Remember how I told you about being asked by lovely Vivika De Negre at Interweave to fly to Ohio because they wanted to film a DVD and three episodes of Quilting Arts TV with me? It was such an honor for me to be included and so much fun. I wrote about the whole adventure here and my very old fear of flying, but guess what? The whole season of Quilting Arts 1400 DVD is now out and ready for you to buy or download here (or you can watch the episodes one by one on your local PBS station as they air).
Also, I’m SOOOO excited to tell you that my DVD, Art Techniques for Quilt Designs, is now available for Pre-order or instant download now! I have watched it (ummm….like four times!!!) and I am happy to say that it doesn’t suck! (I was rather relieved to watch it because I haven’t been filmed very much and didn’t know what to expect. Phew!) In fact, I like it so much and I think you will, too. In it, I teach simple art school techniques like drawing basics (learning how to see so that you can draw), design process and composition, how to create artful sewn goods like my Nest Quilt and how to interpret children’s artwork with fast fabric collage to create keepsake treasures. Mainly, I help you trust your own innate abilities and talent so you can get busy designing original creations and have the confidence to do so. I help you Celebrate Your Inner Artist!™ Go download it or pre-order it right here right now! It was wonderful to work with the new host of Quilting Arts, Susan Brubaker Knapp. In honor of the blog hop that we are doing to promote the new season of Quilting Arts and the DVD, we were asked to to share a little bit about our creative process and inspiration. For me it isn’t a matter of what inspires me because the list is so long and it goes like this:
my children, love, my husband, chocolate, stars, sun, the beach, being outside, yoga, the moon, art history, Japanese package design, good graphic design, movies…so many movies, books, tea, my kitchen, product design, people, so many people and teachers, artists, writers, modern dance, tea bags, old stuff, new stuff, dried things, plants, smells, tastes, food, wabi sabi, textiles, India, Japan, paper, stationery, eucalyptus pods, fireworks, weather, rain, stories, fables, poetry, screened-in porches, looking at the rain….see? I could go on and on and on…
The problem is not what inspires me but what to do with it. Inspiration is such an ephemeral and fleeting thing. I feel surrounded by beauty and inspiration every day, but that doesn’t mean I capture it every day. Capturing inspiration is like catching butterflies. You gotta have a net. For me, that net looks like this: dictating notes to Siri on my phone while driving my kids to school…or like I did today, writing notes about my next fabric collection for Windham on the bookmark in the book I’m reading (The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which I highly recommend!) while flying in a plane…or hiking down a mountain and rushing to the car to jot down notes and most especially after yoga. I commonly find space for new ideas after clearing my head by getting my thoughts to quiet down so that I can listen to the truer source of inspiration…my heart, my soul.
So, what inspires you? Leave a comment over on the Quilting Daily blog right here and a lucky someone will win a DVD of the QATV season! Each day one of the participants below will be writing about their experience so follow along:
- July 18: Vivika DeNegre at http://www.quiltingdaily.com/…/qatv-14-sneak-peek-…. and
- July 19: Luana Rubin (luanarubin.typepad.com)/
- Linda Friedman (lindasartquilts.blogspot.com)
- July 20: Sarah Ann Smith (sarahannsmith.com/weblog)/
- Karen Gloeggler (Seminarandsew.com)
- July 21: Carrie Bloomston (suchitysuch.blogspot.com/
- Catherine Redford (catherineredford.com)
- July 22: Sue Reno (suereno.blogspot.com)/
- Rebekah Meier (rebekahmeier.com)
- July 23: Lyric Kinard (lyrickinard.com/blog) /
- Margie Ullery (ribboncandyquilts.blogspot.com)
- July 24: Cheryl Sleboda (muppin.com/wordpress/) /
- Jane Sassaman (janesassaman.com/weblog)
- July 25: Susan Brubaker Knapp (bluemoonriver.blogspot.com)
- July 26 Julie Creus http://todera.blogspot.com
Inspiration comes from a bit of a conversation, a glimpse out a window, remembering a past experience..
I’m inspired by walks, and all the tiny things that catch my eyes in the different seasons.dried leaves, fungi I, mosses, seaweed, seashells, the color of the water and sky, a gentle breeze, good exercise, followed by a long soak. Yoga. My goodness, there is no end, nor time enough.
A bug and how it is patterned, a flower and the way it is colored, sunshine through a rain drop, shapes in the clouds passing by–anything, for as long as it catches my attention. Really, that is a hard question for me to answer–it’s like breathing.
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