Art Quilt Inspiration is Everywhere!

Many people ask where do I get my inspiration for the quilts I make.  The simple answer is EVERYWHERE!

One of my first and continuing sources of inspiration are the awesome sunsets we enjoy from our west facing deck.  The layers of color, the linear yet slightly curved strips of color, it all scream “This could be a quilt!”   From sunsets I started thinking about landscapes, about trees and fields and big skys and smaller flowers but all in an abstract and contemporary way.  You won’t see detailed realism in my quilts but you will see colors to convey leaves.  Inspiration is found in photographs or abstract art from other artists, not as a source of copying but as a source of color combinations, shape and design ideas.  I do a lot of PINNING on Pinterest and almost all of it is for quilt inspiration.

Recently I had two inspirations which came unexpectedly.  One morning I was quietly eating breakfast, looking out our west facing windows when I noticed some pink coloring entering the western sky at 7am.  This could only mean a spectacular sunrise was unfolding on the other side of the house!  So breakfast was forgotten and I dashed upstairs to my sewing studio window for an unobstructed view of the eastern sky.  It was exploding with color!  I started pulling fabrics off my shelf to match the colors of the sunrise, quickly as I knew these colors would fade within minutes as the sun crested the horizon.  I tried to capture the horizon colors and the sky above, quickly laying the colors in layers on my cutting table.  As the morning sky before sunrise faded to a rising sun, I returned to breakfast.  Later that morning I made my first “Morning Sky before Sunrise” art quilt (see photo).  What fun!

 

A few weeks ago a friend sent me a photo of one of the first spring wild flowers she found on a morning walk.  I was inspired by the colors and created a Wildflower art quilt, not in any way a rendition of that particular flower but an inspiration from a friend on a walk finding something beautiful, the colors of which inspired me to make a quilt.