I’m close to finishing a cross-stitch project I started a few months ago. This was my “travel project” for our trip to west Texas in March. The designer is Fireside Originals and the pattern is Desert Sunset. It uses some cool variegated thread that creates a very pretty desert sunset look.
I bought this cross-stitch kit at Old Town Needlework in Scottsdale Arizona during a previous desert vacation. It felt appropriate at the time as I was already inspired by the desert and mountains of Scottsdale. Weirdly, the designer, Fireside Originals, is an Ohio company which doesn't have a lot of deserts but they capture the desert sunset pretty perfectly regardless! In any case I love this design and am excited to be close to finishing it. Currently, I’m not sure how I’ll use it. I have a western theme quilt I’ve got in the planning stages, but I’d like to make this the star of a tote bag or maybe another up-cycling project for a denim jacket.
I'm always drawn to desert scenes - in art, crafts and travel. I grew up in a little agricultural valley in the middle of a desert and consequently it’s the landscape that I love the best. I think it’s the mixture of nostalgia and the very real beauty of the desert sunsets, the stark loveliness of cactus and the deep browns, reds and purples of the surrounding mountains that keeps me coming back to desert projects. I think I have taken hundreds of pictures of desert sunrises and sunsets (Check out my Flickr page for some highlights!). I am convinced that each of these pictures has beautiful details with different colors of the sky or they may capture different seasons of the desert and that makes them distinct from the hundreds of other desert pics I've taken. I can't help myself! Whether I’m in Arizona or Texas or New Mexico or California, I just find the landscape inspiring.
I'm also always interested in how the desert has inspired artists I admire. Specifically, Frank Lloyd Wright whose architecture and designs can be found all over Phoenix and Scottsdale has said about cactus:
"A cactus bloom is beyond any bloom, I think, manufactured by plants anywhere in the world. And there you have an interesting syllogism, haven’t you? The desperate nature of the armed plant and the exquisite, beautiful efflorescence it produces. Something to think about. There you see, revealed, some processes of nature, the significance of which I don’t gather at the moment."
This is the Saguaro Cactus forms art by Frank Lloyd Wright that is in the Arizona Biltmore hotel in Scottsdale. I also have a great cross stitch pattern of this design that I hope I'll get to start soon.
I’m not sure if it’s helpful to try and delve into why something inspires you or if it’s best to just enjoy the feelings that a landscape, piece of art, color, or texture inspires in you. But I do think that you can identify the different aspects that bring you joy and use them to create art of your own. I know for me, the inspiration comes from the consistent palette of colors in the desert landscape, the starkness of the desert that makes the various plant life more precious, the vastness and the quiet. These projects help capture those feelings even when I can't physically be in the desert.
Hoping everyone is feeling inspired and enjoying some sun as we wrap up the Summer!