Another Great Day Yesterday at Marcia's Studio

Beth brought in this gorgeous quilt which she purchased at the Quilt Action a couple of weeks ago. It was made by a group of Mormon women in the area based on a stained glass window in their temple. It was noted that they had no previous quilting experience. It is just wonderful. And the back was very interesting as well.
I began the day working on the cow jacket. I want to finish it in time to wear it to the Houston Quilt Show in October.
Inspector Suki keeps a wary eye on the door as the black dog is here for a visit again. It really disrupts her schedule.
Since going outside didn't look promising she decided to annoy Beth as usual by sitting in her chair.

Beth was working on several purse patterns.

As the afternoon progressed Suki retreated into her "tent" for her afternoon nap. She might be just the tiniest bit spoiled.
I finished making the "fabric" for the cow jacket. I am not totally happy with the royal blue color on one front and sleeve but the cows in the print are so cute they had to be included.

When that was finished I did a bit of work on the "orange" jacket which is now mostly black.

And Marcia worked on quilting a wonderful quilt top on her Janome. This will be our last "sew in" for awhile as both Beth and I have upcoming classes and trips scheduled for the next few weeks.

Another Great Day at Marcia's Studio

The day often begins with "show and tell". I brought some "confetti fabric" which I have been making recently. These are 1/4" squares butted together and sewn with a gold metallic zig zag.

They are sewn, not fused. I have been putting the finished squares together to make "fabric".

Beth brought a fabulous piece of Marimekko fabric from Finland.
I also brought some Miao embroideries from China.
I purchased these years ago at the so called "dirt market" in Beijing and plan to incorporate them in a jacket.

Pat Berardi has her jacket from my last jacket class almost finished. We all loved it.
Inspector Suki dropped by to inspect Beth's pattern.
It apparently required a little more intensive effort on her part.
My cow jacket begins to take shape.

Pat spent most of the day quilting this fabulous quilt on Marcia's longarm machine.

Beth added a silk lining to her jacket from the last class.

The cow jacket back is about finished.

The flowered band on the red strip is a beaded band from Solola Guatemala. It was intended to be part of a belt but will look wonderful here.
The sleeves begin to take shape.

And I start work on the front.

The New Cow Jacket and Seminole Patchwork

After making jackets with tiger, zebra, geisha, frogs, halloween, chicken, and sewing ladies themes it was time to turn to another topic. Since I live in "farm country" the idea of a cow jacket came to mind. As it turned out cows are not very popular with fabric designers. Even dressed up with poppies and barns. They don't even seem to get more respect in groups.
Sometimes they look like they are having fun. Or do they just look worried? Its hard to tell. Cows aren't very emotional.
To "jazz up" my cow jacket I decided to add some seminole patchwork. I used to use a 1" scale patchwork but now have switched to 1 1/4" The 1 1/2 inch version seems too big for jackets to me.
I don't make my seminole in the traditional way which has "ripped" fabric instead of cut with a rotary cutter.

I sew the fabric in rows, cut the individual strips and then sew them back together. After finishing off the ends it is ready to sew into my garment.
I began making the red version for the cow jacket shown on the left. I quickly saw that it was "too red" and abandoned it for the moment. I then switched to a red/black/green version which I like much better for this project. With seminole you never know how it is going to turn out when you plan the strips. It is always a surprise.
I think I will just wait here until things calm down again.