My Process

My inspiration can come from any direction. Seldom and I mean seldom do my inspirations come from places like Pintrest.
Instead I find patterns in a coaster or bathroom tiles or an advertising in a magazine. Then I ask myself which elements drew my attention? How can I capture and use those elements in something I create? Was it a color thing, pattern, texture?
Then what method do I want to use? Painting? Quilting? Metal? Drawing?
Next I sketch a design that has those elements. certain lines, shapes, colors, textures...
I play with color combinations unless the color combinations are the elements I want to keep.
A recent example would be a series of golden diamonds on a teal, turquoise background.
Deciding if I wanted to use squares on point or create diamonds, how many shades of yellow/orange/gold and teal/green/aqua/ turquoise. and then it is a hunt to find the colors. In my stash or not.
Scale is yet another component.
And so I found some fabric, and then the next week I found more fabric that was even better in matching my vision. Finally when I sat down and designed and cut and sewed the pieces together I found that they did not satisfy what I had in mind. I have decided scale is the problem. I ended up with a piece about 20" x 20". What I think would be more to my liking would be a piece about 8" X 8".but that will entail sewing tiny pieces of fabric together. Not my favorite thing. And so it sits waiting for me to get back to it in the stack of other pieces languishing in similar limbo.
But wait,
 Look a cool picture. Not the dog, but the way the light reflects on the water around him. I wonder how I can capture that cool ripple effect in mixed blues and purples. Paint, fabric?  I'm still figuring it out.

Creative connections

Creativity never happens in a vacuum. However it may happen while vacuuming. When I am sitting in a waiting room with boring old magazines, or sitting at the bus terminal, or waiting in line at the bank, I try to find ways to allow colors, patterns, phrases, or the position of objects seep into my creative mind. They can go into the nooks and crannies without being anything big or spectacular. but something as simple as the way two colors look next to each other. like that ladies purple coat against the mottled grey and white wall, can add to the richness of my next quilting project.
Watching how a girl colored a picture of snowflakes was inspiring to me and I am looking forward to my quilt retreat next month so I can play with that inspiration.
I try to stay open to inspritation and I keep a notebook in which I sketch and not down interesting observations as well as ideas.
If I am ever faced with time unfilled I have my notebook right there able to help me find my next idea and put it into action.
Do you have methods you use to keep yourself creative?

This wall hanging is not sideways. It is inspired by the emotional turmoil I was going through as I was forced to absorb a lot of difficult information, process it it quickly and still give every indication that the world was still bright and sunny. Making this quilt was very satisfying and it seemed relevant to anyone who heard what it represented. I still need to finish the quilting and binding this piece.

blue and yellow

As I thumbed through a magazine the other day I spotted the classic Mediterranean blue and yellow on a dresser. Normally this color combination is not very exciting to me but this time it caught my attention.
And then today I ran across some fabric with the same colors and again I found myself drawn to it. So I will go forward with this cloth as my inspiration for now.
Sometimes I just gotta go with the flow.