Esther's Occassional Quote for the Day

Red Moments

What a delightful suprise!

I took this photo walking across a damp field.

I found a ring of toadstools, just like a fairytale.

I dont need more reason to enjoy red, but when I stumble across it, I like to celebrate it. I'm always amazed at the vibrancy of colours in nature.

Inspirations

I would NEVER have merged these three swatches.....

before seeing them exist in nature first.

The question I most get asked is : where do you get your ideas / inspiration from?

For me, it all comes down to colour.

Well, mostly, I get my drive to do something creative in quilting after I've enjoyed something beautiful - and that happens most often after spending time appreciating nature.

My work never ends up looking like what I've enjoyed - well rarely ( I have created a few pictorial wall hanging quilts) but mostly, I get an idea, or a desire to explore a texture or merge some colours and I start sketching and those sketches turn into entirely new ideas and designs. It may take a while, sometimes months or years, but once I decide that thats what I want to do - then I just let it brew into an idea in it's own time.

Sometimes colour and texture inspire me. Sometimes I have no interest in particular colour schemes and then I see some tones recreated in a place where they look stunning and it makes me reconsider my thoughts about a particular colour.

When I created Nightshade, I had previously loathed purple quilts. I didnt have a single one! Then one evening I was out in the garden and everything took on a beautful deep lilac hue before sunset and I was instantly inspired.

These beach shots were taken at twilight and I was overwhelmed with how many ideas there were just waiting to be used. It makes me wonder how many breathtaking moments I miss everyday because I'm otherwise distracted . Inspiration is everywhere.

Seeing colours in their natural environment helps me make choices when I am riffling through shelf after shelf of prints. Recently with Peony Pride I decided to follow the 'colour rules' and obediently observed the 'correct' charts when I was colour mixing - the whole time I wanted to rebel and just do it my own way like every other time, but I stuck to it and Peony Pride's colour scheme is 'correct' and I almost hate to say it - the most successful harmony of colour in any of my quilts.

I always prefer to feel a certain way about colour and let it evolve and choose its own scheme....but sometimes it doesnt translate well. So now I settle on taking my inpsiration from nature and matching it correctly on the colour chart afterwards. I cant find inspiration if I just 'select' harmonising colours - I like to have experienced it somewhere, in its natural state first.

Peony and Cake - Birthday Perfection

Peonies are my favourite flower. I've been having a peony year - with my quilt Peony Pride, my endless sketchings of peonies and peonie sampler quilting and now, for my birthday, a breathtaking peony bouquet.


Peonies are perfection in a flower. And the perfume - it's just glorious. It's mild and fleeting, then collects intensity - I've been breathing the scent non stop for days and I can't get enough of it. It just reminds me of how difficult it is to bottle beautiful and natural scents.


Unfortunately, peonies only last a few fleeting days. When they crumpled, I couldnt part with them and the petals were still heavily scented, so I collected them in paper and they are still scenting everything beautifully. I definitely have to look into planting a poeny garden, even for a few days of flowering, I cant think of a nicer thing to enjoy in a garden.

This cake was almost too beautiful to cut, I love the chocolate leaves. The cake is a delicious walnut / chocolate layer cake.

This is the experiemental lemon layer cake. I think they girls enjoyed decorating it more than the cake itself.

The year has gone by so quickly, before I know it, it will be Christmas!

FREE FREE FREE...

Red Delicious is launched!

Many thanks to Brenda - without you, I would'nt have known what to do! You have saved my blog yet again (Brenda is also the reason many of you can view my images these days as she kindly let me in on the secret of "re-sizing" images). Well, what can I say? I put my energy and desire to learn new things into creative things and not technology (although I should!)...as there is no real reason not to know these days...ahem....anyway, thank you so much for the advice. I feel like I learn something new everytime I get on the computer!
Brenda's site is linked on the side of this blog under 'Serendipity Patchwork and Quilting'.

Red Delicious is easy to access. Simply double click the BOM motif on the side of the blog and it will redirect you to the PDF file.

Enjoy!

UFO Update

My girls still arent showing any interest in seeing this quilt finished....and I dont need any encouragement to abandon it again!

I still dont know what I was thinking when I cut it up and packed it away - except that I was enjoying a period of brights. The problem is that as soon as I start a project I'm thinking of another one.....It did look like this UFO (still unnamed I'm afraid) would stay on the wall a few more weeks yet....but we had an unexpected cold snap during the last few nights and were all bemoaning the lack of quilts available to cosy up with...and as it's expected to be hot again mid week I'm furiously working to finish it before I change my mind. Again.

101, advice sought

I promised that I would launch Red Delicious on my 100th posting....and the good news is, it's ready to go!

The bad news is that I am looking for a suitable way of hosting the PDF file up on this blog so that it can be accessed easily by any one who's interested. So far, all the file sharing programs I've seen are unsuitable and advert clogged.

Bare with me, I am seriously technically challenged and have been trying to work this out most of today.

I will launch Red Delicious ASAP. If you have any file hosting advice, please feel free to share.