Clothing for the Body & Soul

Updated Cruise & Create Info

Rachel will be in Charleston!

On May 6^th at 5:30, Rachel will presenting a Wearable Art Fashion Show at the  North Charleston Arts Festival 5^th ART Quilt Exhibition. It will take place in the North Charleston City Hall Council Chambers.

Cruise & Create with Rachel Clark!

Sea – Sew – Sun
Cruise & Create with Rachel Clark!
aboard Celebrity Cruise Line’s Eclipse cruising eight days, seven nights to the Eastern Caribbean

Pamper yourself aboard Celebrity’s Eclipse. The Eclipse has dazzled and amazed even the most well-traveled cruisers. Celebrity Eclipse hosts Qsine, a dining venue with a unique and playful approach to familiar dishes from around the world and Celebrity iLounge, a modern Internet café offering guests what they have asked for – easy access to the Internet, inspiring classes and the latest tech gadgets. Live entertainment and shows, Casino, sport venues, pools, and more will delight you on the ship and excursions and beautiful beaches will in the islands.

The Sew Option includes classes with Rachel Clark, Open Sew Sessions AND a Sewing Package (sewing machine, carrying case, notions) that is yours to take home along with your project!

Rachel will demonstrate Techniques & Shortcuts and guide participants in creating our own unique “Big Block Coat” (BBC), a pattern she developed for this cruise! You can make the “BBC”, one of Rachel’s remarkable coat patterns (Boxy, A-line, Flair or Vest available from RDKC.com), use your own coat pattern or design a unique quilt. Once registered, you will receive more detailed information from Rachel.

Non-Sewers, family and friends come aboard to relax, enjoy the sunshine, variety of dining experiences, pools, live shows and entertainment on this fantastic voyage!

To signup or for more information, click here for a detailed info sheet (PDF format). You can also contact MaryAnn at 440-322-1220 or graysontravels@gmail.com

A legacy of Hope: An Unabashed Supporter

For two years I have been “threatening” to make an Obama Coat. The threat is over and the work is about to begin.

I have decided to document the progress of the coat on my blog. It took me a while to decide how I wanted to approach the design and what I wanted the coat to say. In the end, since I am a quilt maker, I decided to begin with traditional quilt blocks, words and photos. For the quilt blocks, the obvious choice was Road to the Whitehouse. The added blocks are Hawaii, Kansas Dugout, Chicago Star, Iowa Star, Illinois, Montana, South Carolina Album block, Louisiana (my home state), New Hampshire Granite Block, Bright Hope, Follow the Leader, Whitehouse Steps. Added designs will include an Indonesian & Kenyan pattern as well as the campaign logo.

I am using a modified version of my Flare Coat pattern. Because I wanted a larger area in the back to work in, I added about 6 more inches of flare. I divided the coat in to 9 sections. My thinking now is: the center back will not have any photos, just the logo, Bright Hope block and a pieced design. Each of the other sections will include at least one or more photos; some will have words and a reassembled quilt block. When I say reassembled, it means I am using parts of the quilt block or stacking up the sections vertical format. The border will be Road to the Whitehouse. The color scheme will be predominately red, white and blue with a bit of African, Indonesian and Hawaiian fabrics.

I have collected the fabrics, photos, text, buttons and completed most of the design as in, it is enough to begin working on the coat. I don’t always do a completed cartoon. This is a first with me and I am not sure how this is going to work out. In the past, when I have attempted to document a project, I would get caught up in the workings of it and forget to write about what I am doing or photograph it. I am going to really try to remember to photograph at the beginning and end of each work session.

The working title for the coat is: A legacy of Hope: An Unabashed Supporter.

Tags: coat, obama

Cuesta and My People Dress

Cuesta Benberry was an author, editor, lecturer, curator and a collector of quilts. She was particularly interested in the contribution made by African American quilters and did groundbreaking work in the area of quilt research. If you are not familiar with the work that she did, google her and learn what a extraordinary person she was.

Tags: green

Jumping the Blues

One of the tasks that I set for myself this year was to go back and visit some of my earlier pieces. I wanted to see how well they had held up over the years, if and how my work had changed and if I still liked them. I had planned to begin with the Boxy coat, but today as I was organizing for a fashion show/lecture for the Annie’s Star Quilt Guild in Chico Ca, I came across one of my very favorite pieces.

As I looked at it I realized that I could no longer fit into it and have it look the way it did when I made it 20 years ago. That led me to think about what does one do with pieces that you can no longer wear, but still appreciate.

When I made this jumper, I was still defining my style. I really like traditional quilts and I wanted to create a “wrapped-in-quilt look” using simple quilt blocks. I chose a row quilt style, simple patterns, African fabric and solid cottons. The quilt blocks in the center front of the jumper are Slave Chain. I used on ½ of the block to create the look I wanted.

The back of the jumper has a row of pinwheels (one of my favorite blocks), a modified Seminole band and squares on points. I have seen these patterns return again and again in my garments.

For the background I used the same tie-dyed African fabric from Mali. Instead of hemming the jumper it is bound off with English wax batik.

This piece is part is my series “Everybody Git the Blues.” It is an open series. I haven’t added anything to it recently.

I can’t say that I have an answer to my dilemma, however since I have crossed the 200-garment mark, I really need to think more about it as, I am running out of storage space and I still have many more garments to make.

Tags: africa, blue, jumper

Liberty and Melon For All

A while back, the members of the Central Coast Textile Artists (CCTA) (of which I am a member) decided to do a skinny quilt challenge. For my entry, I decided to go back to one of my favorite images, the watermelon. Since I had lots of strips left over from doing My Favorite Color and my last Bernina Show entry (Utterly Blue), I used many of them to create the background. Having done these two large blue pieces and Liberty and Melon For All, I still have a few of the strips left.

Tags: blue, Quilt, watermelon

Finance, Fashion and Wine Tasting

Last night, I went to an evening of Finance, Fashion and Wine Tasting. The event was held at a local Winery hosted by Brecek & Young Financial. The speaker was Tina Brown of Ilka Style. She was going to share with us the true elements of style and upcoming fall fashions. Now since I am a clothing person, I thought that I would learn something as well as enjoy the evening. I did, but as I sat listening to her share with the group, I heard two things that caught my attention: Love what you have (as in body type) and work with it and the second was that Black was OUT and the new neutrals this season are Navy, Grey and Camel. I started laughing out loud. It wasn’t because was oppose to the new neutrals, but that Black was out! Humm, half the room was wearing black and I was sitting up front black as you please. She looks over and without missing a beat she said; I meant clothing not ethnicity, which only made my entire table join the laughter all the while groaning, “Oh Rachel”.

As the event was outside and it get cool in the evening here, I knew I would need a jacket. I was wore “French Strips”. It is made of 3” wide strips cut from at least 38 different French Provence fabrics. The pattern is a 1946 vintage Vogue. I chose that pattern because I love the style of those topper coats. My mom had a pink wool one, when I was growing up and I thought it was one of the prettiest coat that I had ever seen. One day I am going to make a pieced pink one in her honor. In a later post I will talk more about vintage patterns and the fun I have playing with them.

Back to the evening, I didn’t think much of the fashion trends that she talked about, but I did appreciated her talking about the differences between style and fashion. I have known for a long time that I am more about style than fashion; it was great to have it affirmed.

Upcoming Event: 2010 Tennessee Presents Textiles

I am really excited about my trip to the Madisonville, Tennessee area in November, where I will be the featured artist at the 2010 Tennessee Presents Textiles Wearable Art Show. This year’s theme is The Power of the Pocket. My fashion show/lecture is Not Just Another Coat. I will be showing 25 coats, including (the finished coats from the “Out of The Crayon Box series and Alligator Swing).

I am looking forward to seeing some of my friends, enjoying some great food and having a great time.
The event location is the Tellico West Conference Center, 117 Grand Vista Drive, Vonore, TN 37885. For more information, check out the event website: http://monroearts.com/arts/?page_id=122

Tags: coat, fashion-show, green, lecture

Working at the Grands

I was hanging out at the grands and working with Kincy on the website. I brought along Southern Greens because I have decided to hand-quilt it instead. I’m almost done. Below is a picture of when I finished piecing it and I’ll post a picture of the completed work in a few days.

Tags: gallery, green