What inspires you ?

So what is it that inspires you?

I love the whole process of creating something.  I see things when out walking that inspires me to want to try and reproduce that combination of plants or flowers, that dainty little butterfly.  Sometimes this means that I embroider them as a small picture or just embroider them and they sit folded in a box somewhere until I find them again.  Often that’s quite sometime later.

I like to turn these little motifs and pictures into something that can be used.  That’s a whole other process, something else to learn.  It’s that aspect of the ‘creating’ process that draws me back.  I get a lot of satisfaction from holding a finished something in my hand.

It’s definitely the making that I love.  I can really lose myself in the process.  Crocheting does the same for me.  It’s almost how I imagine meditation is for other people.  It creates a calm space.  A space where I can just be quiet and shut out the dramas of every day life.

If you don’t have a creative style past time, I think you should try it.  Give it a go and see what it can add to your life… and I don’t mean countless bits of stitched fabric and boxes of threads.  I’m talking about enrichment, something which soothes daily stress and makes you feel better about life.

So, what inspires you to create and what keeps drawing you back?

I wanted to share these with you, yes they are pouches and yes they are appliquéd.  I have such a lot of fun making them.

A needle book with wool felt pages and a collaged and free motion stitched heart

A mini cray patchwork style heart with crochet still braid, a button and a little hand embroidery

A pretty heart on a coin pouch

Blue butterfly coin pouch

Another coin ouch with pink and dark red butterfly

Home

The pansy pouch is based on a little pansy that seems to flower year after year and manages to survive at the base of the stone wall at the top of the garden. Sturdy little thing but really quite beautiful.

I’ve also made a couple of needle books with heart motifs on the front.  One is ‘loosely’ a crazy patchwork idea with the seams between the fabrics hand embroidered.  The other one has been free motion stitched and both contain 4 wool felt pages for needles.  My own needle book has four pages and that works ok for me.

The coin pouch heart and the blue butterfly have all been stitched around to give a slight trapunto effect (raised motif) I’m really liking how that looks just now. The thread matches the colour of the background linen that it disappears leaving only the impression of the shapes the stitches have made.   I’m beginning to realise just how much I like texture in the things I make.

The pansy by the wall pouch developed as I was making it.  Does that ever happen to you?

I set out intending only to appliqué the pansy flowers just as they are outside in their sheltered part the garden but then … I wanted a label… so I created and printed that out….. then I decided it just didn’t look quite right without the wall.  So, then I got out the fabric paint.  It only uses the merest touch of colour but I think it’s just perfect for this little pouch.  The real wall is an old village boundary wall which gets covered in ivy.  We leave this to run rampant and enjoy the bees, the butterflies and then the birds which come to feast on it.  Sometimes, it’s the flowers they’re after, sometimes its the berries and sometimes they use it to make a home.  Lovely.

So, please share.  I’d love to know what it is that draws you back to ‘making’ ?