Joy Blooms Here

I’m excited to be taking part in my third Yarnstorming at Adkins Arboretum.

This year I tried a new style of installation on a new tree with the forest itself as the inspiration. While the arboretum grounds may be wrapped in winter, joy still blooms here. This installation makes visible sparks of joy in an otherwise muted landscape, with soft, colorful flower blossoms, leaves and stems wrapping around the tree.

With “Forest of Friends” and “Hope Grows Here,” I stitched crocheted letters and imagery to a full wrap of granny squares. For “Joy Blooms Here,” I used a thicker, softer yarn to crochet 87 flowers, 94 leaves and seven vines.

I stitched the flowers and leaves to vines and wound each around the contours of the tree

Mine is just one of at least a dozen trees on display at the Arboretum for this year’s Yarnstorming. The creativity of my fellow craftspeople could not be more inspiring. I encourage you to check them out for yourself and enjoy a peaceful walk along the trails while you’re there.

On display March 2-31, 2026.

A Forest of Friends

My tree wrap returned to Adkins Aboretum in 2025, this time as “A Forest of Friends.”

I wrapped this same tree on the arboretum grounds in 2023. This year, I took the same base of 44 granny squares and one double crochet block and stitched elements to represent the various things you might find along a forest path at Adkins. This included a rabbit, owl, caterpillar, flowers, butterflies and mushrooms.

I also included a goat, giving a nod to some of the former arboretum inhabitants.

“A Forest of Friends” is a celebration of the animals and plants you might find in the forest around us and encourages visitors to search out their woodland friends. On display March 2-April 6.

Hope Grows Here

My husband gave me a yarn bombing book by London Kaye for my birthday last year. The next day I saw a call for yarn creations for Adkins Arboretum’s Yarnstorming 2023. I raised my hand and picked a tree. I starting crocheting in January and installed with snow coming down yesterday. 44 granny squares. 1 double crochet block. 13 letters. 3 butterflies. 12 flowers. 14 leaves. 2 vines. Many stitches holding it all together. Excited to see the other trees on display March 5-April 2 at Adkins Arboretum. The grounds and trails are beautiful—you should definitely stop by! Yarnstorming reception March 12, 2:00-4:00 pm.

Love Blooms Here

I’m excited to share that my piece, “Love Blooms Here,” now graces a traffic box in Riverdale Park. The basis for this piece is hand-stitched felt rectangles. I arranged the pieces, photographed them, and tranferred them to a digital file. The finished rendering was selected for display on a traffic box at 4801 Madison Street, Riverdale Park.

Thank you to the Hyattsville Community Development Corporation and Town of Riverdale Park, in collaboration with Verizon and the Maryland State Highway (SHA), for making this opportunity available. Learn more and see the list of other newly installed traffic boxes.