Rocking The Desert

What's next? 

Currently I am working on my third Christopher Nejman designed pillow - The Desert Turquoise. I can't show you a completed shot yet but there is lots of activity in my sewing area on my Babylock Embellisher. Here is a sneak peek as the curves of turquoise take shape.

May All Your Christmas Trees Be Punched

After completing the Ra Pillow I decided to take a little break & create some Christmas tree ornaments. I punched some very thick metallic yarns and serger threads onto a triangular piece of suede. 

Punching on real leather was a first for me.  Then I gave it the Christopher Nejman treatment with lots of other embellishments. My new BLL made short work of securing it to a large metallic ribbon "trunk".

It made a lovely little tree and I learned how to punch fabric to suede, not bad for a few hours work.

The Big RA

The next project for our group was the Ra Pillow. It seemed simpler than the HOC. It was an even greater challenge that introduced me to a wide variety of sewing techniques and new materials. There were lots of subtle decorative stitching techniques that are not obvious but do influence the total feel of the piece. The pillow is also very large.

All in all it pushed me into acquiring a new Babylock Ellageo. It was much easier to handle the unusual materials & metallic thread that are so critical to a Christopher Nejman design.  

I also decided to take up the next step up in the challenge of not only creating my own "fabric" with the Embellisher but to create my own fringe with a Lacis Fringe Maker. 

The results speak for themselves I think.

The Harem Collection Grows

In order to perfect my craft I created another Harem Of Color Pillow. I tried a few different choices. The second one was easier but not yet perfect. My little Singer was struggling on the fat sandwiches of slippery material.

I grew in confidence I could really make some stunning objects.

A Bird Flew In

Occasionally as part of our on-line class, Christopher spurred us on by giving us small extra challenges. While I can't go into detail here I will say the Bird Of Paradise pillow you may spot on Chris' Bag and Pillows web site is related.

Fabric punching is not just about attaching flat pieces of material to each other or to a backing. It can also be about totally changing the texture and sheen of a material. The metallic threads used are not just to bind the materials but to catch the eye & lead it into unexpected corners and unanticipated patterns.

My First Christopher Nejman Pillow

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.

The Heather Bag

I purchased my Babylock Embellisher in late 2006 and within a few months I had moved from flat wool roving to mixing the roving with a variety of found materials. I found some great bits of information on using the long fibers as a binding agent but it was not enough.

I created some test pieces and created a tote bag combining punched fabric, roving, sheer organza, Angelina fibers and machine embroidery. I punched it and attached it to a canvas bag.

I was hooked.