Where do you look for inspiration?

When thinking about a new quilt, where do you go to be inspired? Do you
leaf through piles of old magazines or books until something strikes you?
Or do you use websites or other people's webshots? Or do you just think it
up from your own head?

I love browsing through websites with pictures of finished quilts as I find
for me it's a real inspiration. Usually I think "I could never make
something like that" but occasionally I'll find something I think I could
do, and do well.

Morag

I don't go anywhere, Morag!! They just come (sometimes I wish they
didn't, if they are going to be difficult!)
But, seriously, I found that after a little while, I began to see
'quilts' all around me. Many I have done; many are still waiting.
This is perhaps because I tend not to do a multi-block quilt.
There are one or two blocks which tempt me though, and these have
started from fabric - I have some lovely fabric that I don't want to cut
too much; and, when I saw the Warm Wishes pattern, I knew I would use
that for these two fabrics in particular - with other treasures in the
outer border.

Sometimes the purpose for a quilt will help dictate the style/pattern.

Don't take too much notice of the 'I could never do that' thought. Step
by step most things are very do-able - they just look magnificent.

What I think is a good idea, is to try to eliminate styles that you
don't like. So that, if you see a lovely quilt, but realise it is a
method that you really don't like, dismiss it. For example, I love
Baltimore Album quilts and the like, but I know they are not for me.

The more you look at books and magazines, the more you will get a
feeling for things that you will love making, as well as loving the
result - not always the same thing. If you want to try something, make
a placemat!! A pair of mats always makes an acceptable gift, too g
Just keep on looking and absorbing. I have kept a little notebook in my
handbag for years (not the same one!), just 3" x 3", to make quick
sketches of something I see that might be useful. Think of Kris
Bishop's manhole covers, for instance. Floors are my most fertile
ground!

There are probably as many answers to your question as there are people
who will answer it. But, it is such an interesting journey. Thanks for
asking the question.
..
In message , Morag in Oxford
writes
When thinking about a new quilt, where do you go to be inspired? Do you
leaf through piles of old magazines or books until something strikes you?
Or do you use websites or other people's webshots? Or do you just think it
up from your own head?

I love browsing through websites with pictures of finished quilts as I find
for me it's a real inspiration. Usually I think "I could never make
something like that" but occasionally I'll find something I think I could
do, and do well.

Morag



--
Best Regards
pat on the hill

I get my inspiration from the fabric and playing with,and things just pop in
to my head, Probably from something I've seen in the dark and distant past!!
--
Estelle UK
http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/gal.../ph//my_photos

"Morag in Oxford" wrote in message
...
When thinking about a new quilt, where do you go to be inspired? Do you
leaf through piles of old magazines or books until something strikes you?
Or do you use websites or other people's webshots? Or do you just think
it up from your own head?

I love browsing through websites with pictures of finished quilts as I
find for me it's a real inspiration. Usually I think "I could never make
something like that" but occasionally I'll find something I think I could
do, and do well.

Morag

I got to thinking about looking in my past for quilt ideas. Things
that I did as a kid growing up in Cincinnati.

Visits to Krohn's Conservatory make me think of orchids then Asian
fabric and other flower fabrics.

Elvis arrived on the scene when I was in 3rd grade, and Elvis fabric
arrived this year. Roy Rogers and Dale Evans were popular on TV. And
my mom sent me a photo of me in my cowgirl outfit. I'll print it out
on fabric and have me and Roy and Dale in the quilt. McDonald's also
started back then. In my Cincinnati neighborhood, the fast food
hamburger place was Sandy's. There's nice fabric with french fries out
there!

I went to the University of Cincinnati, so I'm using red-white-black in
a quilt.

My Dad taught me how to watch sports, so someday there will be a quilt
with football, baseball, and basketball fabrics. I'm a Cincinnati
Bengals fan, so I bought some tiger fabric.

Sitting on the sidewalk playing jacks (there is repro fabric with
jacks!), jumping doubledutch (rope fabric or fabric with a texture of
roap), living in the city (fabrics with cityscapes).

But someday I don't plan to be so literal.

Kay Ahr in Reno/Sparks, Nevada

I buy patterns I want to do someday and keep a collection of photos
from mags and the web. I also have a pretty huge library of quilt
books I can go through when I am looking for a particular thing.
Classes and challenges and swaps have started some of my projects.

I have actually never experienced the need to go looking for inspiration
anywhere. My inspirations are lined up anywhere from 2 to 10 deep,
patiently waiting their turn to become quilts. I will soon reach FABLE, I
do believe. Fun Acquired Beyond Life Expectancy!

Karen, Queen of Squishies
who is totally goal oriented in life


When thinking about a new quilt, where do you go to be inspired? Do you
leaf through piles of old magazines or books until something strikes you?
Or do you use websites or other people's webshots? Or do you just think
it
up from your own head?

I love browsing through websites with pictures of finished quilts as I
find
for me it's a real inspiration. Usually I think "I could never make
something like that" but occasionally I'll find something I think I could
do, and do well.

Morag

I think of the person who will use it, then look through quilting books or
look through fabric (only online, I tend to buy without a plan). Once I have
"found" just the right one, then I go to the store.

--
Boca Jan
Southern Florida - land of the hurricanes
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/poo_de_doo/my_photos


"Morag in Oxford" wrote in message
...
When thinking about a new quilt, where do you go to be inspired? Do you
leaf through piles of old magazines or books until something strikes you?
Or do you use websites or other people's webshots? Or do you just think
it up from your own head?

I love browsing through websites with pictures of finished quilts as I
find for me it's a real inspiration. Usually I think "I could never make
something like that" but occasionally I'll find something I think I could
do, and do well.

Morag

I use all of those. Sometimes I start with the fabric and look for pattern
and others I start with the pattern and look for fabric. I often have 2-3
planned ahead at any one time. Right now I have fabric pulled for 2 and the
focus fabric for a third.

--
Mary
http://community.webshots.com/user/mardor1948
"Morag in Oxford" wrote in message
...
When thinking about a new quilt, where do you go to be inspired? Do you
leaf through piles of old magazines or books until something strikes you?
Or do you use websites or other people's webshots? Or do you just think
it up from your own head?

I love browsing through websites with pictures of finished quilts as I
find for me it's a real inspiration. Usually I think "I could never make
something like that" but occasionally I'll find something I think I could
do, and do well.

Morag

I just keep buying fat quarters in styles and colors I like. I love
flowers, bugs, critters, brights, batiks and novelties the most. I
wash, iron and fold them and place in the cubbies. When I need
inspiration, I start pulling pieces out of their little hidey holes and
eventually a combination will jump out at me. It may be a couple of
funky florals that all of a sudden look great with the dragonflies and
the bright stripes, or the moose and bears look great with the brown
leaves batik, or it could be that an unrelated stack of scraps that I
got at a yard sale look really nice in a scrappy if I mix in some of my
demented squirrel fabric (I have a couple yards of super bright neon
colored squirrels I bought at a church sale years before I started
quilting).

I don't look at a beautiful quilt in a LQS or magazine and then find the
material to make that particular quilt, I do the opposite. I find a
pattern that will work with my chosen material and my stash is extremely
ecclectic so that's not always easy to do.

I'm still looking for inspiration for 6 fat quarter batiks in red, blue,
green, purple, and yellow backgrounds with 1 inch multicolored
irrigular circles on them. I had to buy them 'cause they just made me
smile every time I looked at them, I tried to walk away but they kept
pulling me back. I also have a fat quarter pack of prints from India
waiting for a purpose.

Sometimes I'm inspired by the person for whom the quilt is being made,
such as the one I recently made for my son. He abhors man made
materials, so I dug out my wools in deep red, charcoal gray, and tan
solids and mixed it with a red, gray, and tan multi colored plaid (all
of which was purchased at yard sales for pennies or donated to me by a
client from the food pantry) As he travels a lot and usually prefers to
be hiking in the woods, I did an Around the World pattern with appliqued
pine trees in 4 corners and an appliqued paw print of a Lynx in the
middle. We have a picture of a full-sized Lynx over our fireplace so it
represents that no matter where he travels, the hearth of our home will
always be there to welcome him back.

Denise

In article ,
"Morag in Oxford" wrote:

When thinking about a new quilt, where do you go to be inspired? Do you
leaf through piles of old magazines or books until something strikes you?
Or do you use websites or other people's webshots? Or do you just think it
up from your own head?

I love browsing through websites with pictures of finished quilts as I find
for me it's a real inspiration. Usually I think "I could never make
something like that" but occasionally I'll find something I think I could
do, and do well.

Morag


Gosh, Morag, sometimes inspiration comes from some fabrics, sometimes
from a pattern/magazine/book I see, sometimes from a memory -- and
sometimes I'm stuck! LOL! I have a pretty decent llibrary of quilt books
I can go to, as well as far too many magazines; but I think lately it's
mostly been fabric that "gets" me. I see a fabric I just have to have
and then come up with a way to use it, though sometimes that doesn't
happen for quite a long time. Can you say "stash"?
--
Sandy in Henderson, near Las Vegas
my ISP is earthlink.net -- put sfoster1(at) in front
http://home.earthlink.net/~sfoster1

AKA Dame Sandy, Minister of Education