I’m bringing two sources of inspiration together today – the photographs and drawings I’ve made of the moths I find in the garden, and patterns taken from favourite things in my home.

This is a detail of a lovely old Kilim – I’ve used it a lot in my work over the years.It’s been a great inspiration for Kantha stitching and appliqué.

Today it seemed the perfect candidate to provide pattern behind this cut out moth shape, especially since Carpet Moths are some of the most common moths we get here. They aren’t called ‘Carpet’ because they eat them thankfully but because they are patterned like many traditional carpets! I’ve coloured the sketchbook pages by dragging a gold metallic oil pastel on its side across the paper and then adding a wash of turquoise and blue watercolour.

Here’s the open page spread with the two cutout shapes on the right. Of course if you cut shapes carefully you can use them for collage so why waste them? Here they are glued with gel medium on the left page forming a mirror image.

I accentuated the colour of the cut out moths by adding more oil pastel and watercolour wash so that there was enough contrast with the background to stand out.

If I flip the page you can see where I’m about to paste the print out of the Kilim. The left hand page is an ugly mistake at the moment – I hope to redeem it very soon. I wanted to eliminate the white of the cut page but I think it’ll work much better if I bring in some indigo blue rather than that harsh red. I might even attempt to continue the lines, colour and shapes of the carpet across the page! All still a work in progress.

Bye for now – Linda