Inspirations

I would NEVER have merged these three swatches.....

before seeing them exist in nature first.

The question I most get asked is : where do you get your ideas / inspiration from?

For me, it all comes down to colour.

Well, mostly, I get my drive to do something creative in quilting after I've enjoyed something beautiful - and that happens most often after spending time appreciating nature.

My work never ends up looking like what I've enjoyed - well rarely ( I have created a few pictorial wall hanging quilts) but mostly, I get an idea, or a desire to explore a texture or merge some colours and I start sketching and those sketches turn into entirely new ideas and designs. It may take a while, sometimes months or years, but once I decide that thats what I want to do - then I just let it brew into an idea in it's own time.

Sometimes colour and texture inspire me. Sometimes I have no interest in particular colour schemes and then I see some tones recreated in a place where they look stunning and it makes me reconsider my thoughts about a particular colour.

When I created Nightshade, I had previously loathed purple quilts. I didnt have a single one! Then one evening I was out in the garden and everything took on a beautful deep lilac hue before sunset and I was instantly inspired.

These beach shots were taken at twilight and I was overwhelmed with how many ideas there were just waiting to be used. It makes me wonder how many breathtaking moments I miss everyday because I'm otherwise distracted . Inspiration is everywhere.

Seeing colours in their natural environment helps me make choices when I am riffling through shelf after shelf of prints. Recently with Peony Pride I decided to follow the 'colour rules' and obediently observed the 'correct' charts when I was colour mixing - the whole time I wanted to rebel and just do it my own way like every other time, but I stuck to it and Peony Pride's colour scheme is 'correct' and I almost hate to say it - the most successful harmony of colour in any of my quilts.

I always prefer to feel a certain way about colour and let it evolve and choose its own scheme....but sometimes it doesnt translate well. So now I settle on taking my inpsiration from nature and matching it correctly on the colour chart afterwards. I cant find inspiration if I just 'select' harmonising colours - I like to have experienced it somewhere, in its natural state first.