Tuesday is blog day for me. I've been publishing blog posts for years now, and usually by the time Tuesday rolls around, I have at least some idea of what I want to write about. Quite often, I've even done a little groundwork beforehand....But not this Tuesday.
This morning I sat down and... nothing. No idea. No half-finished project waiting to be photographed that I haven't already done. No notes I'd already started. Absolutely nothing.
I have plenty of ideas tucked away in notebooks, journals, and various lists, so I spent an hour or so going through them, hoping something would jump out at me. A few things caught my attention, but they would all need more than a day to prepare, make, photograph, and write about.
So, as you can imagine, I was at a bit of a loss.
Then I thought, What about my photos?
I picked up my phone and started scrolling. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular.... I just wanted to see if something sparked an idea.
And it did! The following images were captured for inspiration when I'd gone for a walk some time back.
Seeing Quilting Possibilities Everywhere
The first photo that caught my attention was a close-up of some stones.... I really like the way the early morning sun is casting shadows across the stones.
The shadows and texture immediately made me think about quilting. Then I came across a photo of some twigs.... Thick and thin threads could create a similar effect.
That led me to think about how changing thread weights could create different lines and textures.
Then I found a photo looking down the side of a country road.
I particularly like the denseness at the bottom of this photo and as you move up it opens up into bigger forms..... I love that graduation from one to the other.
A thought.... quilting from dense and detailed to open and simple. There are lots of possibilities here for both a quilt design and machine quilting.
These would all make interesting demonstrations, but I already have plenty of quilting inspiration and video demonstrations in my Machine Quilting workshop and Mystery Quilt Art class.
For example this quilting was inspired by the swirls in a tree trunk:
Then I Started Seeing Color
As I continued scrolling, I reached my fall photos and suddenly there was a completely different feel to the images.
I particularly love the combination of blue sky, red leaves, and green foliage in this next photo.... I love this color contrast in this photo. How would these colors work in a quilt?
It made me wonder what this combination would look like in a patchwork or art quilt. Perhaps you've already made something using these colors?
Another tree photo caught my eye because it had both color and texture contrast.
Contrast is just one of the elements Elizabeth Barton explores in her Color Course. If you're interested in learning more about color, I highly recommend it. It's one of the best color courses I've taken, and I love that it's aimed at quilters as well as other artists.
And Then There Was Perspective
I love the shapes and forms you find in trees - not just the leaves and branches, but the trunks and the spaces between them.... you might recognise this photo from another series of blog posts I'm currently working on!
This photo brought back memories of an older quilt - my Redwood Valley quilt:
Then another photo made me think about perspective - Simple lines creating perspective.
The road, tree lines, fences, and surrounding landscape all create lines that lead your eye into the distance. It reminded me of the perspective I used in one of my older quilts:
Can you see the connection?
Those simple lines in the photograph could be used in much the same way to create the feeling of distance in a quilt.
This quilt is also featured in my Perspective in Quilting workshop - another great workshop if you'd like to explore perspective in quilt design.
And Then I Came Full Circle
And here's the funny part.
Those perspective triangles in that previous quilt are called "flying geese" and the very first photo I'd looked at when I picked up my phone was a goose. How odd is that?
I'm not even sure why I'd taken that particular photo. It just happened to be sitting there among all the others.... And yet, somehow, that goose brought me full circle because the quilt I'd just been thinking about contains flying geese!
It's funny how inspiration works. You start with one completely random image and suddenly you're thinking about texture, thread, color, contrast, perspective, and quilt design.
A Blank Page Isn't Always a Bad Thing
What started as a completely blank Tuesday morning turned into a surprisingly useful little exercise.
Just by scrolling through my photos and really looking at them, I've ended up with ideas for quilting, quilt design, color, texture, perspective, and future demonstrations.
Sometimes we don't need to go looking for inspiration. We just need to look at the things we've already photographed.... or look at them a little differently.
So now, instead of having nothing to write about, I have more ideas than I can possibly fit into one blog post!
Which photo should I follow up on? The stones, the twigs, the autumn colors, the trees, or the perspective from the country road?
I'd love to know which one catches your eye.
