QuiltBug Quilt Shop
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Catching the Muse
Unleashing your own creativity to create
a quilt design that
represents your unique style.
All pictures are thumbnails. Click on them to see them close up.
Human beings are born with the ability to imagine. Think about that for a moment. We can daydream, we can pretend, we can wish. We have the unique ability of being able to envision the path we need to take to make our wish into reality. This is called creativity and it is something we all have.
Do you remember playing house with dolls as a child? That takes cleverness. Do you ever read a book and picture yourself as a character? That takes imagination. Do you ever watch a TV show and figure out a better ending? That takes ingenuity. Cleverness, imagination, ingenuity - they are all synonyms for creativity.
So how do we tap our creative side and translate that into design? First, accept the fact that the act of creation is a journey of many steps, but there is no step-by-step manual. There are no rules to follow. Flashes of inspiration take lots of hard work!
Start by paying attention to your moments of inspiration. Sometimes we get so caught up in the workaday world, we just don’t see what is in front of us. Look for inspiration in:
-
Fabric. Okay, that’s obvious, but sometimes the fabric will tell
us what it wants to become. Or it will suggest the direction it
wants to take, which may not be our preference, but you can’t argue
with fabric. It doesn’t listen. Wild Friends
(right) is a wallhanging made to take advantage of a motif in a
fabric. - Other quilts, paintings or objects d’art. Sometimes the designs, the color arrangements or the motifs in an object will inspire. Try to imagine the same quilt, but made using a different block, or set of blocks. What would it look like if you gave it a completely different border?
- Paying attention to the world. Look for colors and compositions that might translate into a quilt. Tall redwoods, a mountain range, storm clouds, a short vase, a great tile floor. Could any of those spark a design?
When an idea whispers in your ear, write it down! Even a half formed idea can transform itself through the act of writing it down, or being combined with another idea. Free associate. Doodle. Preserve new ideas as they come to you without judging them. Maybe they don’t make any sense, or can’t be done. Write them down anyway.
Challenge
yourself - give yourself a problem and try to figure a non 
traditional
way out of it. Look through books and magazines
for ideas. How did other quilters solve the problem? What
could you do differently?
Share ideas with your friends. They will have a different perspective
and may offer a solution that you would not
have considered. Tara, the quilt to the left, was such a
challenge. The challenge was to bring 11 disparate blocks
together and recolor them to make a quilt that was not a traditional
sampler. Corn off the Cob, right, was a challenge to use
only scraps in a single-block design. What would this quilt look like if the block were set on point?
(order this
quilt here)
Another
challenge might be to take an
ordinary block like a nine patch or a churn dash and try to imagine what it
would look like if you put four of them together and changed the colors.
What would happen if you cut it in half or in quarters and moved around
the elements? How about a diamond or a four patch in the corner, or
center? Design programs like
Electric Quilt make this very easy. Aurora Borealis
(left) is a single-block design that makes an interesting wallhanging -
and a fabulous quilt (right) after being recolored.
(Free pattern)
Consider the eventual use of the quilt. A tablerunner will need a different scale than a baby quilt or a full size quilt. Maybe you can just take one block of a full size quilt and extend it creatively with borders to make a table runner.
Give yourself permission to fail. So what if one idea won’t work? Maybe the next one will or maybe it will inspire another idea. Remember what Thomas Alva Edison said: "I have not failed. I've just found 10,000 ways that won't work." Think of your mistakes as design opportunities.
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Are you stuck? Go for a walk, or work on some other unrelated activity. The creative side of your brain will continue to perk, making associations between unrelated ideas. At some point, newly combined associations break into consciousness, and you will have a flash of inspiration!
It is important to keep learning. As you become a more experienced quilter, you will incorporate new tips, tricks and techniques into your design style. This gives your brain new information to consider, more fertile ground to grow new ideas.
Keep a journal of the quilts you have made. Next to a picture of the quilt, make a note of your inspirations and aspirations for that quilt. What tools or techniques did you use? What did you like or dislike about them? Go back and review your journal from time to time.
The quilt patterns below were all designed as teaching patterns to help quilters feel more comfortable with new tools.
Square Deal |
Cook Your Goose |
Four Seasons |
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The quilts below were designed to teach new techniques. Each uses a non-traditional method of making a block.
Stars
in My Window |
Gentle
Grace |
Summer
and Winter |
English
Baskets |
Years
To Come |
Woven
Stars |
Work through all the steps in your
design. Do you have a lot of odd
sizes? Can you redraw the pattern to use similar sized blocks or strips?
Can you use the extra fabric or leftover blocks in the border? Is there
anything you can add, subtract or rearrange to make the cutting and/or
piecing more efficient?
The Okey Doke pattern to the left had some leftover pieces. Adding just a bit more fabric and arranging the leftover blocks creatively allowed a matching wallhanging and tablerunner design. (order this quilt here)
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Are you feeling a bit more creative now? Here are more quilts to inspire you. If you have any questions or comments, please send them to krisdriessen@yahoo.com.
 Kestria - A circular design with a border that takes advantage of the fabric. (Free pattern) |
 Notre Dame Mystery - A mystery quilt made with flying geese blocks and a unique border. (order this quilt here) |
 Boardwalk - A simple design to showcase a fabric collection. (Free pattern) |
 Yellowstone Park - A surprisingly quick and easy quilt. (Free pattern) |
Catercorner -
Two blocks make an interesting secondary design. What happens
if you flip them the other way? |
Japanese Yen - A simple half square triangle block makes a unique little quilt. (Free pattern) |
1995
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