inspired by green

Just a couple of steps north to DownEast (yes, DownEast is truly is NorthEast), and the landscape is ever so slightly different than what's outside my own door. Just enough so that I noticed throughout our week, and marveled at the color - the rich lush moss, and all the green.

I might be particularly noticing this right now, as I've been spending a lot of time visiting The Art of Embroidery again. This book amazes me - full of beautiful inspiration from nature and then the translation to art and craft through embroidery.

There's a bit of embroidery instruction included in the book, but I think it's best use is as a beautiful reminder of the inspiration that really is all around us - everywhere. Grass, moss, fern, leaves. Everywhere and Anywhere. It's there.

and a little more green today from my flickr favorites:
into the woods
spirals
leaves
bouquets from above
ground floor
the forest floor

Comments

[Caterine]

I have this book too an d i love it. i like the way the author let you express your own creativity by giving just 'tiny' instructions. her first book was all about knitting, weaving etcetera and the picture were as good as in 'broderie'.

[heather]

my bedroom, my studio, my yoga room, all different shades of green. i really love having a lot of green inside the house, during the winter months especially.

[erin]

it is no secret how i feel about green! that book looks lovely - i am going to have to take a look at that. i love your embroidery amanda. it is so fresh.

[Julia]

must check this book out. looks great. i just started embroidering recently at the inspiration of, well, you and a wonderful old book i found called the stitches of creative embroidery. and now i can't stop! thanks so much for your continuing inspiration and beautiful posts.

[Emily]

Hello Soulemamma,
What beautifully lush photos... I have to say that I get so much pleasure out of reading your blog and seeing all your thoughtful, ingenious handy work!
I couldn't help but share some of the beautiful green I discovered in my recent holiday to Scotland with you..

http://flickr.com/photos/9283016@N08/1098836622/

[molly]

beautiful pictures, amanda. i love the green of the mosses in your first photo set. beautiful.

[karin]

Yes, green is such a great colour. Especially mixing several shades of green looks wonderful.

[Natalie]

I just love the inspiration nature gives me to embroider or quilt, to paint, write, sing... okay, not very well, but still just the joy to be inspired is so wonderful!

[Mary Beth]

Ooh, I love what you're working on there. I have found the best book for learning the actual embroidery stitches to be the Klutz embroidery book, "Simple Embroidery" by Marilyn Green. The directions are crystal clear.

[Stefani]

Somehow, I had an inkling that you'd return with fresh inspiration. :-) Lovely work, and thanks for the tip on the book!

[robin]

gorgeousness and beauty!!! Your view is ever-inspirational- thank you, Amanda. <3

[Di]

I love green and I love your photos! It appears everywhere I look embroidery is taking place - my place too! Thank you for the details on the Art of Embroidery book it looks beautiful!

[Vera]

Great photos and a wonderful book. I received it as a birthday gift in june and love it so much.

[Beth]

Mmmm, my favourite colour in the world is that lush, velvet green of moss. No other green compares. I'm thinking we get similar varieties here in Nova Scotia as you have in Maine.

Nothing prettier than sunlight filtering through trees onto moss.

[Heather]

Holy cow! You've got to add awesome photographer to your long list of wonderous strenths. My favs were sprials, bouquets from above, and ground floor. I have to say that I've been loving your photographic binge these last few months.

[Veronica TM]

thank you for posting all this green, amanda! it was good for my soul. here in the desert the landscape is beautiful too, but different.

[Jennifer]

yes- inspiration from everywhere- your beautiful photos, your comment which reminds me to focus on the more minute, and the time you take to share all of this with all of us- highly inspirational!!

[sixty six stitches]

I've only just stubled across your blog and already I love it. So fresh and inspiring.

[Meredith]

Amanda those pictures and the embroidery is beautiful.

Is that book appropriate for beginning embroiderers? (I have the several more instructional books and have mastered a few stitches.) It looks so lovely.

Glad you are back!

[Rae]

It's lovely to see the work you've already been inspired to start. Green is a place that you can sink into, it's like a home.

[shari]

i am a big fan of moss. i love it...and remember playing with it as a child. the book looks amazing too. xo

[Laura]

I think you would like this book, http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/1844480380/ref=sib_dp_pt/104-8889877-6211121#reader-link

I picked up at work about three months back, and it's just stunning, great for inspiration.

[Willow]

I adore The Art of Embroidery; I can't look at for very long. I start aching. I loved the moldy orange and the red flower. And the cauliflower! Ah....

There are such wonderful, thoughtful, inspiring ideas in there, and the deepest of all was, I think, expressed early in the book where the author wonders, if embroidery is a creative endeavor, than why do we so often use others' ideas? Indeed.

[Zelia]

Ah!.... i suddenly realized i miss being in my mother in laws house. She lives in a green place:)