Thursday, May 13, 2010

My creative space.

Just outside our bathroom window there is a wisteria bush that has been doing the autumnal thing and changing colours from green to red to orange and now yellow. I look at the wisteria each time I visit the bathroom. I notice the colours of the leaves and their shapes, and I think about how the willowy fronds would make a great basket.

But I am usually in a hurry to get out of the bathroom and I forget about the wisteria as soon as I leave the room.



But yesterday afternoon when Pepper was in the bath I decided it was time to capture the beauty of the bush before it loses its leaves.

I got some textas and some paper and drew it.

Then when I'd drawn enough, I cut the shapes from scraps of the tablecloth dress.

Not wanting to lose the leaf shapes I had cut out, I stuck them onto a pair of half made pants I had in my sewing pile.

Then I stitched a few of the leaves in place.

Blue and brown is a new colour combination for me and I love it.

When I get a spare moment I'll stitch the rest of the leaves on, then I'll sew a waistband casing, thread in some elastic, hem the bottoms and maybe add a frill.

Don't you love it when inspiration comes from somewhere unexpected and takes you on a new direction?

Check out the other creative spaces over at Kirsty's.

55 comments:

  1. Love the leaves and you did a great job drawing them up. Now this bathroom inspiration thing I am not to sure about. Could you imagine a "men's" version of such things haha....I'll stop haha...

    ReplyDelete
  2. Another one of your many talents Kate! They look gorgeous. I have a Wisteria outside the dining room and I love seeing how it changes all year.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is so effective!
    Inspiration comes from the most surprising places sometimes - its great!

    ReplyDelete
  4. That is such a lovely idea, I love those little pants!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Love brown and blue - I think they're the colours for winter this year!! Great work as usual!

    ReplyDelete
  6. What can I say..? You are a frikkin machine.

    I love the blue & brown too, it seems elegant somehow, but also that hideous word... you know it surely... 'funky'?! My Mum says funky sometimes, so I think you know what I'm talking about... I think I need a thesaurus... and a dictionary so that I can properly spell thesaurus...

    ReplyDelete
  7. Wow, look at that free flow creativity happening there. Great work! That is a brilliant creative space. Very inspiring. Lou.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Wisteria is just the most magical plant isn't it? Beautiful all year round.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Gorgeous kate, but how about your drawings!!! Stunning! I can totally see that as a fabric print! Blue and brown a fave combo of mine too!

    ReplyDelete
  10. Beautiful work - as always! And the blue and brown are a great combo.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh WoW!! that's beautiful! Captures the leaves just perfectly!

    Jill

    ReplyDelete
  12. I love that. Taking inspiration from nature. Don't do it enough!! The blue and brown looks fab.

    ReplyDelete
  13. That colour combo is gorgeous and I love that you used a plant in your garden for inspiration. I'm in awe yet again! You should check out this post on printing with leaves: http://artfulparent.typepad.com/artfulparent/2010/05/printing-leaves-on-fabric.html
    Your kids might enjoy printing some fabric for you to sew up for them using those same leaves.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Oh wow. Beautiful. The colours you chose just 'sing' and the effect is amazing. I really think you are onto something great here...well done!

    ReplyDelete
  15. I just love what comes from your inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  16. Gorgeous! What an beautiful place to find inspiration, I just love what you've done here...

    ReplyDelete
  17. What a great idea - wisteria are so lovely! More genius from you - yay!

    ReplyDelete
  18. What fantastic inspiration - I love how you just went with it and came up with something so great. Lovely.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Love, love, love blue and brown together. Especially THAT blue.
    Youll kill yourself laughing when you see where im getting my inspiration today, x

    ReplyDelete
  20. Perfect!! I love being inspired by nature....It just always feels right xx

    ReplyDelete
  21. Blue and brown is one of my favourite colour combos. You have captured the leaves beautifully

    ReplyDelete
  22. These are just gorgeous Kate. I love the colours and I really really love your leaf shapes :) Kx

    ReplyDelete
  23. Wow, that looks amazing! And I think I love your beautiful sketches just as much.

    ReplyDelete
  24. Kate you've done it again. LOOOVE these. Love wisteria, and loved the whole colour combo. You did an amazing job drawing them and then cutting then, ah you just did an amazing job all round!!xo

    ReplyDelete
  25. Yep, I'm liking the sketches too. I had to laugh at Amanda's comment, funny! I like the way you are finding inspiration in unusual places..there is beauty & inspiration all around us, waiting for us to find it. Looking forward to hanging out with you on Saturday night,xo

    ReplyDelete
  26. Your inspiration inspires others. Just gorgeous.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Frame that drawing! It looks great. Maybe you could hang it in the bathroom? I agree with everyone else, go the blue and brown and the funky pants you clever girl! :)

    ReplyDelete
  28. ooh, love them Kate! Just beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  29. they are fab Kate!!
    we collected leaves aswell and painted & glued with them, amazing things, simple yet beautiful

    ReplyDelete
  30. You've captured the wonderfulness of the leaves perfectly.


    Nature is such a great inspiration. At the moment I'm reading 'Man's Search For Meaning' (by Viktor Frankl). Viktor tells how the prisoners of the Nazi death camps, despite horrendous circumstances, still stopped to admire Mother Nature in a sunset or a beautiful mountain. Or perhaps it was because of it.

    It's amazing how nature lifts our spirits time and time again.

    ReplyDelete
  31. Such a great idea- so inspiring! Love how you just have a whole basket of projects in the work- that's what I have started to create. : ) xo m.

    ReplyDelete
  32. Just lovely! I love how you transformed the drawings into fabric for the pants! Definitely brown and blue, great colour combo for winter.

    ReplyDelete
  33. I like, nice work! Oh how I love wisteria xx

    ReplyDelete
  34. I love the crinkly edges on the fabric leaves, you've captured it brilliantly!

    ReplyDelete
  35. Love it. Your sketches are delightful; the colour scheme is great too. Those are the colours that “Adrift” was supposed to be!

    ReplyDelete
  36. Love em Lovely. Definitely add a frill, it'll look great.
    Abs x

    ReplyDelete
  37. What a beautiful idea to capture the leaves like this, I love it =)

    ReplyDelete
  38. It looks gret - love the blue and brown too.

    ReplyDelete
  39. I'm not a big fan of brown on its own... but I think that is just because we have 80s brown overload in our current abode. I do however adore brown and blue colour combination - both look really good on my son with his red hair.
    Fabulousness abounds in your creative space Kate. Adore those pants - they're ... ACE!!!

    ReplyDelete
  40. so great, i love your drawing too.
    i saw the article about your farm in green mag yesterday when i was having a coffee with my little one {didn't get time to read it of course!}. the photos are gorgeous.
    xx

    ReplyDelete
  41. Another Kate masterpiece! You should frame those colourfull drawings, they are so pretty.

    ReplyDelete
  42. Absolutely amazing Kate! I love the drawings too!

    ReplyDelete
  43. Stunning. Really really gorgeous Kate. *sigh*

    ReplyDelete
  44. I love how you were inspired by nature Kate. Beautiful work and I love the brown and blue together, it's one of my favourite colour combos.xo

    ReplyDelete
  45. What a lovely drawing of those leaves ....and applique! you captured the essence of the wisteria leaves, beautiful.

    ReplyDelete
  46. that is intense.. my hands are cramping at the thought of the cutting! Love the look

    ReplyDelete
  47. I'm thinking all those colours would look fab on those glorious trousers Kate. Maybe a frond on the back as well? Sweet! x

    ReplyDelete
  48. Awesome blog you have here but I was wondering if you knew of any forums that cover
    the same topics talked about here? I'd really love to be a part of group where I can get feed-back from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thank you!

    Also visit my site ... online graduate certificate programs

    ReplyDelete
  49. Awesome blog you have here but I was wondering if you
    knew of any forums that cover the same topics talked about here?
    I'd really love to be a part of group where I can get feed-back from other knowledgeable people that share the same interest. If you have any suggestions, please let me know. Thank you!

    Here is my homepage: online graduate certificate programs
    Also see my site :: graduate certificate

    ReplyDelete
  50. Hey there just wanted to give you a quick heads up. The text
    in your article seem to be running off the screen in Firefox.

    I'm not sure if this is a format issue or something to do with web browser compatibility but I figured I'd post to let you know.

    The layout look great though! Hope you get the issue resolved soon.

    Many thanks

    Here is my web-site ... waist height ratio

    ReplyDelete
  51. Pretty nice post. I just stumbled upon your weblog and
    wanted to say that I've truly enjoyed browsing your blog posts. After all I will be subscribing to your rss feed and I hope you write again very soon!

    Feel free to visit my page - diets that work for women

    ReplyDelete

Thanks so much for stopping by...

I do read every single comment you leave and appreciate it very much, but I should let you know that I can be a wee bit on the useless side when replying to comments, that's just me, everyday life sometimes gets in the way....so I'll apologise now, just in case.

Kate XX

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

Visit my other blog.