Inspired by Others is our final part in this series of finding inspiration for quilt making. Be sure to read our previous parts in this series:
- Part One: Visual Inspiration
- Part Two: Written Inspiration
- Part Three: Audio Inspiration
Inspired by Others
10: Likes or theme
When making a quilt for others, say as a wedding gift or a baby quilt, you will get inspiration from the person who will receive it. A newly wed couple will have preference to certain colors or theme or perhaps colors are chosen from the bridal party that you will base your quilt on. For a baby quilt you'll often choose pinks or blues or the colorings of the nursery. Inspiration can come from a favorite animal theme or color for a small child’s quilt. Or an adult may have a favorite flower. I am sure you can think of many other desires to fit into this category.
This quilt was made for my best friend to match the bedroom - browns golds and a touch of green.
Golden Ties - nine patch and snowball quilt
11: Fabric
Purchasing a certain fabric or complimentary fabrics will inspire a quilt. A good example of this could be the use of a theme fabric (landscape, floral etc) and then matching fabrics to the colors within the theme fabric. Quilts always look great when used this way mainly because all the fabrics blend well with each other.
Scenic Paradise was inspired by a theme fabric. This quilt was created from a Hoffman fabric especially designed for the Southern California Quilt Run's 10th anniversary. I used the fabric to create a unique design pulling the colors from the theme fabric and adding appliqued poppies which was a part of the theme fabric also.
Scenic Paradise for Southern California quilter run
12: Quilt Shows, Magazines, and Books
Have you ever been to a quilt show or flicked through a magazine and said "wow I love that quilt". Often seeing someone else's quilt will inspire you to make one the same or get your mind turning with ideas on how you can do something similar.
When I first started designing, I was inspired by a photo in a magazine that used windows and colored lines to come up with this quilt called "One Hid Under The Lily Pad". This quilt has 3-d elements that inspired me on to make a workshop in 3-d applique.
One Hid Under The Lily Pad
13: Competition
A competition is usually based on a theme or fabric with certain rules involved on how the quilt should be created. This could be described as guided creativity. Competitions are a great place to get inspired as some of the initial thoughts are taken care of for us. The more detailed the rules the more of a challenge it is to come up with a great quilt.
Cherry Blossoms was an entry for the Hoffman Fabric 2003 challenge. For this particular challenge we have to use a certain fabric. The challenge for this was a cherry print on black.
Summary
So you can see there is a lot of inspiration to be found through visual cues, written content, audio resources, and insights from others. Combinations from various inspiration can lead to very interesting ideas too! I'd love to hear of other ways you've gained inspiration for your quilt making.... please comment below.
