spy" phonetic quilts. (Hopefully these will also be available on www.amykuhlcox.etsy.com come fall.) I have discovered one of my biggest pet peeves is a phonetic material that is designed poorly! So, no airplanes to represent the "a" sound here. And away with you, consonant blends at the beginning of words, when we are trying to isolate a single sound for instruction! :)

I have been so intrigued by fabric design, that over the weekend I designed a Christmas/holiday fabric for Spoonflower.com.
www.spoonflower.com/explore/76413
Now, to see whether I get chosen as a finalist in the contest.... Alas, no matter what, it was a learning experience in Photoshop! :)