Inspiration?

It's Yvonne's turn to blog today so you know the drill, black comments are Reene and purple are Yvonne :)

I've been chewing the cud on my latest project for months and months and I thought I'd share with you how I arrived at the finished piece. I'm hoping to enrich my own process by hearing about your own devices in return. You know, you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours and all that. Pretty please? :)

I decided to make a wedding ring cushion for Jade and Oliver and headed straight to my stash of silk fabrics for inspiration. Knowing that Jade loves bright colours I was thinking of using jewel bright colours and crazy stitching much like this evening bag I made for my sister.

I love the combination of embellishments, fabric and stitching and know my Sister had lots of compliments on it. Obviously I wanted it to be Jade's choice so I gave her all the fabrics to browse through with Oliver. Well, I should have known better, much use he was! 'They're all lovely I'm happy with whatever you'd like' was his input. Bless him! Anyway, after lots of deliberation she finally settled on the classic and elegant route and chose a selection of creams. Perfect choice to go with the overall style of the wedding but I admit I was a bit stumped for ideas to start with. So, as I usually do, I put them all in a heap together by my machine and every time I passed them I'd add a bit of lace and bits and bobs that I thought might go.

It took ages, about a month probably, but hey you can't rush the creative process can you? :) Actually, if I'm truthful, but please don't tell Correne I said so, I'm not too good at making decisions. Give me a menu and I'll always be the last one to choose, in fact, given the option, the family would send me in a week ahead to make my choice! I can't see what their problem is but, whatever, I'm an open minded sort of person so I indulge them. :) Clearly I'm still here reading this Mum and you are terrible at making decisions!!

Eventually, something clicked and I knew i was going to make hexies for the back and played with the textures in the silks rather than the colours. I loved doing them and found it just as rewarding as using colours.

I decided to make a round cushion to represent the unbroken circle of a relationship and bought a couple of lace doilies (spelling?) from Cyprus to use for the top. In the end they were both completely wrong but whilst browsing in an antiques fair in Wells I found the most perfect vintage doily that was just perfect.

Correne had some ribbon that was the right shade to match the bridesmaid dress and also a pretty heart encrusted with crystals to top it all off. I use the word 'crystal' advisedly as Correne mocked my pretentions of grandeur when I said it was 'diamond' encrusted on flickr! I knew folks wouldn't think it was real diamonds, but I can always rely on Correne to keep me grounded or should I say burst my bubble! She'd perfected the art by the time she was four! Imagine this, me skinny and 24 (believe me I was both once upon a time) I poured myself into very tight jeans as part of my outfit for the day and went to visit my favourite fabric shop. Was complimented on my outfit and feeling good when up pipes one gobby child with 'she had to lie on the floor to fasten the zip!!!! It's a good job I love her! :) hehehe, that story always makes me chuckle :)

Anyway, I digress, I'm really pleased with the resulting ring cushion and though it took ages to get there I think it was worth it. I wonder are you the same as me or are you struck with inspiration straight away? I'd love to know and any tips on speeding up the process if you have any.

Just before I go I'm going to tease you with a tiny peek at my latest quilt. It's for {Modern} Relief Japan and I was delighted to be able to do something, even though very small, given the scale of the horror those poor people are having to cope with. I was struck by the immense dignity that they showed through it all. God grant them the strength to cope with it all.

I hope this whets your appetite for more of this quilt. I'll be blogging about it more on May 2nd so I do hope you will join me again for that. I'd hate to be talking to myself! Meanwhile take care and happy sewing. Yvonne xxx