Inspiration for Punch Needle patterns

Where do you find your inspiration for punch needle or rug hooking patterns is a question I get asked a lot. And the answer is everywhere. Probably like most of you, much of my inspiration comes from the web. Pinterest is the bomb when wanting to find inspiration and most of my ideas for antique inspired patterns comes from it.



Sometimes though something just pops into my head out of the blue. For instance, last week as I was driving to work in a snowstorm (yes you read that right) and passed a farm with cows and I thought “Those poor cows. They need spring and warmer weather.”  And I remembered an antique rug I pinned with a cow surrounded by a border of flowers.
                               

Isn’t it a wonderful rug?  The muted colors make my heart pitter patter. The brain works in weird ways and what made me think of this rug that I had pinned is a mystery but I love it and  think that it will be my next project. I’m still deciding which medium, needle punch or rug hooking, but but hope to work on it this weekend.



Since I have cows on the brain, I have been doodling all sorts of designs involving cows. I’m certain several of my doodles will wind up as whimsical rugs or needle punch patterns so stayed tuned to Facebook and Instagram for photos.



Like the cow pattern, most of my patterns are based on antique rugs. My latest needle punch pattern “Pennsylvania Birds”  is based upon an antique fractur.
                        
                                          
Interesting that both of the inspiration pieces have warm brown, blue and parchment colors and I punched a brighter version. While, I love the colors above, I always tend to gravitate to the brighter colors. I think we all have a color palette that we are comfortable with and tend to hook or punch in the color zone unless forced outside of it.

                                

As you can see, I didn’t include the horses in the pattern. I like the horses and may someday punch or hook them separately. I also have started to hook this pattern and changed up the colors and used a dark background.

Both the needle punch and rug patterns are available. The Needle Punch pattern is $18 plus shipping  is 6 x 8.5 and the rug pattern is 30 x 39 and is $75 plus shipping. Thanks for stopping by my blog. Maria