In early 2007 the Christopher Nejman group started to take off and with a lot of help from the other group members and Chris I started my first real project, A Harem of Color Pillow (HOC).
Everything was a learning opportunity. Since my background was largely in computers and technical research sometime it was a bit of a challenge.
It was both a blessing and a curse I had never done a quilt or anything like one in my life. I started reading everything I could on thread, needles, fiber, dry & wet felting and sewing machines. While my little Singer CE-100 had done fine for the 30 blankets it became increasingly challenging to creatively squeeze more out of it.
The HOC pillow is the starting point for all of Chris' Fiber Construction Techniques so getting it right took time, patience and a lot of tests. The materials used in the pillow are sheer, shiny, slippery and they should fray. Threads are shiny or metallic. Every bit of it was the kind of stuff the average fabric/quilt store knows very little about so we were all in rather uncharted waters.
I felt a bit like we were building a float for the Rose Bowl parade or maybe Mardi Gras.
Once the tops were punched, the unique patterns sewn with shiny threads and the trim added we were invited to sign our names to our very first pillow. We even learned how to digitize our signature and machine embroider it to finish the total look.
It wasn't as perfect as I would have liked but it was spectacular.
I was on my way.
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