Goodnight, Yarn: How Two Colorado Artists Recreated a Beloved Children’s Book
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BOULDER, Colo. — In the Great Green Room, there was a telephone, and a red balloon, and a picture of the cow jumping over the moon… and over 100 miles of yarn.
The beloved children’s tale of a sleepy bunny bidding farewell to the day is coming to life by way of fiber arts this weekend at the Dairy Arts Center. Goodnight, Moon - A Fiber Tale is a 500 square foot installation that replicates the Great Green Room, made up entirely by hand-sewn pieces. Colorado-based artists Emilie Odeile and Ken Chapin, also known by their artistic duo name Dundee & Lee, dedicated six months to the creation of the installation.
“I remember working on the rocking chair at four in the morning, just thinking to myself ‘what have I gotten myself into?’” said Emilie Odelle with a laugh. “I somehow thought this was going to be a fairly simple task.”
Odelle says the idea has been in the works since 2021, originating from a simple question posed by her partner, Chapin: ‘If you could do anything, any type of artistic project, what would it be?’
“Without even thinking about it, I just blurted out ‘I would sew Goodnight, Moon!’” Odelle said.
“Asking her that question was my attempt at inspiring her to really push her own limits, to see what she wanted to do even if it was crazy,” said Ken Chapin, who handles partnerships, strategy, and touring for the duo. Chapin also built the majority of the set pieces from various materials, mostly wood, in the room that Odelle went on to cover in yarn.
“This rocking chair is one of our dining room chairs,” Chapin said with a laugh. “It quite literally took over our lives and our home, there was just yarn everywhere. Did I mention we live in a Tiny Home?”
The 500 square foot room was created piece by piece in southern Colorado where the couple lives, each piece meticulously designed to be an exact replica of the book illustration. Six million stitches and many long days and nights later, A Fiber Tale debuted in Trinidad in 2023. The exhibit drew more than 10,000 visitors, all of whom had different memories and attachments to the source material. According to Chapin, the parents got just as much out of the exhibit as the kids — maybe even more.
“Being in touch with the nostalgia and the childlike whimsy disarmed the parents in a way that was really remarkable,” Chapin said, sitting inside the Great Green Room looking around at their finished product. “The parents were the ones getting emotional most of the time.”
For Odelle, knitting and fiber arts has been a pastime for years (she even owned a fiber arts shop in Los Angeles for a time). However, she believes the attitude toward fiber arts is changing for the better — meaning, the creative community seeing her craft as art — not ‘women’s work.’
“Historically, knitting, crocheting, any kind of thread work was relegated to women,” Odelle said. “But I find that the art world is starting to shift, and there is a greater universal respect for fiber arts. It’s not just a chore or a craft, it’s art.”
Odelle and Chapin say an international tour of A Fiber Tale is on their bucket list, and have started moving toward that goal by touring locally. The installation will head to Parker, Colorado in May 2026.
“This whole project is what Dundee & Lee is all about,” Chapin said. “We’re always interested in pushing limits, pushing boundaries, and achieving things that feel impossible.”
Odelle is on her hands and knees by the end of our interview, with a roll of duct tape wrapped around her fingers. Dust is enemy number one of a fiber arts exhibit, and only a true artist would be able to spot the microscopic black speck on the red carpet that she deftly extracts from the delicate stitching.
“I know no one will notice these things,” Odelle said. Chapin smiles and joins her on the ground.
“She’s got an eye for detail, I’ll tell you,” Chapin said.
Goodnight Moon - A Fiber Tale is on display September 26 and 27 at the Dairy Arts Center. Click here for tickets and more information on the exhibit.
Type of story: News
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Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. To read more about why you can trust the journalism of Rocky Mountain PBS, please visit our editorial standards and practices page.