Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Fruit of my Mind

Last night I finished another jacket. When I looked back at my blog posts, I realized that I started it a month ago. I am definitely not a speed demon with my creations. Here's what it looks like. Of course it's not exactly what I had in mind when I began, but it's close and I'm pleased.
I called it "Fruit of my Mind" as a reference to the stylized fruits in the fabric and the ideas that come from my head in creating it.  My ideas always change as I design the fabric/embellishments and put the jacket together.  There are always things that happen in the process that require me to rethink my plan.  That's the challenge - and the fun for me.
As soon as I had finished this one I was eager to move on to another.  Usually beginning another means pulling out bins of fabric, sorting and more sorting, before I know what I am going to do.  This time it was a much quicker process.  Two ideas came together very quickly for me.
I am going to work with an African hand-dyed damask fabric that I bought this past summer at Q/SDS as my base.  Into that I am going to set curvy, pieced strips.  
I'd been wanting to go through my scrap bins and start piecing together similar colors into long strips - just to have on hand for when I "need" them.  I had a bit of time last night and decided to just start.  Then I noticed the length of damask and realized it would be a great background for my pieced strips.  The light bulb went on.
Here's my bit of beginning.  I can't wait to see where it will take me.