Storing inspiration – in praise of Pinterest!

Half-term holiday week is drawing to a close here in the UK. Although the school holidays no longer make a huge impact on my weekly schedules there is still a different feel about these breaks and I tend to be motivated to do a few jobs and activities that wouldn’t normally be attempted during term time.  More of those at the end of this post…

First: storing inspiration, information and items of interest (quite proud of the alliteration in this sentence!).  I’m growing more and more in love with Pinterest as a means to store, and, most importantly, retrieve pictures and accompanying text/tutorials that catch my attention as I read blog posts and ‘browse the internet’. For instance:  Knowing this past week would be full of very enjoyable activities away from my sewing machine I purposed to start a small project that wouldn’t require much planning and could lend itself to short bursts of action.  I checked the ‘Patchwork tablerunners’ board I’d created on Pinterest along with the ‘Patchwork blocks’ and ‘Half square triangle quilt project’ boards and quickly decided on a pattern.  A couple of clicks on the screen and I was looking at the original source of the design, able to pick some fabrics and do some arranging and initial cutting.

Sharing is my key motivation in writing these blog posts and I often catch myself discovering something inspiring on-line and thinking, ‘I must write about this and put the link in my next post’.  Time constraints for all of us mean that just doesn’t happen (I can’t write it all down and you couldn’t read it all anyway!) so I’ve come up with a possible solution:  I’ve created a ‘Pins of the Week’ board.  I’ve been adding images and information to the board through the past week and invite you to take a look. If one of the pins inspires or interests you then follow the easy link to the source. Once a week, on Monday evenings, I’ll transfer the pinned items onto my other boards and begin again with a blank ‘Pins of the Week’ board 🙂

And on to a little round up of what’s taken me away from the sewing machine this week.

I’ve had two days out – one, a sunny day out with friends to Chartwell, once the country home of Sir Winston Churchill, now a National Trust property and museum to the great man. A few days later we had a family day with my Mother-in-law.  The weather was not so kind but after a very tasty meal prepared for us by said lady, we visited Penshurst Place to admire the amazing great hall dating back to the 13th century and fine Tudor long gallery (these were popular additions to large homes of the time, serving the dual purposes of showing off fine paintings and artefacts whilst providing space for owners and guests to walk up and down taking some exercise when the weather wouldn’t allow outdoor activities!)

Between these days out there has been time to unpack boxes and fill our new kitchen cupboards – hoorah!  The building project is scaling down at last, becoming more of a snagging/finishing touches work-in-progress.  Floors were laid on Monday and Tuesday and the door to the shower was fitted so we now have a fully functioning shower room 🙂

I’ve also spent a few hours in the All Our Own Crafts shop in town.  The unit is in a good location in the shopping centre and it was great to see a steady stream of people coming in to browse and make purchases.  My quilts and cushions are not selling so far but I shall be patient…

Linking with Nancy at Quilty Inspirations #6 and sharing a link to Melanie’s heartwarming post about giving away a quilt 🙂

Allison