Wednesday, May 28, 2008

plotting

I bought some fabric yesterday from the big box store and I have been plotting.

This stripey stuff (they called it boating fabric? I have no idea what that means) which I have been coveting for some months now got marked down to 60% off. There were only two yards left so I took it home with me. I really really want to make a dress with it. I have an idea for the design in my head (knee length, unfitted bodice, maybe a white placket front? or from the same fabric, possibly two buttons, 3/4 sleeves with button tabs) I hope I have enough fabric. Now if I can only make it happen...


I actually went to the store to pick up some fabric for a completely different project I was plotting, but then picked up this yellow cotton, then the pink, then the salmon and the coral and I thought: oooh.... pretty. I picked up a dark brown, but put it back down when I saw the gunmetal grey and loved the way these colors looked together. I could spend many happy hours with swathes of colored fabric, pulling together pretty combinations.

I have an idea for a quilt that I want to make using these colors. A non-traditional sort of quilt, perhaps a baby quilt for a friend's little girl. Little semi-circles overlapping so that they look sort of like scales. Hmm... a quick google search did not yield what I was looking for to show you as an example, I'm probably using the wrong word. So here's a messy little doodle from my sketchbook:

Anyways. I'm trying to decide if I'm going to applique the semi circles in tidily or if I'll leave the edges frayed which would add an interesting texture, I think.

And lastly the whole reason for the trip to the fabric store, I'm gonna make a quilt. An old fashioned one. I'm not a huge fan of traditional quilts normally. They just don't fit my personal aesthetic sensibility. The shapes lodge the work firmly into homespun americana which is fine if that is what rocks your world. And the colors (for the most part) also don't jive with me, with possibly the exception of the Gee Bend work which I think is out of this world. All that said, I got inspired by this hourglass quilt and decided I needed to make one of my own. But with a (mostly) limited palette of yellow and white.

My yellows.


Even the frayed edges are pretty.

The white part will be regular ole cotton muslin.

My questionable notes and plans will yield an unorthodox way of quilting that should put some traditionalists off.

I'm so excited about this! I'm really hoping that by posting my intentions, I'll be forced into seeing this project through. Okay, time to make some tea and cut some fabric up. Go team!

5 comments:

jean beaumont said...

"Lost in Paris"?????
Have you read this book or is it only pour décorer?
Bisous.
PS: Vive Barack!

jean said...

It's a business card that I picked up in a parking lot. I was walking back to my car and I saw it because it's so bright and since it had an image of la Tour Eiffel, I decided to keep it. I taped it to my sketchbook.

jean beaumont said...

La France ne te laisse oas indifférente?....... et Vive Barack!

jean beaumont said...

....laisse Pas indifférente....

jean said...

Pas du tout! I love paris. It's one of my favorite cities. I think it's beautiful and I love the energy. I'd like to visit it again as an older and wiser traveler. I feel like I was rather naive when I was there. Also I was a poor student and allowed that to limit what I could see and do. I'm far more resourceful now so it will be interesting to see the city with different eyes.

Oh wait, you said: France ne me laisse pas indefferente? What do you mean? I love France. I'm always thinking of ways to get my husband to take me back there. If I could have it my way, we'd move there in a heartbeat. Or possibly buy a flat in Paris so we could visit every fall. Ah... to dream...