Is It Spring Yet?

I'm definitely ready for Spring to arrive. Here in northern New Hampshire, that usually doesn't happen until May. In between Winter and Spring we have "Mud Season". And this year it's probably going to be a doozy. After finally getting rid of most of the ice, we've had more snow. And more snow is expected for this weekend. Not much, mind you - but by now we're all anxious to get mud season over with and move on to watching the world turn green once again.

In that spirit I'm working on another flower piece - this one with Susan Sorrell's Fertile Earth class on Joggles. My first piece - pomegranates - is still in my head, but the flower piece couldn't wait to get out of my head and onto fabric.

This, of course, is just the beginning, but I'm really loving the textured surface I'm creating here. I started with a piece of green batik, and layered a piece of hand-dyed or painted cheesecloth in lovely lilac shades of pink and green. On top of that I put a layer of green tulle. This wonderful background will be covered with lilac buds and blossoms - a single stem. If you click on the image you should be able to see a couple of buttonhole wheels - the intent is to do a lot of hand-embroidery on this piece.

I'll keep you posted on my progress.

MiniFlorals

The first of the mini-florals are finished and ready to be put into shadow boxes and hung in the restaurant. I feel so productive!

First, I added a center vein on each of the large leaves with some hand-dyed #5 Perle Cotton. The tendrils are done with chenille and some thick/thin wool yarn. I then outlined each leaf and petal using a buttonhole stitch and #12 Perle Cotton, except on the pink flower which I used something more like #8.

I tried a number of things on the background - sorbello stitch, seed stitch, beads ... and ripped them all out. A plain background it is! I fused strips of hand-dyed fabric around the edges and then finished it off with seed beads.

Done!

New Work

Cappuccino, Prega! is now hanging in the restaurant and receiving lots of compliments. I'll Take Mine Black! is still waiting for its finishing touches. I've done a bit of embroidery on it - Portuguese Stem Stitch along the small placemat, colonial knots along the edges of the cup, and some running stitches and colonial knots along the edges of the saucer. I also did a crazy quilting seam motif along the seam separating the table and the wallpaper. It's still missing something, and I'm waiting for it to tell me what it is. I'll let you know.

In the meantime I've started some small floral pieces - again, I think they'll go nicely in the restaurant and will fit in the shadow boxes I had used to hang my journal quilts. Here's what they look like so far:

These aren't original designs; they're from a Quilt University class with Debbie Babbin. These classes are really helping me spend quality time in the studio and I'm learning a lot about color in the process. Next steps are thread painting the flower and leaves, adding a bit of texture, and then calling them done. The finished size is 6" x 8".

Time to move my chair from my desk to my sewing machine!

I'll Take Mine Black!

This is the sister piece to Cappuccino, Prega! Same black and white background, but colorful prints and hand-dyes for the mat, cup and saucer. Everything is fused down, but no stitching has been done yet. I'm also not sure what object to place on the table with the cup - Cappuccino, Prega has a bottle of cream. A bottle of Amaretto maybe? Bailey's? Hmmm ... both have possibilities. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Cappuccino - Finale

It's now completed and ready to hang! I fused the binding and then obsessively stitched frosted glass seed beads all around the perimeter every quarter-inch or so. I picked up the binding print at Keepsake Quilting last Saturday - I needed more black and white fabrics for the next piece in the series.

Here's a close-up on the froth - you might be able to see the blanket stitch a bit better at the base of the steam.

Now I think I need to go downstairs and my myself a cup of coffee!

Cappuccino

It's telling me it's done and it's ready for finishing. The name has been changed to one more appropriate given the beading.

The coffee bean beans are actually glass; the cappuccino foam is an assortment of frosted white beads. I used a single strand of silk thread to outline the dupioni steam with blanket stitch. I also used perle cotton in a running stitch to create steam swirls - too chunky to be called "quilting" but manages to hold the upper part of the quilt sandwich together.

I really like it and I know it will look great hanging in the restaurant - be sure to click on the image for a close-up.

Beads and Frogs and some Fun with Illustrator

I've been working on Cafe au Lait - added some bead froth. I'm going to have to rename it Cappuccino I guess! I also started doing some hand-quilting - I was using some variegated purple/black thread and following the swirls on the tablecloth. Right down the center of the white swirls. It had a dizzying effect. Too dizzying, so I ripped it out. I really just need to finish it up so I can bring it down to the restaurant.

I've also been working on my self-portrait. I wanted it to be somewhat realistic so I've decided to place myself in one of our Troutman rockers that I have up in my studio, next to the window and my sewing table. Of course there needs to be coffee in the picture.

My laptop has a built-in camera, so I took a couple of pictures of myself sipping coffee from my favorite cup. I had to do it twice - once holding the cup with my left hand and once with my right - so I could still click the button to take the picture. I then merged the pictures and placed them on top of my rough line drawing and amazingly everything lined up! Now to actually find the right fabrics. Maybe tomorrow? We're supposed to get a lot of snow tomorrow evening - if I get everything together I'll have plenty of handwork to do should the power go out.

Outdoor Cafe

This is Lesson 2 of Pamela Allen's Think Like an Artist class. Similar to last week, the assignment is to create a still life, except this time we're to use two colors - either analogous or complementary - and try to avoid using the true color itself. I chose the colors by figuring out what's in my stash. I'm afraid like many quilters I have lots of "mediums" with very few lights or darks. Or mostly darks with a handful of lights/mediums. Or maybe the problem was that I knew I wanted to create this little courtyard scene and I should've done something different.

I'm hoping that once more of the details are added I'll like it more. In case you can't make it out, that's a wall fountain on the left (needs water added), with a lamppost behind the table. The wall around the fountain will be stone. The tablecloth has tulle on the bottom to delineate the table top from the part that hangs down, but didn't come out very well in the picture. Two cafe chairs (the wrought-iron swirly kind) will be added, along with espresso cups, maybe a plate of lemons, and some flowers.

The other thing that I'm just not comfortable with is free-hand cutting. I like my nice hard lines. I know that from a distance no one is going to be able to notice, but I think in order to continue working on the piece I need to refine the shapes a bit.

Should I just ditch it and start again or continue on? Lesson 3 will be here in a day or two ...

Cafe Au Lait - Part 3

Based on some feedback and a continuation of my plans for this piece, you can now see the following:

• a bottle of cream - made from silk organza
• cream in the bottle - made from satin
• a small placemat - made from embroidered silk dupioni (thanks to Pamela for the suggestion!)
• outline stitching around the cup and saucer and the line between the tablecloth and the wallpaper
• a real demitasse spoon (although Pamela suggested one made from fabric)

Lots more stitching to be done, and then to add the beans somehow.

I'm hoping to get this and a companion piece finished before Pamela posts the next lesson. I haven't decided yet - black coffee? cappuccino? One with latte art is also in my head, but I'm waiting until we can use color for that one!

Cafe Au Lait - Part 2

The restaurant was fairly busy today, but spotty - meaning I was able to steal a few moments here and there to do some of the running stitches on the quiltlet. I'm happy with the outcome so far, but I need to get a couple more elements added. One is some coffee beans - I'm not sure how I'll accomplish that. I did think of using real beans, but only for a moment.

I have to say that I've been working with ArtFabrik perle cotton 12 for a long time and I absolutely love it. I needed white thread for the running stitch, and was happy to find some Caron Wildflowers (perle cotton 12) in opal. I wasn't happy, however, with the thread itself. It seemed much more fragile and not as smooth. I guess I need to order some Shadows from Laura!

Cafe Au Lait

I'm taking an online class with Pamela Allen - Thinking Like an Artist. Class just started and lesson 1 was to create a black and white still life. My husband has been after me to put some quilts up again in the restaurant and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make something for the class that could also hang in the cafe. I have a few black and white fabrics, but they're exactly that - as opposed to a gradation from white to black with lots of grays in between. I'm planning on the usual stitching and embellishing which will bring coffee cup and plate into better focus. I do love that background "wallpaper" fabric - I had ordered it to use for one of the Christmas purses, but I'm glad I didn't! I'm really liking this piece. Click on the image for a larger view.

The two main fabrics are cotton; the cup and saucer are made out of two different japanese fabrics - they have a much looser weave. The "steam" is a piece of silk dupioni. Amazingly, not a single piece of hand-dyed fabric is used in this quilt!

Stay tuned - I'll keep you updated on its progress.