More Progress on the Angelina Jacket

I worked some more on the Angelina jacket yesterday. Here is the back with reverse applique inserts of Angelina all pinned in place and ready to quilt. The quilting will make it look like wood grain (I hope) with knot holes of Angelina.

Angelina is notoriously difficult to photograph, but here is my attempt. These are the pieces I cut the ovals from and are each quilted in a different style and with a different variegated thread.

Any suggestions for a name for this jacket will be appreciated. Not necessarily used, LOL, but considered!

Lisa

Student Work

I'm a proud mama right now. One of my students, Zee Perry, sent me this picture of her dragon quilt. She is an accomplished digitizer, but a new quilter and she made this quilt from my class.

Here's a closeup of her embroidered dragons. Apparently dragons are her trademark and she tries to work them in whenever she can. I think she did a fabulous job! The quilt was quilted by her friend Brenda Witt.

Spring Flowers

Freesia buds

freesia

more freesia

bird of paradise

It looks like spring here! Spring has never been my favorite season, probably since I grew up in Maine. Back home we have beautiful summers, gorgeous falls, winters that are silently serene (assuming you don't actually have to go outside!), but spring is mud season. That time of year when all the frozen dog turds defrost on your lawn and mix with the mud and it just stinks.

But here in southern California it has finally rained (well at least some rain) bringing amazing clouds (funny how you didn't know you missed something until you see it again) and flowers. I took a few photos of flowers in my garden in hopes of playing with the images in Photoshop eventually. And yes, I know I need a new camera...

Lisa

I Started a New Jacket!

Last night as I was watching Biggest Loser (I just love that show because it inspires me to get to the gym in the middle of the week, when my willpower is at its lowest) I started a new jacket. Here's a quick picture of the back in process. This part took me about an hour. It was great exercise, too, because every commercial I ran upstairs and cut another strip and/or sewed the strips together. All I had downstairs were my ironing board, iron and scissors.

As you can probably tell, it's going to be a reverse applique piece. The foundation is cut oversized because I plan to do lots of quilting on it (there are so many beautiful threads I'm having a hard time choosing the perfect one). Stay tuned for more!

I've been reading other people's blogs again after a hiatus of more than a year. I didn't have the time to follow all the bogs I was interested in and gave it up to give myself more time to create. On a whim I went back to see how many were still in service and how many still appealed to me. I've whittled the list down considerably and hope to follow those as time allows.

That said I have to think about what appeals to me in a blog. In a word: pictures. Yes a picture is worth a thousand words and that's what it's all about to me. So I look at my blog and there aren't many pictures. I have to ask myself why not. It's not that I don't know how; it's a simple enough matter. BUT I worry about copyright which means I have to take the pictures myself (I definitely need a new camera!). Another concern is publications. If I want to have a piece in a book, magazine or major show they want assurances that it hasn't already been seen by millions (and of course there are millions of people visiting my blog, LOL). So I hesitate to post pictures of my latest work. Any solutions?

For those of you who like games, are interested in color or are just curious, check this out:
http://livelygrey.com/exercises/submenu.html

Lisa

Jacket Class Students

If any of you took my 3-Dimensional Jacket class (Palomar, spring 2008), the Curvy Bias Jacket class, the Spring Flower sampler class (Palomar, spring 2007), Oriental Pizzazz Jacket class, Echoes of the East/Trickles jacket class or any other jacket class I taught, I'm looking for photos of your jackets.

I get to see the jackets in process, but not the finished product and would love to be able to share photos of what you've accomplished. Even if you just made a tote bag or a quilt using the techniques or added you own special spin on the project I would really appreciate a photo.

I had some photos from sharing in class, but I lost all of the Palomar pictures in a hard drive crash so even if you think I already have it, please send another.

Thanks!
Lisa

Organizing and More Gelatin Prints

Thanks to everyone who sent me opinions on the jacket. It's nice to know that so many of you took the time and trouble to write to me! I have decided to put it aside for now. This is supposed to be fun and I wasn't enjoying working on it.

Instead I organized my thoughts and made a list (all in one place!) of my ideas for future projects. Then I pulled fabric for ALL of them in an effort to get myself moving in the right direction. About half of them will require some more design time (full scale drawings of the designs I have in mind), but I am on my way. And some of the others require mindless sewing for the days when my brain is fried from too much homework, LOL.

Here are the last of the gelatin prints. I had fun playing with more than one color of paint on the gelatin. I'm not a huge pink fan, but I was especially pleased with the gold and pink together.

I'll leave it to you to figure out which ones are positive stamps and which ones are negatives.

Opinions Sought

Lately I've been working on a new jacket with inserted strips. Here is the second one, currently "in process". It's not thrilling me. Can anyone give me an idea why and what's wrong? Am I just tired of looking at it? Are the colors just "not my colors"? Is there something wrong with the concept?

Below is an earlier version of a similar jacket made with inserted strips. This one makes me happy and I had fun beading it, too!

Shall I toss the second version, make changes (if so... what?) or carry on and finish it (I'm about 40% done)? Please send me an email or leave a comment.

Thanks,

Lisa