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Archive for February, 2006

Project Runway…down to three

Thursday, February 16th, 2006

Good! For once, they got rid of someone who really wasn’t in the same tier. Of course, that means we still have Santino, but they did have a point….he has a “voice”…a distinctive style, and vision inside his head wanting to come out, even if it is accompanied by a 747-sized ego.

This past week or so I came across the Blogging Project Runway blog (duh)…. from there, you can see the collections for Olympus Fashion Week, including Kara’s, which she had to do as the “ringer” so that no one would know who were the final three. I was fascinated….I thought Kara’s collection was derivative—very “Jay” in the headgear, but on the plus side she had the best use of color. It was interesting, then, to hear her talk about being a surface design type and a colorist, something which didn’t come out in the garments she made for Project Runway.

I was really surprised with Santino’s work: his dresses weren’t over-glopped with stuff, and he handles multiple layers of sheers and chiffons beautifully. The gowns just FLOAT, in a really good way. But, I wasn’t wild about the “nearly nude” color schemes…very muted, and not colors that can be worn successfully by most women.

Chloe’s pieces were disappointing to me…I’ve liked much of the clean lines of her work on PR, but her collection left me underwhelmed. There were a few nice pieces…the two dark blue dresses (short and long) were gorgeous, but didn’t like the print fabric pieces at all. However, the collection was cohesive, with a set color pallette and repeating motifs like the pleats, shoulder shrugs/bolero sleeves, it worked, just not as well as I would have liked.

Daniel’s collection was classic, and monochromatic (black, cream, dark chocolate, taupe). What’s odd is that I liked the styling on the cream pieces best of all…the collar on the cream coat is fantabulous, and I loved the wrap top with satin edgingm and the cream pleated skirt. I’m wondering if perhaps there are construction details in the dark pieces that don’t show up well on screen? I would have liked the collection even better if there had been some COLOR, though; I’m SO sick of the revenge of the drab people: enough with the black, taupe, brown, dingy yukky no-color yuk! Not to put too fine a point on it LOL!

And now, ta da, I can go read other people’s blogs now that I’ve watched the taped show and blogged it!

Color Inspiration

Wednesday, February 15th, 2006


The other day I was driving home when I glimpsed the most incredible colors through the trees on the rise facing west. My camera isn’t very good, and the zoom is pathetic so the “close up” is kinda blurry, and the color got washed out a bit, but who cares…look at those COLORS! I actually turned the car around, drove back a few hundred yards and turned back towards home just to take the pictures…. Makes me want to dye fabric and sew!

It also reminds me of some of Judith Content’s quilts. Here are a few at Thirteen Moons Gallery and some more at Audart Quilts .

Busy! Lots of little bits….

Sunday, February 12th, 2006

Hi all….what a crazy few weeks it has been. Since January 28, I think I’ve put over 800 miles on my car! Usually I get one or two tanks of gas a month …that’s about 250-400 miles a month…..
Anyway, I’ve been working on a series of journal sized quilts about color, which will be teaching samples. Here’s what my design wall looks like:

A bulletin board is more like it! I want to get the color studies fused up, then take a break before quilting, make up the samples for my Fine Finishes class (an assortment of binding techniques), and finally get started on my Tableaux quilt……phew!

Amaryllis Symmetry

Friday, February 10th, 2006

Wow….talk about symmetry….I LOVE the way this amaryllis bloomed in four directions. Perfect color, perfect symmetry.

There is also something incredibly voluptuous and sexual about these blossoms. Since this is ostensibly a G rated site, I’ll let you fill in the appropriate references, but talk about lush, enticing….there’s a quilt or three in here, I KNOW it!

New England Quilt Museum

Thursday, February 9th, 2006

Part of the crazy week just past was a road trip to Lowell, Massachusetts, to the New England Quilt Museum. I was really floored and honored when the state-wide Pine Tree Quilt Guild asked me to submit my quilt Bijagos Warrior to be the guild’s entry into the juried exhibit, The Best of New England Quilt Guilds. Well, he got juried in! Phew! After them asking me, such a newcomer to the state, I was really thrilled he made it into the show.

With the materials to send in the quilt, was an invitation….would anyone like to present a “Brown Bag Lunch” on either March 2 or February 2 in conjunction with the exhibit. Seeing a great opportunity to get my name out there and just have fun, I called immediately, they booked me, and I planned a road trip. Cheri Tamm Raymond, the former manager (last day was last Friday!) of the local quilt shop (a tiny place) and her grown daughter Meg and I planned a road trip, and prayed it didn’t snow. Well, it didn’t, and did we have fun. Cheri took this picture of me standing next to my quilt (taken with permission of the museum director…normally you can’t take pics!):

After that, we popped into Friends Fabric Art in Lowell…..Cheri is mostly a traditional quilter (was Professional Quilter’s Teacher of the Year in 1988, and boy was I nervous the first time I taught in the shop with her there, but she has been SOOOOO encouraging and helpful and supportive…it’s wonderful!), but I have high hopes of enticing her to the art side, at least sometimes, as she bought a wonderful assortment of Stef Francis hand-dyed silk cocoons and ribbons and trims.

Then we drove north to Portsmouth, to visit Portsmouth Fabrics. Oh WOW….I have never, ever seen so many batiks on one place other than the Bali Fabrics Warehouse (yeah…the company warehouse). AND they had velvets, and batik rayons, and silks…oh my! I was relatively restrained in my purchases, but happy to meet the owner, Gretchen, who bought some of my patterns for the shop. At her request I shared a few of my quilts, and left my teaching brochure….crossing my fingers!

So that was that….now, to crash for the night and do more posts soon!