Friday Inspiration - Spring Fiber Art

Welcome to the first day of Spring!  To help shake off the winter doldrums, here are some pieces of fiber art that are currently inspiring me.

Wendy Sheppard's Spring Song has great spring colors, a quilting pattern that reminds me of spring breezes, and a great bluebird tending its nestlings!  She blogs about the quilt here .... and if you have or can come up with the April/May 2011 issue of The Quilter Magazine, you'll find instructions on making your own.

I've had Akiko Kuwata's Spring in Japan on my inspiration page for quite some time and still have not been able to find out much about her.  A Google search will bring up many of her other quilts, all using color and shape in amazing ways.  I love the motion in this piece!  I can almost see the movement of the cherry blossoms swaying in a gentle spring breeze.  This image is from Jessica Levitt's blog post on the 2009 Long Beach International Quilt Show.

And on the theme of cherry blossoms, this piece from LaurelSusan Studio is an amazing use of French knots!  When I first began learning embroidery (in middle school), I hated French knots with a passion.  Somewhere along the way, I learned to appreciate them and now actually like the almost meditative character of sitting and making large numbers of French knots.  This piece is from their Etsy shop here.

Spring means the return of birds!  This free pattern could be customized to any spring bird.  Marlo Cairn's pattern is on Ravelry here and the photo below shows birds made by Miss Annie.

Get ready for Easter with these darling, fuzzy chicks!  Find the free pattern on the Knitting Cuteness blog here.

One of my first memories related to spring is of pussy willows!  I must've been quite young and my grandmother cut some to put in a vase.  I remember being absolutely fascinated with those sticks dotted with fuzzy bumps!  Madebyjoey has an amazing looking tutorial on making pussy willows from sticks and wool - I'm going to definitely have to try these.



Happy Creating!  Deborah