Make a Tree of Life Bunting

My box of materials and scraps of fabric are like a box of magic tricks, you never know what inspiration is going to leap out at you when you look inside.

Box of fabric magic trick

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker 

There's always these bits of fabric I hold onto because I've labelled them in my mind as special, rare, vintage, have memories etc but too often they sit in the box waiting for a life transformed into something useful and beautiful. There's definitely an unhealthy hoarding thing going on in my relationship with fabric, by I try to keep it in check.... or floral or
seersucker.

Seersucker is a great word never mind great fabric. Do you know the word comes from Hindu and literally means "rice pudding and sugar".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seersucker

Like a lot of folks I'm partial to bunting but have never really got down with what's offered commercially, even when they are made with pretty fabrics. And I find the shapes and  generic make-up pattern on offer boring.

Traditional bunting

Though I do get bunting - the way it flits and billows in the breeze, the feel of summer and picnics, the good use of memorable remnants into decoration. There's something folksy and frugal about bunting.

I never set out to make bunting but out of my magic box jumped a printed leftover piece of sketchy leaves, shapes of nature and plants. Bought from Ikea I'd made a laundry bag from the fabric to use whilst camping and after that forgot the remains. Until that day.

Gathering leaves

I was inspired to make my own tree of life bunting.

It felt right to be recycling bits, building them back together, uniting them with others and giving them new life.

It was all a bit organic and it literally took root.

I let the creative process get on with it and pretty much kept my own conscious thoughts out of the proceedings. Sometimes it's the best way. Instinct.

Blue budding Bunt

Bunting with attitude. Maybe not so much for fluttering in a breeze, more for sticking it out in a storm kind of bunting.

Whispa Stems

I was keen to decorate my holiday home aka the tent with it, but the man screwed his grump up and dismissed it as "unsuitable". It's not the kind of bunting looking for a Pimm's picnic really.

Bunting Looking for a Home

Thanks for reading. Kx