A sewing and quilting journey
Some sources of inspiration are more predictable than others. It wasn’t hard to guess that a visit to Kew Gardens to see the Dale Chihuly exhibition might produce some new quilting ideas.
Some of the smaller pieces shown indoors were clearly inspired by textiles.
Outside, amongst the planting, some of the organic forms were just screaming FMQ designs at me. Oh, and the colours!
There are so many sources of inspiration for piecing and quilting designs. I often take pictures of tiles, of floors, of geometric patterns I see everywhere. A few examples are here,
These were picked up on my travels in Istanbul, Dubai and Australia. However, patterns could equally have been picked up around where I live in London.
The only quilt I can honestly say that I have made entirely from inspiration is my Diamonds quilt below,
This was inspired by a Bedouin carpet we bought in Istanbul. The carpet can be seen in the picture below.
Beyond that, there are, of course, the inspirations I find by going to quilt shows. There is generally Farnham Quilt market in January, the Knitting & Stiching show at Olympia in March (although I understand that is moving to Islington next year) and the best of all, the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham in August. I am planning on going for two days this year and taking a few classes as well as ogling all the beautiful quilts on show.
Finally, there is daily inspiration from all the wonderful blogs that I get through social media. The blogging community is so generous with the tutorials, the patterns and the hacks that they send out into the world.