eye candy

Hello Minneapolis quilters! One of my favorite parts of quilting is the design process. Since Karen talked about a design wall not too long ago (which I desperately need to build for myself) and we just had our inspirational weekend with Jacquie, I thought I would talk about inspiration for all the designs that we are going to come up with!

I get inspiration from so many places. Travel and architecture, art, patterns (which are usually found in art and architecture), other quilts (of course), fabric, color. And I collect it everywhere - I'm like an inspiration hoarder. I have sketchbooks and photo files, pinterest boards and scraps of paper laying around the house. So today, allow me share some of my inspiration - images I hope to translate into quilts someday...

 I love the colors of a fresh wood pile.

 I can so see this as tight stitching around a smother area in a quilt.

 This is in new york. I would like to create a pattern from it.

 I like the curves. And the different textures in each one.

 Gotta love a sunset.

Ombre hexagons? 

When Jacquie Gering of Tallgrass Prairie Studio was showing off her quilts in September, we talked about her inspiration and process. She stressed that the inspiration comes out of thin-air sometimes, but other times, an idea percolates and grows - changing form as she plays with fabrics or blocks. She had a few wonderful examples of this - sitting down to make a planned quilt and coming up with a completely different design along the way (and she is letting me re-share, just in case you missed the presentation!)

This one is titled Proposal Moon. There was a beautiful story about her husband's proposal to go along with it, but this was one of those that was born out of playing with those half-circle blocks. 

And this one started out as a color wheel quilt - Life in Technicolor - but she admitted that she liked the arches swimming around on her design wall, so it became a colorful half-circle quilt.

Thanks for letting me talk about inspiration! I would love to share more and hear about everyone's inspiration at future meetings!