Finished Jellyroll Rag...and on to the next thing

I think I finished the red jacket in record time for me, not too many interruptions this time.  I called this one Jellyroll Rag.  The swirls made me think of dancing and jellyrolls and the color was just like the filling in the bakery jellyrolls I remember from childhood.  How's that for free association...

Here's a detail shot so you can see the insets and couching work I've done to add spice to an already beautiful fabric.  I've added those sparkly threads inside the paisleys and along the swirl.  The couching helped to smooth the edges of the insets, and then I needed to add the threads in other places to tie things altogether.

Once I finished this jacket, I needed to work on some of the more mundane tasks around here.  A jacket commission motivated me to do a major sorting and organization of my fabric stash.  Kim wants a wrap jacket in blues and aquas for a wedding rehearsal dinner in June.  So I needed to go through what I have to see what my possibilities were.  I wanted to make sure that I'd left no stone unturned, so I decided to go through literally everything we have.  

Here's what our work area looked like while that was in progress.  It's a mess, but there's actually a method to that madness.

Once I got everything sorted, I realized I needed a better way to store the fabrics to make them easier to access and use.  (One thing always leads to another, doesn't it...)  So I made a trip to Target and bought a dozen large clear bins.  Now everything has been put away and the bins have been lined up and labeled.  I can see what I have and can get at things easily.  What a big improvement:

The tabletop is nearly clear now and I'm ready to start the next project...but after Christmas.  My son comes home tomorrow, so I'll be taking some time to hang out with my family.  Hope you have plenty of time to do that in the next couple of weeks too.

Happy Holidays.

Red This Time

Three blue jackets in a row made me realize I needed to do something different this time.  Following my usual pattern yesterday afternoon I pulled out a bin of fabric to see if I could find something that called my name.  I started with a bin of silks and never went any farther.  A set of red fabrics nearly jumped out of the bin and into my arms.  

For me red is about as far from blue as I usually get.  It's not that I don't like red, I just hardly ever work with it.  

Here's the set of fabrics I pulled out.  The big piece with the swirls and paisleys is one I've had for along time.  I just love the patterning and the fabric has a nice soft hand.  

I didn't have a good idea of what I was going to do with the fabrics, I just thought that they went together well.  Some of them hadn't been prewashed yet so I took them home to do that last night and just let the ideas stew.

Today my ideas started to come together.  I decided to do some reverse applique to incorporate motifs from the flower and fern fabrics into the empty paisleys. 

Here's my test piece.  After I did a couple of these on the sleeves, I decided it needed a little something more.  I've started couching some sparkly threads around the outline and along some of the swirls.  It is coming out well, but I sure didn't set myself an easy task.  I did three and then decided that was enough for today.  It requires way too much patience for a late Friday afternoon.  I'll keep going in the morning when I'm rested.

Dance Rhythms

I just finished another jacket that I'm anxious to share.  I call it Dance Rhythms because the wavy lines make me feel like swaying in time to some jazzy music.  Does it make you feel that way too?

Here's the Front

And the Back

 The background fabric is a great African hand-dyed damask I bought from Becky Hancock of St. Teresa's Textile Trove at the Quilt/Surface Design Symposium this past June.  My photograph doesn't really do justice to the wonderful interplay of the patterns from the dye and the weaving.  You have to see this one in person to get the full effect.  I've added inset waves that I've pieces together from lots of my scrap fabrics.  To top it all off, there are handmade glass buttons from Penny Faich.

I'm pleased that I got it finished in time for Holiday Open Studios this weekend.  Maybe some lucky woman will find this under her tree on Christmas morning...

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.

Great Time at the Merrimack Valley Artisan's Show

Well last weekend was my first formal foray into the world of fine arts and craft shows.  I participated in the Merrimack Valley Artisans show--bringing jackets, free lace scarves and art cards.  It was a lovely show and I felt proud to be a part of it.

As a "newbie" with primarily pricey merchandise, my goal for the show was to gain experience and exposure.  I definitely did both and even made some sales, so I was a happy woman at the end of the weekend.  There is so much more to doing these things than you ever realize when you start out.  Just managing to get your booth set up and taken down without major mishap is a major accomplishment.  I'd purchased a black metal gridwall system thinking that it would look nice and give me a great deal of flexibility for future shows.  

It proved more difficult to set up and take down than I anticipated, but I think the look is worth it.  I got many compliments on how nice my booth looked.  Thankfully I learned several tricks that I think will make it easier to manage the next time I do this.

Response to my jackets and scarves was heartening, giving me good motivation to keep going and looking for appropriate venues for getting my work out there.  Another artist who's a colleague of my husband, Jacqui Hawk, encouraged me to participate in the Women's Works event sponsored by UMass Lowell's Center for Women and Work on December 1.  I'd considered it before, but the personal encouragement was just what I needed to make the decision to go for it.  It'll be held at the UMass Lowell Inn and Conference Center in downtown Lowell from 2-7 p.m.  If you're in the area, stop by to say hello.

Fall Rhapsody

Fall Rhapsody is a good description for my mood yesterday and it's also the name of a jacket I sold during the recent Lowell Open Studios Event.  Martha came to pick up it yesterday and she let me snap her picture.

She was on her way to work and was quite worried that she wasn't dressed appropriately to show it off.  That didn't worry me.  I may be prejudiced, but I think it looks great even with her jeans.  (She's promised me she'll have her husband take another picture of her wearing it when she's all dolled up for a night out.)

I have to say that it is an enormous high for me when one of my jackets meets its new owner.  This one fits Martha to a tee and brings out the red highlights in her hair.  Everyone commented about that when she tried it on during open studios.  So, even though I made it some time ago, it looks like it was made just for her.  I guess it was, I just didn't know it at the time.

So I'm still grinning ear-to-ear today...a good feeling to carry over into my first fine crafts show this weekend.  I hope you'll join me at the Merrimack Valley Artisans show in Chelmsford, Massachusetts either Saturday or Sunday.  Maybe you'll find the jacket that was made for you.

Starting a New Jacket - Finally

After spending my summer working on Free Lace Scarves, I am finally getting back to working on jackets.  What with cleaning and organizing our new studio space to get ready for Lowell Open Studios and preparing for the Merrimack Valley Artisans show later this month, it has been a very busy time.  Until a couple of days ago, I couldn't see my way clear to starting a major new project.


I did manage to finish a jacket I'd started last spring so I'd have something brand new for Lowell Open Studios.  Mostly though I've been cleaning and organizing.  The little time I set aside for creative work, I've just been making Art Cards with little bits of embroidered piecework.  Fun but not quite the same level of satisfaction as a jacket.


Here's the jacket I finished.  I call it Calm Waters.  This was my first wool jacket and the first time I added a button closure to my one of my Japanese-style jackets.

The button doesn't show up very well in my photo.  It's a beautiful handmade glass button from Penny Faich.  The background is dark with a bit of iridescent turquoise to match the colors in the jacket.  Penny and I have frequently been vendors at the same quilt shows.  When I see her I always buy at least a few of her buttons knowing they will add a wonderful finishing touch to some future project.  The jacket is fully lined with that lovely watered silk that I've used for the collar and cuffs.  The creative piecing is enhanced with couched threads to draw together the colors.


This week I started itching to start something new.  I spent a good part of two days pulling out fabrics from bins and making piles all over our new work space.  I hadn't done any fabric organization since we expanded so it was a major project.  I made many, many piles by color, texture, and weight trying to see what would call to me and what I had enough of for a project.  I finally decided on a gorgeous embroidered silk.  I tried to stay away from it because one of the predominant colors was jade again and I felt I should do something different.  But I've been wanting to work with this fabric ever since it came to me, so I decided to just go with it.


Here's what my initial idea is:

Even though the colors are similar, you can see that this one will be very different.  I'm excited to be back at it again.