and sew it goes ...

You win some and ... well you know the saying.  I'm not completely thrilled with the piece I just finished. I did finish it by the deadline. That's a good thing. It will be on display at Houston's upcoming International Quilt Festival. That's a very good thing. I accomplished my goals in this piece and met the challenges I set for myself, but something is lacking in the finished product. I'm not sure what it is. It will come to me one day. Or maybe you can see what's lacking. Please let me know if you do.

Here's a little bit of how my thinking developed on this piece, a piece which is completely out of the box for me. Texas Association of Original Doll Artists is priveleged to mount a display each year at Houston's quilt festival. For this year's exhibit, we were challenged to create dolls with a quilting theme. I wanted to participate and started thinking about the quilting element. I don't make quilts, but I admire those who do. I didn't want to create a doll such as a lady making a quilt. Too ho-hum for me though the concept would make a meaningful doll for some. Ruled that out. I observe quilts are often studies in precise geometry. Such precision in sewing is really daunting to me on a personal level ... but I digress. As I thought about geometry, I was struck with the idea of creating a geometric shape ... should it be a square, cone, rectangle, pyramid? I toyed with the title 'Celebrate Geometry.' Many quilts already do celebrate geometry. The term 'isosceles' came into focus ... I remembered it from high school geometry class. Loving a play on words, I coined 'I*SEW*sceles,' and selected some fabrics from my stash of quilt prints. They were blue. 'I*SEW*sceles Blue' came to be.

Once my concept was set, it was a bumpy path from start to finish.  Early in the process I remembered why it is I do not make cloth dolls. Big 'aha' moment, and I had flashbacks to struggling with stitching and turning tiny fingers. Face and hands are sculpted of paper clay.  My method and material of choice, now.  How would I attach them to this cloth structure? I wouldn't trust glue. Mechanical connections needed to be secured before the pyramid sides were sewn together ... that meant all the breakable parts would be connected to the fabric as it went through the sewing machine ... a daunting prospect for me, but it worked okay. I had to move my sewing table away from the wall to make room for this awkward, stiff assemblage to pass under the presser foot. I don't think I'll be making another solid geometry project any time soon.   But I won't say 'never' ...