Quilter I am not.

So, I had this great idea for a softie/stuffed animal for Gabrielle, and have decided on a bear. I didn't want to waste the fabric that I have trying to make my first teddy bear, so I went to the thrift store an picked up a few scarves and a cotton button-down shirt to practice on.

This has been enormously beneficial, as I don't have any guilt when I mess up that I'm ruining or wasting or using up all the fabric I so carefully collected. It's going well, and I'm able to adjust the templates if I don't like them. Here are a shot of the practice piece so far:
I think I'm about ready to start with the "real fabric". Now my problem is choosing which pieces to use. See, I just collected the clothes that "if I closed my eyes and pictured my mother, these are the things she would be wearing". There was no contemplation of design or even a whiff of a thought about color, or fabric, or how they would work together - especially for any type of quilt.

I am so not a quilter. I'm not really even any type of artist in my head. That's what M is for - he's got the eye for color and design, and he did help me before he left. I pulled all the clothes out, and he separated all that I laid out into groups that went together. Now, I have to choose a pile. This shouldn't seem daunting, but to me it is.

I want all the fabrics to go together.

I want it to be worthy of a family heirloom.

I want Gabriella to love it.

I want it to be special and perfect.

I want my brother to realize what it is at first glance, to recognize 'mom' in it.

I also want it to be fit for a little girl.

I'm having trouble picking which lot works for all the things I want.
So I sat down today with my camera, and pulled all the groups out, and spreading them on the floor, took pictures of the combinations. This helped some, because I didn't have to keep moving the fabric around to see how they looked.
I think I'm just afraid of it not being perfect. ....

Any quilters out there? or anyone just good at color and design? Lend me your eye - tell me what you think:

I call these the blue/purple florals:

The blue/purple/green on the left is a scarf, and was made in Hilton Head on vacation - we all made our own shirts, and she of course, made a scarf. The third fabric down, the pastel floral one, I remember her wearing to my brothers' college graduation and Easter. And I'm not all together sure I like the coral shirt in with these.
In my mind, these are really girly-girl fabrics, and although they have a vintage feel/vibe, they might be a little overwhelming together.


These are the green blue series:

I've always love the black, blue and coral dress, I think because of the pattern, and the other two patterned dresses are just 'old-school mom' to me. The green is a simple silk blouse. Once again, there's the HH scarf, (there is another one further down, in blues with a little bit of black)
I like this combo, but I don't know if it's right for this project, but I can't put into words why.


The pinkish series:

This "series" is the one Mike liked the most color/combo wise, but I'm not sure it's girly enough. Then again, I'm not all about super-girly. And I did call it the pink series... It's growing on me.

The top fabric (right) is another one where I think of my mother instantly when I see it. That would be the type of pattern I would look for when buying clothes and gifts for her. Mom's style has it's own "classic" category in my head.

What's weird is - as I look at all these fabrics, and group them all together, and rearrange them and describe them in words, they kind of contradict the image of my mom that I have in my head. If you had asked me before tonight if my mom was a floral person, I would have said Definitely Not. I don't think of her or her style as 'flowery' at all, but I've noticed that in every grouping, there is at least one flower pattern. It's really strange when you are the one to contradict the image you've had in your head all you're life.

These are, in my mind, 'Classic Mom' - black, red and white. I know I pulled out a lot of colorful patterns and dresses, but she did wear a lot of the basic colors too.

I'm thinking these are too similar or .. there's not enough contrast... or something. And yet, I do like them together - I think it's because the fabrics on these dresses are really nice and would make great softies. Plus, they are clothes she wore later in life, so I have stronger memories of her from them.


The last few pictures are left-over bright fabrics that I threw together, but I think they're too bright. Plus the green doesn't go as well as it looks on the computer. It's a bit more.. new grass green, and to me it looks more sea-foam-ish in the picture. The pink is the same fabric in both pictures, and that blue is a really bright blue.


I realize with all the different fabrics I'm going to have to back some of these, but in playing with the scarves from the thrift store, I used some iron on interfacing that worked really well. I've think I've got the technique down well enough... now it's just making a choice.

Lions and tigers and bears! Oh my!

The heading should actually read.. Bunnies or bears or giraffe's? Oh my!

My brother and sister-in-law are having a baby in August, and I am torn between what I really want to make them. (They don't read this blog, so I'm ok) My struggle is between what animal, and how it should be made - sewn or crocheted.

It began with an idea, long before they were pregnant or even married, back when my mother passed away in '02. Going through her closet, there were so many of her dresses and scarves and things that I just couldn't part with, but at the same time, didn't have any idea what to do with them. I donated many of them, gave others away to my mother-in-law and friends and family members, but there were still those certain pieces that, to me, were just the essence of my mother. Pieces that if I closed my eyes and pictured my mother, that's what I saw her wearing. So I took the clothing, and not knowing what I was going to do with them, packed them all into a box, or two, and stored them away.

Finally, I had a wonderful revelation - I would make baby quilts! Four of them, one for each brother, and one for myself, for when each of us had children. It would be for our first-borns. I had only gotten married in the year following my mother's death, so this seem do-able, as my older brothers married the next year, and the year after that, leaving me pleanty of time to make these blankets.

There was only one small problem... I'm not a quilter. The fact that I made a quilt, years ago, as a teenager, gave me the confidence to pick it up - given a bit of time and dedication. But as we all know, life happens, and I never got around to it, and the boxes of fabric followed me from Louisville, to Chicago and finally here to Homewood. I have accepted the fact that there is no way I will ever make one baby quilt, much less four, despite all my great intentions, and redesigned my idea into a patchwork teddy bear, or bunny perhaps. In the meantime, I learned to knit, became a better crocheter and found the world of Amigurumi. And after making a few softies for my friends children, I knew, that in a pinch, I could crochet a softie that I would also deem worthy of giving to my first niece or nephew. Hence my struggle begins...

I desperately want to make a patchwork softie out of my mother's fabric to give to the first of the Tamburro babies. So I've been looking for patchwork bunny or bear patterns that I like and not finding many. Then a friend suggested I just make a patchwork squares or patchwork strips of "fabric" and then trace a design out of that, and I love this idea! So I then asked my brother how they were decorating the nursery, to give me a better idea of bear or rabbit, since they're not finding out boy or girl. He tells me green and yellows and ... giraffes. A giraffe! What a great idea! I could crochet a giraffe pretty easily, and even make up the pattern on my own! Hrm.. what to do.

I went to Flickr to give me some ideas, and in my searches, I found my absolute favorite giraffe - (All her softies are gorgeous). I love the simplicity of it, and the fabric is awesome, but I don't have a pattern for it, and I'm also questioning my skills because I want this to be just perfect. I have a teddy bear pattern that I like, but I'm just not in love with it. Then the idea of a crochet giraffe seems easy and doable, especially in the time I have remaining, but that's taking away from the whole fabric idea. *sigh*
Bunnies or bears or giraffes? Oh my!