My Creative Space: Inspiration and Cross-pollination

The focus of my creativity this week has not been in the studio or even being inspired by other blogs. My main focus this week has been preparing for a concert organized by my husband performing with his colleagues and our daughter. His fellow musicians graciously donated their services to help him raise funds for an upcoming trip to England of the Men and Boys' Choir of Christ Church Cathedral Ottawa of which our two boys aged 8 and 11 are members. I was involved in publicity and helping to oversee some of the little details to make it run smoothly. The programme featured my husband and fellow National Arts Centre Orchestra musicians Donnie Deacon and Margaret Munro Tobolowska the lion's share performed with harpist Caroline Leonardelli.


This young lady sung four beautiful Italian art songs from the 18th century accompanied by harp. As proud parents, we were delighted with her performance and her desire to help the Choir's upcoming trip. We were thrilled for her and hope she enjoyed the praise as much as we did on her behalf. Our daughter has been singing with the Cathedral Girls Choir for five years and this year has had some important solos and is one of two head girls (each leading the two sides of the choir). Her ease and poise that her experience in the choir has helped her develop allowed her interpretation to shine and her audience to fully enjoy the music.


My creative contribution for this event was the donation of a felt purse to the silent auction held before the concert and during the intermission. The body and handle of the purse was created with a thrifted, felled(felted) sweater that was purchased slightly shrunken already. Some sweaters are so beautiful and in such good condition that I hesitate to purchase them for felling because I believe they still have life left in them in the their original form. With this particular sweater I felt no guilt for continuing the process. I find that fair isle patterns often shrink up the best for creating purses with the final product create a dense felt that is thick enough (but not too thick) to create the body of the bag.


The lining of the purse is made from a thrifted curtain. When I found the curtain on the rack I recognized the print to be Laura Ashley which was confirmed by the selvage within the hemmed sides of the panels. The button closure is a vintage button and the wool I use for the needle felted designs comes from the side seams of the sweaters that I remove before felling. I love the sculptural qualities I can achieve working with scraps of felt and I enjoy combining the three dimensional applied designs with the needle-felting. On a scrap of ribbon, I was able to use the alphabet feature of my sewing machine to create a label.

This week I have enjoyed how my family's musical/dancing talents have inspired me. I also am thrilled with the way sharing with other bloggers seems to inspire us all, whether it is to try new techniques or just to keep going doing what we do knowing that others are interested in what we create. I spent several enjoyable days reading all the blogs linked to Kristy's blog and would encourage others to do the same. One of the most satisfying things about blogging has been making new blog friends. Imagine my delight when I read Katherine's blog at Woolywotnots and found that she had dedicated her post to me! What a flattering incentive to continue sharing. It looks like she is finding the yo-yos as addictive as I do. I love her knitted collectibles and how she shares her inspirations. All of this creativity is definitely benefitting from cross-pollination.