Daylight dilemma

I’ve been itching to do some embroidery – yes, inspiration has returned and I’m working on a new project – but am battling a bit with the lack of daylight.

This being our first full winter here, we’re not yet used to the short days and half-light when the clouds hang low. But I am enjoying the stark stillness, if I can describe it that way.

I’ve wanted to make a holder for my travel card for a while, as black plastic just doesn’t cut it when there’s a stash drawer full of fabric. And you don’t need daylight for machine stitching, so I had no excuse. I finally got around to it yesterday afternoon and here’s the result, with a zippered coin pouch inside:


My fingers are still itching, though, so I’m off to give embroidering a shot while the light is “brightest” at midday. And off to buy a daylight bulb for my desk lamp next week…

A funny old thing, inspiration

Inspiration is a fickle beast. It can strike out of the blue and put you on top of the world or desert you when you need it most and leave you in the depths of despair.

I’ve found over the years that it comes in waves. I go through stages when I feel like an empty shell and couldn’t come up with a decent idea for a million pounds. And then a week later I’m bursting at the seams and can barely get one idea down on paper before the next has exploded into my head. And so it goes, round and round.

I used to try and summon ideas by sheer force of will, but have learnt that nine times out of 10 all that does is keep them at bay. Instead, I’m learning how to manage the flow of inspiration in and out of my head.

I have a scrapbook, two sketchbooks and iPhoto. The scrapbook came about when magazine tear-outs threatened to stage a coup in our house. It took a while to tame the paper, but it works really well and is full of pictures that sparked ideas for stitching projects and my dream house, complete with kitted out studio.

One of my sketchbooks has some good, some not so good ideas in it. It’s a “quick sketch” book of vague ideas, sometimes just a shape or a perspective sketch. My other, smaller book is for embroidery ideas and goes into quite a lot of detail about stitches and background fabrics, threads and colour. I often carry it on me and find it a most pleasant way to spend a summer lunch break in the park.

I bought a small, quality digital camera about a year ago and it’s one of the best purchases I’ve made, along with my laptop and its iPhoto application. The camera is small enough to slip into a pocket and usually takes preference over bulky purses and the like. I generally find myself drawn to patterns, colours and shapes rather than things:







Of course, I still often find myself rummaging for till slips/tissues/travel cards and anything that will make a mark on said scraps of paper. But this is a common occurrence among crafters and I simply stick these into my sketchbook alongside all the other scribbles.

It’s these tangible records of my creative process that I turn to when inspiration deserts me. Sometimes my photos and sketches kick-start the creative process; other times it’s nice to just kick back and look at pictures.

Gifting handmade : the reveal

It was my mom-in-law's birthday yesterday so I can finally post a pic of her latest gift.


She travels a lot for work - well, she did when the gift was still just an idea. South Africa has not escaped the credit freeze and my mom-in-law will be taking a package and finally retiring at the end of this year. This is not a bad thing, despite forced retirement not being part of her plan. So she'll have to find other uses for the travel bags and compact mirror with monogrammed "E" that winged their way south for her birthday. I made them in some of her favourite colours and she seemed quite chuffed with them.

I'm also posting a pic of a gift that my mom made for me last year: an embroidered paisley cushion.


It's a shame not to show her work, because she really is so talented (and I need to show that I'm not biased). But she'd much rather be stitching than in front of a computer - fair enough.

Hi. My name is Kelly and I’m a stitchaholic

One of my favourite literary lines is from Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird, when Atticus Finch says to his daughter Scout: “You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb inside of his skin and walk around in it.”

The line struck me when reading the book in high school and again when I came across my husband’s battered copy a few years ago and reread it. In a way, this is exactly what I’ve been doing for the past week or so.

Devoid of inspiration and feeling a bit flat after finishing my Jacobean leaves embroidery and my mom-in-law’s birthday present, I thought that if I put my craft out of sight, out of mind for a while my passion and enthusiasm and ideas would come rushing back. If I lived like the majority who, on an average day, go to work, cook dinner, chat to their spouses, watch some TV or read a book and go to bed. If I climbed into their skins for a while…

It didn’t work. I thoroughly enjoyed last Sunday – I baked a spinach pie, strolled through the park with my husband and lay on the couch reading a magazine. It was a lovely, lazy day. But by Wednesday/Thursday I was feeling a little low. By yesterday I was outright depressed and pulling threads and fabric out just to look at them.

So while I’m still not my usual stitching self, I have discovered that I can’t live without it. There will be days when I’m not inspired to pick up a needle, but that’s just how it goes. Inspiration will strike again.