At last I can stop suffering and . . .

The first three weeks in school have been stressful.  Surprise!

On week two of Comm. 1010 we were given a group assignment: Choose a case study/problem and, as a group, come up with solutions.  Make an in-class presentation of your findings and turn in a written report.

Let me tell you, I hate group projects!  At our first, in-class meeting only three of our five-person group were there.  But that was OK.  We chose a topic, divvied out the work, scheduled another meeting . . . everything we were supposed to do.  And I emailed the missing members to tell them what was going on.  By the end of the project we had changed topics (from "How to Support our Troops" to "Language Barriers in Customer Service") and only two of us actually did any work.  We got lots of apology/excuse emails from everyone, but no one showed up for meetings, and no one did any work (just Patricia and me).  We emailed the teacher and he said to move forward without the others and do our best.

So Patricia did the powerpoint and I wrote the report.  Patricia speaks English as her second language and although she speaks very well, she is still not very confident in it.  I discovered (with two days left until D-Day) that all the research she had done was simply on improving customer service, and not the language-barrier stuff I had looked up.  So on Thursday, before it was all due, I sat looking at her powerpoint work, and the information I had collected, and the information the teacher had emailed us.  Uh-oh.  It looks like instead of "report" it is really "research paper."  I was totally at a loss how to pull it all together.  So I made a last-ditch attempt to get some help from the other girls.  Nothing.

Finally I wrote the report on—not customer service, but how frustrating the whole project had been.  At 10 p.m. Thursday night Miss B emailed me and said not to worry; she was writing the report right then and would email it to me for editing.  >sigh<  I had just finished writing the report.  But I told her to send it along.  The poor girl is a terrible writer, and it was obvious no research at all had gone into this.  Basically her report said, "Bad customer service is a bad thing."  Yep.  Since she had made at least a tiny effort, I added her paper to the appendices of the report I'd written.

The conclusion of my report?

 "Oddly enough, you could say that Patricia and I were the victims of poor customer service. Having paid for this class, and having put in good-faith efforts with our team:

• We were very frustrated.
• Our problems did not get solved.
• We fear misunderstandings and hard feelings from group members will arise when their names are not attached to the project.
• We have formed some negative opinions.

 Without more help from our group, more help from the teacher, or more time, we are unable to find a satisfactory solution to our problem.  We are open to suggestions from classmates, our teacher, the department head, or even academic services."

I wonder what kind of a grade that will get me?

Well anyway, having to do all of that last week had me pretty darn stressed out.  And on top of that I was still trying to come up with a theme for a cohesive, ten-piece line of clothing for Collections.  Over the first three weeks of class I'd probably showed Eugene about ten drawings, but out of each set I made he said only two to three of them looked like they belonged together in a collection.  Aaaaaaaaargh!

So, while I was trying to figure out the customer service project, I was also trying to come up with a theme and draw ten designs.  I really wanted to have them drawn and approved by class last Friday so that I can start patterning, draping, and sewing mock-ups this week.  That way I have at least some chance of getting everything done in time for my L.A. fabric trip and, finally, for the show in April.

But what to use as a theme?

?????

I finally came up with this:

I would show you my "inspiration" pictures, but my flash drive is a booger right now. :-(

So I made designs using pleats (crisp, straight lines) and color-blocking, (mostly in black, white and gold) for the "strength," but very feminine shaping overall for the "softness."  And then I fretted about whether Eugene would say that these six pictures weren't really cohesive, and I'd have to start over again.  

But when I told Eugene my idea, and showed him the six designs I'd sketched, he thought they were really cool!  Hooraaaaaay!  So, at last, I can start making my patterns and get sewing! (If only I'd get off the computer and get to work. ;-) )