Deceptive Simplicity

Ages ago I found some patterns in an antique pattern book I thought might be interesting to try sometime.  They got filed into that vague “good for something eventually” category and saved on a page with other similar motifs.  The other day while looking for border ideas for a different project, I came across it.  With a few changes and minor edits, the simple motif became a running border; a few more edits gave it a corner.  And within just a short time I had a wide border and corner that easily became all kinds of articles large and small.  There is a certain joy to having something flowing and flexible that easily fits where you want it to.  There is no special honor about agonizing and fussing with a design until you get it right – simple can be wonderful.  And with simple came the thought of having a freebie when I mount my web site.  This, too, is not a bad idea.

Now for choosing the colors.  The leaves were no real problem, but when it came to the flowers… well…. I’ve mentioned before about all the glorious colors you can find in cotton floss.  And they come in shaded color groups that are just perfect for this sort of thing.  And therein lies the problem.  First it was going to be red because of the project I had originally wanted the border for.  You know, geraniums.  And then I found the blue – well, cornflowers.  But what about purple irises, and aren’t they more interesting with the the smaller flowers in one set of colors and the larger flowers in another?  But what about orange? Its Fall here and all the stores are filled with brilliant Fall colors like crsyanthemums.  And you can’t forget roses, can you?  So by this time I have five different color groups and when I found myself sorting out the bronzes and plums this morning I knew I had to call a halt to it.  There is no end to the beautiful colors – somewhere you just have to draw a line.  But even after that, what about mixing and matching the flowers.  Why stop with just one color of flowers on a thing when you can have two or three or all of them in a row?  *sigh*  I could see where this was about to go.  So I think I will package the set with a chart for color substitutions and a couple of paragraphs of ideas and suggestions for the individual to individualize it.

So far so good and perhaps I may or may not have created a monster – after all, if I make a substitution chart I only have to have one full chart of articles.  Okay – we’re ramping back down to simple again.  But there are blank spaces that the borders naturally make.  Is this a subtle invitation for me to get together a set of monograms for it?  After all I’ve been thinking of monograms – a small signature space – hm…  I think I see another simple monster looming on the horizon, but I think I’m make that for another day.