The Challenge

There's nothing like a challenge to get the creative juices flowing.  Sarah & I had already decided the parameters of the project before the holiday started so we were ready with our cameras, looking for inspiration, from day one.

We both initially had some ideas about the lock gates, the patterns in a lock flight or on the old ironwork bridges.

Big old lock gates supporting their own garden on the Hatton Flight

At Bournville we saw the brown and white timbered buildings, a quaint octagonal building and, a perhaps unlikely source of inspiration, graffiti.

The octagonal building on Bournville Green, will the shapes and textures find their way into my project?

But it was Birmingham which gave us a wealth of inspiration.  William de Morgan's striking motifs and colours caught our eye in the museum display.

William de Morgan's lively cockerel on an unlikely background of fish could provide an interesting motif

The Jewellery Museum contained a variety of industrial tools in various shapes and sizes and a collection of vesta boxes, each a ready made miniature design. 

Part of the vesta box collection but I won't be using the one on the left!

The Festival of Quilts was a wonderful showcase of all that is possible with a needle and thread (and in some cases, with the aid of fabric glue).

Frances Meredith's Pies and Tarts quilt shows how a simple idea can make a stunning design

So we have plenty of inspiration and some colourful new fabric, now it's time to get creative.