Around the World Bloghop

I've been tagged!!!
Joanne of Canuck Quilter has invited me to take part in the Around the World Bloghop which is currently doing the rounds in blogland. Joanne has written her post *here*; do check it out as she has made some lovely quilts and produced several patterns for them. I enjoy the way she uses colour and I think her quilts work really well.
The topic for this Bloghop is our 'Creative Process'. There is a list of questions we can answer but I feel more comfortable just winging it for now...
While I am winging I will share some photos of some original projects of mine, just because I can!

'A woman's place is on her horse'
Possibly my first original quilt.
A wallhanging for my Aunty.

To be absolutely honest, I have spent a whole week thinking about my creative process. And to be equally honest, I don't feel any wiser :-)
When I worked in early childhood I not only worked with the children but also the adults. My favourite workshop to lead was 'encouraging creativity in children'. An aspect we talked about was giving children the time and the opportunity to play and explore the world around them, not just let them look at a pinecone for example but to have the time to feel it, smell it, roll it, take it apart even, if appropriate!
On reflection, I find this to be a very important part of my own creative process.

I play and explore - taking part in quiltalongs, blog reading, magazines, books, classes, chatting with others (email, skype, in real life) all add to the pool of information - blocks, colours, techniques and so on -  I have to call on when I'm in creative mode.

I made this block holder based on a block I had drawn up for a friend's Round Robin quilt.

I need time - my creative process requires a lot of time. When I am designing something from scratch, often a picture appears in my head. Sometimes it's just a glimpse of something and my mind needs to chew it over, get it all sorted before I can slice into fabric or sew a stitch. That thinking may just be a case of deciding what fabric to use, or the appropriate technique. Subconsciously my mind sifts and sorts.  Sometimes that initial mulling will form only stage one of my project so more mulling time is needed later on...this helps explain why I have projects banked up resting from here to Africa, but actually, I'm ok with that.

A table runner I made for a special friend :-)

Some of this thinking time is well away from my sewing space and I find my most valuable thinking time is when I'm outdoors (usually) going about my everyday life on the farm. Not that I am influenced by the grass and the trees but I think my brain must relax more then when I'm occupied with something else!!
[Of course there is other mulling time too, I can tend to dither over a colour or what should be a simple decision (Mum would probably tell you I've always been like that!); for that part of the creative process I need to trust myself more.]
Once the initial idea has come, my creative process is further enhanced by tools such as pen and paper, playing with the fabric, or EQ7.

The small runner shown above was made for a challenge I had with some friends. By using EQ7 I was able to easily play and change the colouring to get the heart effect, which wasn't evident in the initial block.

Let's do a Free Motion Quilting BOM!
'Birdy Love'.

I am lucky in that I work part-time at my local quilt shop, The Country Yard. Opportunities for creativeness abound there. Sometimes projects are technique based. Birdy Love (above) resulted from the desire to create a programme to help quilters with their free motion quilting.
The cushion cover below was the result of a series of technique classes; simple stitchery, needleturn, foundation piecing and English paper piecing.

I've just realised something that might sound kinda dumb. Some of my friends tell me that I have a definite style and say they can tell a 'Raewyn' thing from a bunch of other stuff. And now that I've been scrolling through these photos editing this post I can see there could be some truth in this! And I feel happy that I have chosen to call any designs that I do write up "Whimsical Miss" as I actually do now think the name fits! Woohoo! **insert a  very loud Penny Dropping sound**
(Whimsical Miss is the 'show' name of my little horse; I thought it sounded good for my patterns too!)

So there, in a nutshell are my thoughts and perhaps a little insight into what goes on around here.

Finally, I have invited two talented ladies to join this bloghop —

Suz, from All The Good Ones Are Taken is a quilter who always delights with her colour combinations and the personal touches she puts into her quilts

and —

Karen, from Karen's Quilts, Crows and Cardinals, has not long started up the Redbird Quilt Co. Her delightful work uses wool felt, applique and often features birds and flowers. She also has numerous tutorials on her blog.

Thank you both for agreeing to play. I'm looking forward to visiting you both on Monday 25th August and seeing what you have to say about your own creative process.

Thanks for reading along while I have been soul searching. It's been a worthwhile process for me - I'd be interested to learn about your creative processes too - have you ever thought about what makes you tick, what helps you to work, do you have a muse?
Happy creating