My collection of tapes which started off the chain reaction of memories.

Never ever be afraid of collecting! My collections make my creative world tick and provoke wonderful memories. Only this morning I gathered my collection of tapes to decorate a piece of fabric to use on my new Sewing Case Roll and I was immediately taken back to my river cruise trip with Stitchtopia where I bought some tapes in a fabric shop in Vienna – a city where traditional costumes are still worn, especially on Sundays, the Dirndl dress for the ladies and the Lederhosen for the men. The fabric shops sell all the traditional trimmings and buttons many with Edelweiss flowers on. The Edelweiss is a symbol for friendship in Austria and it make me think back to the lovely, lovely ladies I have met on my travels.

One of the woodblocks from the Goldberger Collection in Budapest.

It also reminded me of the simple museum we went to in Budapest, Hungary and the amazing story of the Goldberger family who started a textile industry from humble wood blocks, printing simple shapes on indigo dyed fabric to create a Crepe de Chine and supplying the whole world this glamorous cloth. But then the warm came and the owner ended up in a Nazi concentration camp and at the end of the warm the communists took over the factory and they were forced to produce terrible polyester cloth.

The wood block flower my husband bought me in India which I now where as a necklace.

The wood block prints we saw in the Goldberger Collection of Textile and Clothing Industry in Budapest also reminded me of the simple beginnings of cloth I have seen made in India. We visited a factory there and witnessed a wood carver make a tiny wood block flower in a matter of minutes. Un be-known to me, my husband bought this wood block from the carver and gave it to me as a gift. I wear it as a necklace.

All those thoughts and memories just from reaching for my collection of tapes!

Our lives and world are made up of stories, good and bad, funny and sad, but these stories give me my inspiration to make a piece of love it not just for what it is but the memories it gives me.

If you want to get serious about collection my favourite book about collections is called

Never stop to think do I have a place for this? By Mary Randolph Carter which is full of inspiration for collecting and how it can help create and shape you home.

See lots more images from this blog below or download my blog to put into your Secret Society Notebook here.

Mandy Shaw
January 2019 blog here