Lily S. May–Life with Art
This is the most recent wallhanging I've made. After all the deliberating that went into making the Autumn appliqué, I designed this one quickly. I still had periods of unsewing and resewing, but not as many as with the previous appliqué. I enjoyed working with the bright colours as the nights lengthened. The bird shape… Continue reading Doorway
I have finally finished the appliqué I've been working on that I struggled with. I made it with merino wool felt, cotton fabric and cotton threads. After sewing, unsewing and resewing the work, here it is. I'm happy to have seen it through to completion. I was inspired to sew the appliqué by the very… Continue reading Finally!
I finished this wool felt wall hanging this week. I worked on it slowly over a month and a half or two months and it was a struggle at times. I sewed and resewed after ripping out stitches that I felt could be improved. I went through many emotions while working that are sometimes part… Continue reading The Meeting
I made this felt appliqué over the past few weeks. I had started work on a linocut but developed a great deal of pain from the repetitive strain of carving the block. I then decided to put the linoleum aside, but wanted to continue doing some creative work. So I started designing an image for… Continue reading Speaking of Birds
During the pandemic, my husband and I have taken to listening to audiobooks at night. So far, we’ve been listening to unabridged readings of Agatha Christie’s books—mostly to the Hercule Poirot mysteries. I find that during the hour or hour and a half we listen, I think only of the puzzle of who the murderer… Continue reading Sewing with Poirot
When I was making fabric quilts and appliqués in the '90s, I became interested in old folk dolls and puppets. I made one or two simple puppets at the time. This is one of them. It's a cross between a doll and puppet. The head, which is stuffed with batting, sits on a piece of… Continue reading Playin’ Around
Here's another embroidered appliqué I made recently--this one with merino wool felt. I sewed in the evenings, this time to calm myself from the dreadful news of wars, racism, illness and sexual assaults of women that have all been in the forefront recently. The idea for this design grew out of a recent trip to… Continue reading Appliqué for Peace of Mind
I made this wall hanging in 2003 from synthetic felt. I sewed it entirely by hand. The design of the appliqué arose from my love of masks.
Arts of May 