God only knows why I feel the need to design my own fabric with about a gazillion designs already out there BUT… I’m going with it. Swatches have been ordered from spoonflower and, with the impatience of a four-year-old, I can’t wait for them to arrive. I have THE perfect pale grey sock, just crying out for colourful wings.

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Whenever I get on a plane I find myself flicking to the route map section of the in-flight magazine. Retracing the steps of journeys long gone or dreaming up overland trails of new places to discover.  OK. Slightly obsessive. I know. But seriously, I do it every time. And lots of people I’ve spoken to do the same thing so I’m hoping you’re nodding your head in agreement rather than thinking “dear God, she is weird”.

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I spotted this beautiful idea on pinterest and instantly wished I’d kept more maps of the places I’d been as souvenirs. Isn’t it gorgeous? It’s by Bombus who create bespoke furniture and art from vintage items.

It has also sent me off on a map induced craft frenzy that I hope to be able to post here very soon.

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I was watching this speech he made in 2005 on How to Live before you Die. Inspirational stuff on doing what you love, having faith in life’s twists and staying true to yourself.

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At one point he says:

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“I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself – if this were the last day in my life would I want to do what I am about to do today. Whenever the answer was no too many days in a row I knew I needed to change something.”

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Wise words. Time to change.

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Not really a good time to halt with only four weeks until the bubba is due but a halt nonetheless. I find that this happens to me when there’s something just not quite right about what I’m creating. Something in my subconscious is trying to tell me that another approach is needed. This leads to craftstipation.

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Finally over the weekend I figured out what it was. The socks. I had done a little sock prototype which worked out fine, the shape was good and it was so ridiculously easy. Still something stopped me from carrying on. While the sock idea is easy it just wasn’t allowing me to get the colours or style that I wanted together. While this might sound like a disaster it’s actually a big relief to realise what it is that has been bugging me. So now I’m back to feeling enthusiastic and have been planning the construction of balloons using fabric. This leads me onto one of my favourite things to do – choose the fabric.

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So far I’ve planned on using Cloud9 Blue Yonder and white linen for the quilt. With that as a base I’m looking at cherry reds to go with it. The other colour I’m tempted by is a yellow but I have a bit of a vision of red bunting so we’ll just have to see.

So now all I have to do is hope that this baby waits long enough for me to finish it!

Images: Bunting by GiggleBerry, Cloud9 Fabric at Duckcloth, Heather Baily Pocketbook, Pop Garden at Hawthorne Threads, Cosmo Red Stripes, Amy Butler Full Moon Dot and  at Kelani Fabric

While I’m on the inspiring recycled objects front, Steph over at Moobear creates gorgeous t-shirts for kids featuring recycled fabric motifs. Her kids actually do the illustrations and she turns them into designs for t-shirts. How cool is that? My favourite is the bubble factory, who doesn’t need a little bubble manufacturing in their life? What a clever Bizness Babe she is.

The Print & Pattern blog never fails to inspire me. Carrying on with my mobile obsession this month, I spotted this mobile on P&P by Leptipallion on Etsy. Beautiful!

I’m on a bit of a London reminisce this week. Probably because it’s turned all grey and rainy out there and it reminds me of London weather – I lived there for four years and I still miss it.

Super Kool hand embroidered architecture by Charlene Mullen.

I would have loved this when I was backpacking… stitch the route that you’ve traveled directly onto the post card. What a great idea. Found via dropular (my new favourite media bookmarking site) on uncommon goods.

I’m starting a collection of modern takes on crafting. As much as I love cute craftiness for bubbas and kids the other half of me is really interested in where craftiness and the digital world or advertising meet. Embroidered text messages, by Ginger Anyhow, is an oldie but a goodie.  Twenty messages tell a love story. She’s even go to the point of showing the reception and battery levels. Super cool.

Here’s an example from Computerlove of quilling being used as typography  – the simpler more contemporary items look quite cool whereas the traditional flowers on the bottom left fall into the “pretty” category for me and aren’t nearly as interesting.