A Tale of Claire, a Cross Stitch and Creativity.

At a recent Sunshine Linus meeting I was handed a completed cross stitch on Aida cloth that measured about 12" x 18".  The owner gave it to me, with the explanation that she didn't really like it very much and didn't want to get it framed.  She asked me if it could be used by the Sunshine Linus group? 

It just so happened that during that week I had received a request from a nursing home for "touchy feely wall hangings" that patients could interact with - something to catch their eye and give them something to stimulate conversation or even memories.

All of a sudden this cross stitch became a very useful item.  

Claire is a member of the Sunshine Linus group who is fairly new to quilting, but is showing incredible creativity and skill in making touchy feely quilts and aprons, quilts from knitted fabrics and polar fleece and the most magical bags made from curtain samples. 

Quilters like Claire tend to thrive on challenges and I thought this would be an opportunity for Claire to put her creativity to the test.  So I handed the cross stitch to Claire, and she took some fabrics from the Sunshine Linus stash and went away.  About a week later she emailed me this photo of the cross stitch, which displayed a very clever use of the cross stitch and incorporation of other fabrics. Claire has created a really terrific wall hanging, with 3D leaves and blossoms, and this hanging will provide lots and lots of interest, stimulation and conversation for patients and visitors to the nursing home.

I wanted to write about Claire's achievement because I believe there are many quilters all over the world who would like to try something different, but have become bogged down using other people's patterns, even though they  would like to try to do something a little out of left field.  Sometimes it's hard to know where to start.  A good way to start using the creativity from within is with something simple like this cross stitch picture.  With great design skills and a great eye for colour, Claire has created a really lovely piece of work, and one that will be admired and appreciated by many.

Congratulations Claire on a really great job - so what's next?


I asked Claire where she got her templates for the leaves and gum blossoms from and she said she walked down to the end of the street where some eucalyptus trees were growing and picked a couple of leaves and blossoms to copy off.