Playing with Color and Texture

I'm trying out new technology today.  We recently broke down and bought a small laptop computer for our business.  My main motivation was to be able to take it with me to the Quilt/Surface Design Symposium next month, but now I'm finding many other uses for it.  Today I'm learning about sharing pictures and documents from my office computer via the web.  I'm hoping I can add pictures to this post via a new service my husband set up for me.  It is my test run to see if I can manage this on my own.  I'm pretty computer-literate, but for many things I still feel like a newbie.


In my more hands-on world, I've been creating more Free Lace scarves.  The gallery I am working with in Newton has requested longer ones than I've made before.  Customers want to "make a statement" with their scarves.  My previous ones didn't have quite enough length for that.  I made a big push and made four scarves in four days this week.  I wanted to make them as different as I could.

Here's the first one.  I've incorporated triangles of shot silk as well as threads of various textures, even one with some sparkle.

This is the second one.  I had just a bit of some beautiful yellow threads that I wanted to use.  There wasn't enough for a big project and I also wanted the challenge of using yellow.  It's not a color I work with often.  The overall reads green to me because of the combination of yellow and blue threads, but the yellow adds a liveliness that pleases me. 

Here's the third.  This one incorporates triangles of silk and squares of an embroidered sheer.  With this one I got to a place where I thought it should be done, but it didn't feel quite special yet.  I had a random square of sheer fabric setting on my table that kind of jumped up at me to say "use me."  It was a fairly small sample that had an embroidered grid pattern filled with circles.  I loved it but didn't know what to do with it.  I realized that the colors worked well with my design and the sheer was soft enough to work well in a scarf.  So I cut it up and added it in.  Another example of why it's necessary to keep a stash of fabric and supplies on hand even if you don't know what you're going to do with them.

Here's the last one - another challenge color for me - orange.  The color alone makes a statement.  I've toned it down a bit with some purple, but it's definitely bright.




So I have to say that it's work I'm pleased with.  I hope they find good homes.


I also have to say that I'm pleased that I've managed this new system and gotten my blog written with pictures included even though I'm away from my office computer.  Who says you can't teach an old dog new tricks.