Thursday 13 October 2011

Ideas woman

I mentioned in this post that I'd bought a plain exercise book for journalling ideas. I'm currently working on an emboridery project, which you may have spotted! I thought I'd share the creative process of using my journal.

I wanted embroider a cushion to go in my living room. I became mildly obsessed with cushions. I was inspired by Kirsty's embroidery, and thought I'd like a bash at doing some myself.

So I set about trying to come up with some ideas!

I started by thinking along a nautical theme, as the colours I have in the room are blue, white and red.




 Nautical colours inspired nautical designs. I liked the idea of rope, beach huts and flags. I thought about incorporating appliqued felt into the designs as well.



I liked the use of the colours, but decided I wasn't keen on appliqueing complicated shapes as it was a first go, and I'm a bit of an amateur! I thought incorporating text would be a nice idea as it might make more of a statement, and be simpler to do.



I moved onto these drawings, because I liked the text and motif combination, and the umbrella and bicycle designs were my favourite of the ideas I put on the previous page. The 'j'aime mon bicyclette' idea was a favourite, and I chose that over the 'bicycle days' one. Because French is chic, right?

I thought the journal was a great tool for honing and refining ideas that begin with just a general thought about a project I might want to do. I liked being able to look back at previous ideas I'd had and look at them on paper rather than trying to remember something I'd thought about a week before. I could then tweak them and develop them to take my favourite parts of what I'd come up with and combine them into something I was really happy with.

I am still working on the cushion, and will keep you posted on how it's going!

5 comments:

  1. Hey there - since it's just a pillow, I don't know if this matters to you, but 'bicyclette' is feminine, so it's actually 'ma bicyclette'. A journal is a great idea for projects like that - I like to quilt, and was trying for ages to figure out how to applique a bicycle design onto a finished quilt. Sort of funny what ended up happening...I couldn't get the proportion of the front and rear triangle correct, and it was driving me crazy. So what I finally decided to do was to actually applique a cut out of *MY* bicycle - I ride a folding bike, so the outline is different from the classic bicycle design. Ended up working out great - I got an awesome looking quilt, and it reminds me of the great times I have on my bike when I'm using it.

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  2. Hey Chris! My initial cushion sketch was a quickie and fortunately I realised fairly soon after that bicyclette is feminine, so the pillow won't turn out to be grammatically incorrect! That's just the kind of thing that does matter to me, so thanks for pointing it out anyway because if I hadn't realised by now you would have set me straight :) My workmate rides a folding bike, I hadn't seen one before I almost fell over it when he had it folded beside his desk. Oops! I would love to see what your quilt looks like, and hurrah for a flash of inspiration!

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  3. That is a great idea to keep a journal of your craft ideas. I have a little journal that I keep my doodles/sketches in..but I may try and use your idea of putting craft ideas in it as well. I love the bicycle sketch, as well as the umbrella one. I am looking forward to seeing the finish product :)

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  4. i love the ideas! love what you did with the journal, totally cute! i've been trying to do embroidery myself but the prob is i cant draw so mostly i copy someone else's free pattern for that but i cant wait to see the embroidery cushion ur doing, and i do agree, french is chic! x susan

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  5. You blog is adorable! I love the bike cushion! I want one :) xx

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