"Every house where love abides
And friendship is a guest,
Is surely home, and home sweet home
For there the heart can rest."
~ Henry Van Dyke

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

Perhaps it is the quilter in me.....

.....but when I see things, I can become very inspired by their pattern. For example, I dream of making a quilt after a pattern of roof tiles on a building we visited in France one year. Being on vacation in Quedlinburg last May has also left me with inspiration from various buildings and floors that I have seen.

This beautiful town of timber frame (Tudor style) houses is so quaint and inspiring in itself. The colors of the buildings inspire to work with fabrics, the timber frames inspire to work with pattern and the feeling of the town inspires to something echoing times past.

If you enlarge the photo below, I hope you will be able to discern all the various patterns of brick. This building has a different motif created with the brick laying in each separate section. I wonder if this was perhaps a test for someone learning the trade?


Oh but the floors! Just things of beauty waiting for someone to look at them instead of just passing by quickly from one room to another. They are saying stop and take a moment to think how a craftsman came and laid me out piece by piece...

Even simple terracotta floor tiles can evoke a warm and country feel in its pattern...

I see how many things like quilting have perhaps had influences from things around us. This floor is like a lovely patchwork quilt.

Try to take a moment to look around you at patterns. Maybe you might find inspiration by things around you.....

8 comments:

Elizabethd said...

Architecture can be so inspirational, especially the repetition of things like roof tiles, floors etc.
I know that, like you, I have caught myself saying...'I can see a quilt there!'

Susan in SC said...

I bet you liked math while in school too!

Simple Home said...

They do look like quilt patterns. These are beautiful images. I hope you're having a wonderful week.
Blessings,
Marcia

Nancy said...

It is fun seeing things through your eyes. I don't see it until you point it out. I love that house, well all of the houses. Very neat.
Love you, Mom

Janet said...

It's amazing to see the interconnectedness of all the decorative arts, isn't it?

Tracy said...

Very easy to be inspired by all that...*SWOON*... I always find architecture are great creative & inspirational tool... Inspiration is all around! :o) Happy Days, Heidi ((HUGS))

Michelle Palmer said...

Great post... an artist heart! I see design in every nook & cranny... sometimes distracting~ but always inspiring!
Hope your day is sunny & sweet~
Michelle

angelasweby said...

Oh wow Heidi, what a feast for the eyes. I was just mesmerized by the building with the brick patterns in each block. Could that classify as a sampler do you think :>)

Those floors are just stunning and the colours of the roof tiles and the shapes they make are beautiful.

Like you, I've always had a fascination for shape and the shape of the space between things too. When I was studying art I did a whole series of drawings and paintings of the shapes between groups of objects - ah, the enthusiasm of youth :>)
Angela xx