I'll Take Mine Black!

This is the sister piece to Cappuccino, Prega! Same black and white background, but colorful prints and hand-dyes for the mat, cup and saucer. Everything is fused down, but no stitching has been done yet. I'm also not sure what object to place on the table with the cup - Cappuccino, Prega has a bottle of cream. A bottle of Amaretto maybe? Bailey's? Hmmm ... both have possibilities. Let me know if you have any suggestions!

Cappuccino - Finale

It's now completed and ready to hang! I fused the binding and then obsessively stitched frosted glass seed beads all around the perimeter every quarter-inch or so. I picked up the binding print at Keepsake Quilting last Saturday - I needed more black and white fabrics for the next piece in the series.

Here's a close-up on the froth - you might be able to see the blanket stitch a bit better at the base of the steam.

Now I think I need to go downstairs and my myself a cup of coffee!

Cappuccino

It's telling me it's done and it's ready for finishing. The name has been changed to one more appropriate given the beading.

The coffee bean beans are actually glass; the cappuccino foam is an assortment of frosted white beads. I used a single strand of silk thread to outline the dupioni steam with blanket stitch. I also used perle cotton in a running stitch to create steam swirls - too chunky to be called "quilting" but manages to hold the upper part of the quilt sandwich together.

I really like it and I know it will look great hanging in the restaurant - be sure to click on the image for a close-up.

Beads and Frogs and some Fun with Illustrator

I've been working on Cafe au Lait - added some bead froth. I'm going to have to rename it Cappuccino I guess! I also started doing some hand-quilting - I was using some variegated purple/black thread and following the swirls on the tablecloth. Right down the center of the white swirls. It had a dizzying effect. Too dizzying, so I ripped it out. I really just need to finish it up so I can bring it down to the restaurant.

I've also been working on my self-portrait. I wanted it to be somewhat realistic so I've decided to place myself in one of our Troutman rockers that I have up in my studio, next to the window and my sewing table. Of course there needs to be coffee in the picture.

My laptop has a built-in camera, so I took a couple of pictures of myself sipping coffee from my favorite cup. I had to do it twice - once holding the cup with my left hand and once with my right - so I could still click the button to take the picture. I then merged the pictures and placed them on top of my rough line drawing and amazingly everything lined up! Now to actually find the right fabrics. Maybe tomorrow? We're supposed to get a lot of snow tomorrow evening - if I get everything together I'll have plenty of handwork to do should the power go out.

Cafe Au Lait - Part 3

Based on some feedback and a continuation of my plans for this piece, you can now see the following:

• a bottle of cream - made from silk organza
• cream in the bottle - made from satin
• a small placemat - made from embroidered silk dupioni (thanks to Pamela for the suggestion!)
• outline stitching around the cup and saucer and the line between the tablecloth and the wallpaper
• a real demitasse spoon (although Pamela suggested one made from fabric)

Lots more stitching to be done, and then to add the beans somehow.

I'm hoping to get this and a companion piece finished before Pamela posts the next lesson. I haven't decided yet - black coffee? cappuccino? One with latte art is also in my head, but I'm waiting until we can use color for that one!

Cafe Au Lait - Part 2

The restaurant was fairly busy today, but spotty - meaning I was able to steal a few moments here and there to do some of the running stitches on the quiltlet. I'm happy with the outcome so far, but I need to get a couple more elements added. One is some coffee beans - I'm not sure how I'll accomplish that. I did think of using real beans, but only for a moment.

I have to say that I've been working with ArtFabrik perle cotton 12 for a long time and I absolutely love it. I needed white thread for the running stitch, and was happy to find some Caron Wildflowers (perle cotton 12) in opal. I wasn't happy, however, with the thread itself. It seemed much more fragile and not as smooth. I guess I need to order some Shadows from Laura!

Cafe Au Lait

I'm taking an online class with Pamela Allen - Thinking Like an Artist. Class just started and lesson 1 was to create a black and white still life. My husband has been after me to put some quilts up again in the restaurant and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to make something for the class that could also hang in the cafe. I have a few black and white fabrics, but they're exactly that - as opposed to a gradation from white to black with lots of grays in between. I'm planning on the usual stitching and embellishing which will bring coffee cup and plate into better focus. I do love that background "wallpaper" fabric - I had ordered it to use for one of the Christmas purses, but I'm glad I didn't! I'm really liking this piece. Click on the image for a larger view.

The two main fabrics are cotton; the cup and saucer are made out of two different japanese fabrics - they have a much looser weave. The "steam" is a piece of silk dupioni. Amazingly, not a single piece of hand-dyed fabric is used in this quilt!

Stay tuned - I'll keep you updated on its progress.

San Francisco and back again

On Monday morning I left for San Francisco and proceeded to spend three days in meetings. My daughter flew out on Tuesday to meet up with one of her friends and take advantage of the free hotel room. Late Thursday afternoon, before our red-eye flight back to Boston, we made it into the city to have an early dinner at The Stinking Rose (a restaurant dedicated to all things garlic) followed by coffee and pastries at Caffe Roma. We drove up Telegraph Hill to see Coit Tower which was bathed in fog - she got a couple of great pictures. We discovered the Embarcadero district on the drive back to the airport. While we've both "done" Fisherman's Wharf, neither of us had ever explored the Embarcadero district before so this is on the list for our next visit, most likely in late April.

Alas, no time for Britex this trip.

We could've spent another couple of hours in the city had we known our flight was delayed due to the poor weather in SF, but there will be other opportunities.