Final Designs - Context - Thoughts

I'm not clear on exactly what my focus is on what I want to produce - my specific choice of images/inspiration/direction I'm hoping will all become clear in the next few days with research helping massively each time I see something else that's pretty or right up my street.
Nancy recommended I start with this in mind though, so I can progress through and those ideas can develop, rather than just aiming to make 'anything' to go onto fabric or paper - my work needs a context. Whether it be fashion or furnishings, cards, wrapping or wallpaper, each will give way to a different style, approach and essence to the work. This makes it massively important to establish this early on, so that I don't waste time on unnecessary research and trials.
Whilst I'm still tweaking my ideas, I do hope to create a range of designs that work well together and could potentially be applied to a variety of contexts - making it a little more open as the brief goes on.
This is probably best illustrated by this work I pulled from Print & Pattern (loving this blog site already!) Laurie Wisbrun recently produced this series of prints in 2 options of colour schemes:

 

This is beautiful in that the colour scheme is elegant and simple, which matches the theme of designs and style of pattern. Laurie uses her blog to discuss ideas and dilemmas with her designs, interacting with other bloggers and fans, which I think is an amazing idea if you've got the following!
I love the fact that some of her patterns are much more illustrative/decorative/simple/elegant - there's a full range that could be applied to various contexts.