I suppose you could say that in naming anything pictorial you go from the shape to the the name. But sometimes the design is not quite a picture, it just has shapes which remind you of a picture. One of these is Kaleidoscope. I created those four small designs particularly to be quick stitches that would fit coasters. An hour’s (or two) stitching, then a coaster on which to put your drink – I was going to call them Happy Hour. I still think it would have been a good name; in fact, I may use it in future if I design some more itty-bitty charts. But then my husband (who is always ready with suggestions, some impossible, some inspiring, some both) said the shape of them reminded him of those patterns you get in a kaleidoscope. He was right, of course. So Kaleidoscope it was.

Another one, where the shape led to the name which in turn influenced the design, is BonBon. I designed it simply as a pleasing shape, then the four cut areas sticking out in the four corners, with their little square of Kloster blocks on the ends, reminded me of sweet wrappers. Just calling it Sweets didn’t seem right, so I looked around for alternatives and came up with BonBon, which then led to the choice of pink for the colour scheme.

Two designs which are still on the To Do list also got their names from their shapes – I was playing around with cut areas within a large Kloster block square, and as I removed bits of the square, made some areas cut and left others uncut, I suddenly realised they looked like those windmills-on-sticks that you buy at the seaside and run with, and the wind makes them spin. So Windmills it became. I found a most patriotic red white and blue variegated thread to stitch it in, probably on hand-dyed fabric looking like blue sky with white clouds; as refreshing as a walk along the beach.
The other one is Cross My Heart, you can probably see why it got that name. It has hearts, it has crosses, so the name Cross My Heart practically thought of itself – sometimes a name is not just easy, it’s inevitable!