Breaking Free

I am a very conservative crafter. I like all things to be symmetrical, to have clear straight lines, not too many colour combinations. At the same time I do love seeing works of other amazing crafters who experiment with colours, textures and different techniques. A very talented fabric designer Aneela Hoey is one of them. Some time ago I found her mini quilt tutorial "Girl on a Tree Swing". The appliqué is simply adorable. The pink and yellow colour combination is so sweet and the lines of a freestyle machine embroidery remind me so much of a pencil sketch. I have to admit that I don't do patchwork, it's something I will never have patience for I think. But when I saw the way Aneela created the background for the tree (raw edge appliqué), I thought it would be an easy and quick way for me, and plus I could use my scraps of fabric.

Well, as I said being a very conservative and not being able freely to experiment with different colour combinations made this project more difficult than I expected. It took me a few attempts to even start the "trying" process, the pieces of fabric didn't seem to match or fall into a place no matter how many times I moved them around. Plus, as I mentioned before I am not good at following instructions. I did not want to simply copy Aneela's work, I had to add even a tiny bit of my own creation to it.

Last year I stitched an Oak Tree with added little fabric hexagons but this piece of embroidery was lying around without being used. I liked the tree by itself but I could not think of a way of using it in any of my projects.

A few days ago I decided to give the mini quilt one more go. The scraps were piled up on the table and the creative process began. After half an hour the final colour combination was ready and it looked really pretty to me. I was surprised that all the bits and pieces, uneven stitches and raw edges did not make me cringe, they looked happy and joyful. Right at that moment I remembered about my Oak Tree and voila - my own patchwork piece was ready. And I love it!

Of course this work is far from perfect but what it did to me and my creative thinking is priceless - it made me break free from my conservative vision, it took me away from my straight lines and perfect corners, it made me want to create more things like that. Just a crazy splash of colour and a little bit of mess. I already have a few ideas in mind and cannot wait to start working on them.