Friday 23 August 2013

Small things, big impact

Sometimes even a small change can make all the difference to your frame of mind. Like new scatter cushions for your couch. I work in a corner of our living room, so my couch is either in my peripheral vision or I’m sitting on it using a cushion on my lap as support for my embroidery while stitching. And the mish-mash of cushions – largely the result of sporadic sewing whims – had gone flat and lost their appeal. 


I picked up four big-ish rectangles of the same fabric for peanuts at a charity shop a while ago and, although not quite my usual taste, something about the fabric instinctively sat well with me. Perhaps my taste is changing yet again. Either way, last week I finally got around to making them up into two rectangular cushions. I had to custom make the inners because of the irregular size, but am feeling much happier about the colours in my peripheral vision now. And the rectangular shapes actually work a whole lot better in terms of comfort and providing a work surface for my embroidery than the usual squares. So, nice to look at and practical.

The other thing I’ve been meaning to share is the launch of a new embroidery website here in South Africa. Elsa from the Port Elizabeth Embroiderer’s Guild down in my home province of the Eastern Cape has been hard at work on it for the past few months and it’s now gone live (although still in feedback phase). It’s not only a website, it’s also the launch of an umbrella organisation for South African embroidery guilds called Embroidery Network South Africa. And it’s open to non-guild members such as myself too, so all encompassing of embroiderers who live on the southernmost tip of Africa.

 

It’s super easy to register and, once approved, you’ll be able to access and contribute to the forums, chats and so on. And the gallery features a host of work from members of various guilds around the country – it’s traditional in nature, but is no less beautiful and inspiring for all that. You’ll also find the details of all the SA guilds there if you feel you’d like to join one in your area. So go and check it out.

I’m also starting to think I should just create a whole separate Pinterest board called Yumiko Higuchi

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I like the cushions the pattern of the material is lovely!

Kelly Fletcher said...

Thanks, Susan. I'm rather chuffed with them myself.