Tuesday, June 9, 2015

Where do I go from here?

I got a custom bear order recently.  The buyer said that she'd originally contacted a large company somewhere in Vermont that made custom bears, but after receiving her fabrics, they contacted her and said they were no longer in the custom business and were just doing straight production work.

I think I understand why.

Do you see these 5 fabrics?  Do you see any relation between them, other than that all 5 obviously mean something to the woman who chose them?

There's some My Little Pony print cotton, which I think started out as a skirt; some shamrock print; a spongy pale blue that doesn't match the blue in the pony fabric; a quilt print cotton with lots of dark purple; and a bright yellow romper with red and blue accents (and a tiny Izod alligator).

I've been staring at these fabrics for the better part of a week, trying to make them come together in some kind of harmony.

So far, no harmony.  More like really, really dissonant jazz . . .  the kind that very few people understand, or can even listen to.


4 comments:

Lyndle said...

Wow, a challenge. Maybe she doesn't need harmony. It looks like memories of a child... maybe it's appropriate just to have the vibrancy of the fabrics together - kind of conveys the energy and changingness of childhood?

Glenda said...

You make beautiful bears.

The fabric combination is a challenge��. I would probably make the body out of the light green and applique the cutout Dresden plate pattern onto the front stomach area. Then I would fill the white center circle with the green plaid from the pony material. On the back, I would applique the pony cutout, bordered by the stripe from the same material. For the ears I would use the yellow on the front and the clover on the back. The paw areas could be a combination of colors that blended cut from the pony material. In the end it would look eclectic, but use the fabric (lol).

Best wishes with the project.

SanMarie said...

Sadly, it also looks to me like a child. Though it could represent the children/grandchildren of someone who passed at a more appropriate time. As for colors, on my monitor you have already arranged related fabrics: the dresden plate with yellow, group one, and the other 3, group two. Is two bears a possibility? Tie them together with yellow on the ear fronts, clovers on the feet. On my monitor, the spongy green-or-blue could blend with both MLP and dresden. Regardless, you will get there!

SewRuthie said...

Oh dear, good luck with that!