Technically, I’m not here…we’re still on holiday. I told myself I wasn’t going to blog for 2 weeks, so I’m not calling this a blog…let’s just say I’m answering a friend’s questions. She asked, “Where do you come up with your ideas and how in the world do you go about turning them into patterns?” My profound answer, “I don’t know.” Truth is, sometimes I’m inspired by a pic, sometimes in response to a need, and sometimes, I have a thought ping ponging around in my brain for a long time before I decide what to do with it. Case in point…doorstops. For some time I’ve known I wanted to make doorstops that are both functional and appealing to children but nothing was jumping out at me.

Tonight, Michelle and I managed to steal away for coffee…alone…which is unusual…and managed to have 2 1/2 glorious hours to ourselves whilst we discussed an up and coming project. When I got home, I began to doodle…always my first step in any project. Well, instead of staying on task, I started messing around with the doorstops, and before I knew it, I had the rough draft of them! There’s still a lot of decisions to be made. They will have to be drawn to scale, and I’ll have to decide how I want to go about making them three dimensional. I want to make them in felt and in prints, so I’ll need different materials and directions for each. I’ll also have to decide how to make them weighty enough to be functional. Anyway, in answer to my friend’s question…it starts with an idea, it becomes a doodle, and eventually turns into a bona fide pattern! So be on the lookout for our folk art cat and dog doorstops! Now, back to vacationing!