My quilting mojo has gone and I'm feeling a bit off.
Maybe it's the cat vomit and the wisdom tooth that's making me out of sorts. Do you know how much a wayward wisdom tooth throbs when the Motrin is wearing off and you have to stoop down and wipe up the floor? Not fun.
Maybe it's because another long arm quilter called with an applique quilt that she thought I could do better with free motion instead of her computer guided work. When she said "king sized" I said no thanks. After we hung up, I calculated how much a king sized quilt could earn me at my quoted rate. There just might be a shoe print on my rear, or there would be if I could literally kick myself.
Maybe it's starting homeschooling back up this past Monday. Hello, new routine and slightly balking kids. "You mean we have to do 3 hours of school today?"
But in reality it's that some fairly important quilt projects are done and there just seems to be this natural creative lull. I always feel a little lost without some clear deadlines or projects lined up. I try to tell myself that it's just a natural part of my creative process.
Based on comments, it looks like I need to do a little tute on watermarking your photos before posting them online. It's really easy; if it weren't I wouldn't be able to do it. So there's a project.
And I've been playing around with a graphics program and designing an applique block. I need to make a sample to hang at Threads Run Through It to promote my free motion skills as quilter for hire and/or teaching them how to free motion their own projects.
Ok, the Motrin is kicking in and I better get to sleep if I can. It's gonna be a long week until my dental appointment....
Sharing tips, tricks, and inspiration from my own free motion quilting adventure.
What To Do With Inspiration When You Find It
Time to follow up on my original post about finding inspiration for quilting projects. My brain is fairly unreliable, I like to think that it's too full of thoughts, and if I don't do something to capture that fleeting bit of inspiration it will likely fade from my mind.
I'm sure there as many ways to record your inspiration as there are creative people. Here's what I use and it's a hodge podge for the most part.
First, there's the old-school method, which is whipping out my sketch book, note pad or scrap of paper and doing a rough sketch and I usually take a few notes too to help interpret the sketch and to jog my memory so I can recall a mental image. I prefer this method for originality as my rough sketch will usually not capture specifics of something else I have seen even if it is work by someone else. This leaves me open to make my own piece. I am often inspired by music or a verse of scripture and this is the method I use to capture those ideas. I also use my big dry-erase board for this.
Second, before the internet got to be so huge, I might find inspiration on a page of a magazine and I would cut it out and pit it into a binder. I must admit that the binder rarely got looked at and have largely given it up for digital methods.
Third, and the first of the more modern and largely digital methods is using a camera. I try to keep it handy, but if you've got a camera in your phone, that can be even handier. You never know when a fabric, graphic design on stationary and stuff, artwork, sunset, plant, whatever might catch your eye!
Then there's the Internet....
This is when you can fall into a deep pit of time sucking inspiration that will keep you from actually making anything inspired! I sometimes have to resort to a timer! I feel like the internet has the biggest potential for inspiring unoriginal works. Not only are there fabulous things people may outright copy, but after seeing so many images, it's hard to know if you're having an original thought.
The main site for this is Pinterest, but there is also Instagram and Flickr and many others I am unfamiliar with. And there are social media sites like Facebook and artist and gallery sites, not to mention blogs.
Once you've found all this inspiration, captured it, digital or otherwise, you've got to "curate" it (to use the new annoying buzzword) so that you can find it when you need it. If you collect a bunch of inspirational stuff and do nothing with it leads to clutter.
First of all, make sure you are doing something with all those photos! Don't let them vanish in a computer crash. Note to self, back up picture files soon. And try to review your sketch books regularly.
Though some artists are up in arms over Pinterest, I use it. You can see my boards at Amyquilts which includes Quilty Inspiration and Quilting Designs, Inspiring Lines. If I post my own work which I am worried someone might snag and copy, I watermark it first before pinning. I also utilize the 'secret boards' for gift shopping and special projects.
I also use Evernote since I also write notes to myself about projects I want to do. Since my main idea is in my head, the sketch book and written notes are my main way I develop the project further and is more likely to lead to unique projects. Evernote gives me a digital method for my notes and I can also store visual data there.
But the biggest factor in whether you actually use the inspiration you've found is to either act on that idea with passion right away or review those ideas and inspirational pics regularly.
What about you? Do you have a method to curate your inspiration? Won't you share with us in the comments?
Edited to add: I was asked in the comments about how to watermark your own photos, so I did a brief tutorial at Watermarking Images.
I'm sure there as many ways to record your inspiration as there are creative people. Here's what I use and it's a hodge podge for the most part.
First, there's the old-school method, which is whipping out my sketch book, note pad or scrap of paper and doing a rough sketch and I usually take a few notes too to help interpret the sketch and to jog my memory so I can recall a mental image. I prefer this method for originality as my rough sketch will usually not capture specifics of something else I have seen even if it is work by someone else. This leaves me open to make my own piece. I am often inspired by music or a verse of scripture and this is the method I use to capture those ideas. I also use my big dry-erase board for this.
Second, before the internet got to be so huge, I might find inspiration on a page of a magazine and I would cut it out and pit it into a binder. I must admit that the binder rarely got looked at and have largely given it up for digital methods.
Third, and the first of the more modern and largely digital methods is using a camera. I try to keep it handy, but if you've got a camera in your phone, that can be even handier. You never know when a fabric, graphic design on stationary and stuff, artwork, sunset, plant, whatever might catch your eye!
Then there's the Internet....
This is when you can fall into a deep pit of time sucking inspiration that will keep you from actually making anything inspired! I sometimes have to resort to a timer! I feel like the internet has the biggest potential for inspiring unoriginal works. Not only are there fabulous things people may outright copy, but after seeing so many images, it's hard to know if you're having an original thought.
The main site for this is Pinterest, but there is also Instagram and Flickr and many others I am unfamiliar with. And there are social media sites like Facebook and artist and gallery sites, not to mention blogs.
Once you've found all this inspiration, captured it, digital or otherwise, you've got to "curate" it (to use the new annoying buzzword) so that you can find it when you need it. If you collect a bunch of inspirational stuff and do nothing with it leads to clutter.
First of all, make sure you are doing something with all those photos! Don't let them vanish in a computer crash. Note to self, back up picture files soon. And try to review your sketch books regularly.
Though some artists are up in arms over Pinterest, I use it. You can see my boards at Amyquilts which includes Quilty Inspiration and Quilting Designs, Inspiring Lines. If I post my own work which I am worried someone might snag and copy, I watermark it first before pinning. I also utilize the 'secret boards' for gift shopping and special projects.
I also use Evernote since I also write notes to myself about projects I want to do. Since my main idea is in my head, the sketch book and written notes are my main way I develop the project further and is more likely to lead to unique projects. Evernote gives me a digital method for my notes and I can also store visual data there.
But the biggest factor in whether you actually use the inspiration you've found is to either act on that idea with passion right away or review those ideas and inspirational pics regularly.
What about you? Do you have a method to curate your inspiration? Won't you share with us in the comments?
Edited to add: I was asked in the comments about how to watermark your own photos, so I did a brief tutorial at Watermarking Images.
Free Motioning for Somebody Else!
Time was short too, and I was flattered and in need of quilting income so I said yes! Eeek! It didn't take me long to wonder just what had I gotten myself into? Not that I couldn't handle it, but taking my perfectionist tendencies and combining them with a short deadline and not one, but two other quilters' opinions? And this quilt is a sample for yet another quilt shop!
Oh my word! I was totally stressed about it, my inner critic had a field day nit picking it to death (and I restitched some areas too), but I was assured that they were quite happy with the results. Thanks to Lori at Thread Runs Through It for all the encouragement and giving me a try.
 |
| Oops! It's sideways on the bed! |
Somebody did a lot of work on each shape, with a zigzag around the edges and a change of thread for each color. But while they wanted custom quilting, they didn't want it too fancy or dense so it took me a while to find a balance.
If I had to do it over again, and I just might since the shop that has this quilt is selling the kits, I would not have quilted quite as densely in the 9 blocks. I love how the borders turned out. With all the fusible on some fairly large areas and a double layer of batting, it was a challenge to avoid ripples as I wove in and out of some places. I'd love to do this quilt quite densely for somebody and add details in some of the larger appliques.
 |
| I had to go back into several areas later (see pin above) as it was hard to travel around all those shapes. |
I ripped out the stitching in the area around the pin below, and re-stitched. With a puffy top (To be clear,it laid perfectly flat before quilting, but was an issue with extra batting, fusible, and stitching that couldn't work simply from center out.) I re-learned that extra stitching in a puffy area makes it worse. I also realized that nearly parallel lines of stitching look really bad if the stitch length gets a bit long.
Guess what happened below? Yep, stitched the edge to the quilt. Easily fixed, but really annoying.
I got this quilt basted first by the initial long armer, which was helpful, even though I had to pin baste in some areas, especially as I took out the basting as I stitched. I was also told I didn't need to stitch around all the applique, but in many areas, it was easier to do that than it was to figure out how to stitch a shape into and out of narrow areas between applique shapes.
I freaked out at one point thinking I was gonna have two quilters upset with me, but Lori encouraged me and asked for pictures. I'm so glad she did, because unwadding the quilt from under the machine and laying it flat for pictures removed 98% of the areas I disliked. Not to mention getting more distance than 8-12 inches from my nose to the quilt.
I actually enjoyed stitching all of those different shapes and swirls when I ignored my harsh inner critic. I even gave the butterflies antennae!
This quilt did have me starting to long for a bigger machine like a sit-down long arm, just for the visibility as these blocks were quite large and while they are very asymmetric, I would have liked to do a more cohesive design, which was impossible without either marking a lot beforehand, or removing the quilt repeatedly so I could see more of the block/quilt at a time. But the freehand fill was fun and worked well for this design.
The back above. I had absolutely no trouble with the back, no puckers, nada. I did have a few moments of panic and then realized there were some dark spots in the batik that tried to trick my eye.
It's not perfect, but it was beautifully put together and the quilting set it off well and turned a lovely top into a gorgeous quilt. I am not sure I am wanting to quilt for others, but Lori has shared my contact info with some others and we'll just see how it goes.
Lori and I have talked about having me teach some free motion classes this fall when their new classroom space is finished. Until then, my quilting space looks like this:
OK, hopefully I will be done with this mess soon. I am putting the finishing touches on our homeschool plans for this year, which will start on Monday!
Part two of my inspiration series is in the works, check back soon. This post is linked up with the Free Motion Friday post at Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project.
Have you quilted for others? On a domestic sewing machine, one of the big sit-down machines, or are you a long arm user? Share in the comments please!
Finding and Using Inspiration
Where do you find inspiration for your quilting or artistic creations? If you're like me, inspiration comes from many different places:
From nature:
From architecture and art:
From the artwork and storylines in some of my kids' books,
From fabric and other sources of graphic designs like journal covers, scrap book paper, etc.
I can find inspiration from other textiles, including quilts, but I try to avoid taking design inspiration solely from quilts.
The picture below is the shirt of a friend while she is wearing it! I am known to pull out a camera or sketch pad when I see an inspiring design on somebody.
There's a fine line between inspiration and duplication.
That's where the internet can be a blessing and a curse. It's said there's nothing new under the sun and that everything is inspired by something else, but to copy or to create solely by pulling parts from the work of others without adding your own unique art and talent to it is wrong. Derivative is the term.
With so much to see online, the possibility of even coming up with an original idea is even harder. To pass off the design of someone else as your own is crooked. To accidentally create something that is seen as a rip off of someone else's work is unfortunate. To be afraid to create something because you're not sure it's your own idea because you've seen so much inspiration elsewhere is tragic.
Sometimes I need to limit the inspiration I see on the internet to make sure an idea is my own. A few concepts I get for a project are so complete in my head visually, that I'm afraid I've seen it somewhere else.
Below are fabrics I've bought after being inspired from colors in the striped batiks.
Copyright issues are a big deal in the creative world. So is the artist's or craft person's need to find inspiration and act on it. Some wonderfully creative people never venture out to create their own work, preferring to enjoy the process and their own skills in following someone else's (purchased or free to use) pattern.
So how do we utilize to work of others to find true inspiration?
The number one issue: Do not copy! And there's a wrong assumption that if one changes at least 10% of a design, it's now your own work. Wrong.
Pulling ideas from nature is always a good start. But if it's a popular subject, like a sunflower, it can be very similar to another's sunflower. Like I said before, it's a tricky thing. Pulling ideas from other media or artworks different from your own is helpful too. It's my opinion that creative ideas spawned from non-quilt sources allow more room to adapt the idea and make the concept your own.
Keeping track of what inspires us is a good way to take an idea and ruminate on it a while, allowing the idea to evolve and develop into our own unique vision. You can use an idea board, sketch books, photos, or digital methods like Evernote or Pinterest.
I think I'll be continuing with at least one more post on finding and using creative inspiration, so if you've got some thoughts, questions, or advice on finding inspiration for your creative projects, speak up in the comments of this post.
Edited to add: I did a follow up to this post called What to Do With Inspiration Once You Find It and also a basic tutorial on watermarking your own images.
From nature:
From architecture and art:
From the artwork and storylines in some of my kids' books,
From fabric and other sources of graphic designs like journal covers, scrap book paper, etc.
I can find inspiration from other textiles, including quilts, but I try to avoid taking design inspiration solely from quilts.
The picture below is the shirt of a friend while she is wearing it! I am known to pull out a camera or sketch pad when I see an inspiring design on somebody.
There's a fine line between inspiration and duplication.
That's where the internet can be a blessing and a curse. It's said there's nothing new under the sun and that everything is inspired by something else, but to copy or to create solely by pulling parts from the work of others without adding your own unique art and talent to it is wrong. Derivative is the term.
With so much to see online, the possibility of even coming up with an original idea is even harder. To pass off the design of someone else as your own is crooked. To accidentally create something that is seen as a rip off of someone else's work is unfortunate. To be afraid to create something because you're not sure it's your own idea because you've seen so much inspiration elsewhere is tragic.
Sometimes I need to limit the inspiration I see on the internet to make sure an idea is my own. A few concepts I get for a project are so complete in my head visually, that I'm afraid I've seen it somewhere else.
Below are fabrics I've bought after being inspired from colors in the striped batiks.
Copyright issues are a big deal in the creative world. So is the artist's or craft person's need to find inspiration and act on it. Some wonderfully creative people never venture out to create their own work, preferring to enjoy the process and their own skills in following someone else's (purchased or free to use) pattern.
So how do we utilize to work of others to find true inspiration?
The number one issue: Do not copy! And there's a wrong assumption that if one changes at least 10% of a design, it's now your own work. Wrong.
Pulling ideas from nature is always a good start. But if it's a popular subject, like a sunflower, it can be very similar to another's sunflower. Like I said before, it's a tricky thing. Pulling ideas from other media or artworks different from your own is helpful too. It's my opinion that creative ideas spawned from non-quilt sources allow more room to adapt the idea and make the concept your own.
Keeping track of what inspires us is a good way to take an idea and ruminate on it a while, allowing the idea to evolve and develop into our own unique vision. You can use an idea board, sketch books, photos, or digital methods like Evernote or Pinterest.
I think I'll be continuing with at least one more post on finding and using creative inspiration, so if you've got some thoughts, questions, or advice on finding inspiration for your creative projects, speak up in the comments of this post.
Edited to add: I did a follow up to this post called What to Do With Inspiration Once You Find It and also a basic tutorial on watermarking your own images.
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