Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Necessity and Constraints

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

“Necessity is the mother of invention”. A saying so old that its origins are lost and the first recorded instances of this phrase are in Latin. Yet its meaning holds just as true today as when it was first penned/quilled. And it is an amazingly widely applicable truism! It is just as true for my husband’s work in leading edge communications technology as it is for mine in the more traditional arts and quilting.

Necessity is also really the mother of quilting. After all, quilting traditions are firmly rooted in the process of rescuing and recycling fabrics and other textiles to generate bed covers to keep warm. It is only in relatively recent times that quilting has become a pastime for those well off enough to acquire beautiful new materials specifically for making a quilt.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 26

If you are not feeling inspired to quilt, it’s possibly time to do something else for a while. But it may also just be a case of having too many choices. Too many fabrics., too many patterns, too many ideas. Too overwhelming.

I find that having no boundaries and no restrictions when I am looking for a new project can be daunting, sometimes even crippling. If I have a set of expectations or project guidelines, creativity often comes to me more easily…. and the project is less likely to go UFO.

Necessity and constraints

Most of us do not have to quilt to make do and keep warm anymore. But necessity and constraints can keep a project interesting. These parameters can take many forms. Here are a few I can think of:

a tight timeframe. This may be an impending birth or milestone birthday. A departure or perhaps a quilt show deadline. Nothing like a hard date to get a project moving! Here is a quilt that I made for a departing friend….. the front is a relatively straight forward braid. The constraints…. colours I thought my friend would like and that reflected Australia. And the departure date.The reverse side of this quilt was made of panels that I embroidered with messages from as many relevant people as I could gather. At the time I had never free-motioned text onto fabric before – but I managed it, on time, because I had to.
size and subject. If you have no idea what to do next, find out what the next challenge quilt at your local show is going to be. Even if you have no intention of entering! Working to a theme can do wonders for focussing down on a project. These two quilts were both the result of show challenge themes.
Quilt theme: South Australia, Ocean to Outback

Quilt theme: Nine Patch

Currently I am making a quilt that would have never happened – except that I joined a black and white quilt and splash of colour quilt along. And I’m glad I did.
mistakes and poor preparation. Now I don’t recommend looking for this kind of motivation. It will come looking for you from time to time though. And it’s up to you what you do with it. Some amazing quilts come about because there wasn’t enough fabric to finish the original plan.
The pattern of this quilt had to accomodate three unintentional changes in fabric due to the time elapsed as it was made and the unavailability of the original fabrics!

Another circumstance that I know forces ingenuity to the surface is when bad mistakes are made at the fabric cutting stage.
And then sometimes, things just don’t go to plan (possibly repeatedly). One of the most satisfying quilts stories in my life was a disaster to begin with. I was asked to fix a sentimental quilt project that had suffered a number of ills at the hands of its original creator and another quilter. In the end, the only thing for it was some appliqué over some holes. But the final result was very good, and the pleasure of the rescue was enormous.
budget or purchasing constraints. What can you make if you can only spend a certain budget? Only use your stash? Or a loved one’s clothing? What about a quilt made only from scraps?
A quilt I made entirely from a friend’s scraps, with the exception of the black sashing and the binding. I gifted the quilt back to her as a surprise. 🙂

How about trying to get your supplies for an entire quilt top from one location you wouldn’t normally shop from? A while back, I joined in a challenge to choose 9 fabrics in the theme of “Summer” from a specific Etsy shop. I found all sorts of fabric I would never normally have considered. And I enjoyed it!

One of the collections of 9 fabrics I chose to enter in the Summer Crush competition.
a need to be different. Sometimes it is not desirable to be the same as everyone else. This can be a bit difficult if you are quilting traditional patterns in on trend colours. But needing to be distinctive can force creativity to happen. Here is a recent example I found on the internet this week. Amanda Jean of Crazy Mom Quilts was working on a variation of a bear paw quilt when she discovered a very similar pattern already existed, so she changed hers. Her verdict? “(It) isn’t something that I wouldn’t have thought to do on purpose, but I actually like it a lot” And, by the way, her blog post yesterday was all about a challenge to make a quilt with the colours of four crayons she pulled out in a blind selection. Very relevant! I love the colours she ended up with, and the quilt she made. And what a fun way to inspire a new quilt! Go take a look.

Necessity can be good for creativity. It forces you to think outside the box. And of course, once you have set your rules, they are only there to be broken! And that can be part of the fun too! 🙂

What helps you start your quilts? Special events and milestones? Do you like quilt challenges? Or are you a pattern browser? Tell us your great ideas – you might just help someone get past their quilters’ block…..

Sorry! 🙂

October 25, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Turtle Fabrics

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

About a month ago I signed up for the Splash of Color quilt along from Busy Hands Quilts. The rules mostly consist of a few deadlines for the quilt stages, and that the colours of the quilt are to be predominately black and white with colour highlights. Apart from that, the direction the quilt takes is up to each quilter.

So, I decided to do a quilt with some fabrics my husband bought me in Vanuatu some time back. Two of them are black and white, the other is red. Here are my original fabrics and the post I wrote about my idea for a black, white and red turtle quilt.

black and white and red fabrics from Vanuatu — The fabrics for my Splash of Color quilt inspiration.

Vanuatu décor color scheme from Clever Chameleon — The colours in our Vanuatu bedroom.

Since that post, we have been back to Vanuatu to continue Paul’s humanitarian telecommunications research. While we were there I acquired more fabrics specifically for this project :). And some more inspiration. I decided to add a little greyed blue or teal to my splash of colour, thanks to the Vanuatu décor in our bedroom.

Here is my final pile of goodies to work from:

Vanuatu fabrics — The white, grey and teal fabrics are from my stash here at home. The red and black fabrics are all from Vanuatu.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 25

The next challenge in the Splash of Color quilt along was to choose a quilt pattern. Well, I am not known for working to a quilt pattern. So I have opted to design as I go, as per usual. But I do have a basic idea of where I am headed. I am making a turtle quilt inspired by the tribal turtle motif on two of the original fabrics.

I have now designed my turtle appliqué. It is influenced by the turtle above, but also by a beautiful turtle batik I have in my collection. If you like batiks, you might recognise this fabric, its been around for a while.

Turtle batik fabric from Lunn Studios for Artisan Batiks from Robert Kaufman Fabrics

I actually started a quilt for my nephew two years ago inspired by this turtle batik, that I also intended to put a turtle appliqué on. But he got a monkey quilt instead. Long story for another day. But it s nice to be returning to the turtle idea. Perhaps I can knock off this UFO too.

My Turtle Appliqué Quilt Design Concept

Here is my turtle appliqué design:

It is quite likely that the quilt background will be significantly different from my quick diagram. The basic plan for the background of the quilt is to create 8×6″ finished blocks out of the black and white fabrics. Some blocks will be fussy cut 6″ squares. Some blocks will be created from 4″ and 2″ squares, with possibly some half-square triangles and/or pinwheels thrown in. I will decide on their overall layout at the end. Basically, I am going to give the free die that comes with the Accuquilt GO! cutter a whirl.

Accuquilt GO! die

Then, the intention is to add a 1″ red border, and then an 8″ piano key border in black and white. It will finish at 66″ square and I will bind it in red. Or teal. Subject to mind changes, of course!

Where am I at?

Well, the sharing link for having the fabrics cut opened 10 days ago or so. So, you can tell I am a little behind schedule as usual. But the link is not closed yet, and I have my appliqué printed, traced and cut out, so all is not lost!

Turtle appliqué design — Turtle appliqué templates

Turtle appliqué cut out — Here are my turtle appliqué pieces. The teal fabric will be mostly covered by the red, so I bought a cheap Prima solid for this layer.

I actually have no intention of pre-cutting my black and white fabrics. I will do this as I create blocks. Not efficient if I was producing a quilt from a pattern, for sure. But it is the way I design quilts from scratch. So I am claiming that this QAL stage is done to my satisfaction. And I hope you will find my design process more interesting if I actually report it like it is rather than showing you just the end result.

Linking this post up with the Splash of Color QAL on the cutting fabric page.

If you would like to see the other projects in this quilt along, the original ideas links are found here. There were 14 projects joined up from the very beginning – there may be some late comers too if you keep an eye on the progress linkys. There is certainly a great variety, you are sure to see something that inspires you!

See you again tomorrow!

Linking up to:
Midweek Makers, Wednesday Wait Loss, Freemotion by the River, Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts

October 24, 2017January 19, 2024

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Bougainvillea Surprise

Bougainvillea color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: weekly colour stories for your quilts and other crafts.

Have you ever taken the time to really look at something you had always assumed you knew well, only to discover something unexpected? We live such fast lives these days that the little details can start to slip by. At least, that is true for my stage of life, with 2 young children and a travelling husband. But today I stopped to “smell the bougainvilleas” and discovered something.

Nope, it wasn’t that bougainvilleas have a fainter scent than many flowers. Or that the bright leaves that surround the tiny flowers are indeed leaves, not petals. I did already know both of those things. 🙂 It was something more subtle.

Purple Bougainvillea color scheme from Clever Chameleon

Colour Inspiration Tuesday: Bougainvillea Surprise

The photo of the hot pink bougainvillea at the top of this post was taken at our accommodation in Vanuatu a few weeks ago. At the time, I made a colour board and noticed the pretty form of the tiny flower in the centre of the showy leaves. “Funny”, I thought. “How come I’ve never noticed how cute the little centres are?” I even toyed a little with a free-motion quilting design to celebrate my discovery, but it never really got very far.

And the bougainvilleas went by the wayside as other inspiration presented itself for my 31 day series.

But now we are home, and I find that the local council has repainted the local outdoor pool surrounds. In colours not unlike the tones of the Vanuatu bougainvillea, but with a powder blue thrown in for good measure. I would show you but I keep forgetting my camera when we go to the pool. Anyhow, the new pool décor reminded me of my bougainvillea colour board and I thought I would take another look.

The bougainvillea surprise

Since we have a huge bougainvillea just outside our back door, I also thought I should make a colour board of the that one too. Just for some extra material. Our bougainvillea is in full bloom now. It is the rampant purple variety that grows well in a lot of climates. But when I went to take photos, I noticed something more. The centres of the purple variety actually do not have the charm of the pink one. Their basic construction is the same but there is very little definition between the petals. “Ahhh ha! The purple and pink bougainvilleas are more different than I realised”.

And all this noticing of something I had long taken for granted finally spawned a bougainvillea FMQ idea that might actually work….. bougainvillea flowers.

Bougainvillea FMQ motif — Stages in quilting the bougainvillea flower

I could immediately launch into the next flower, like pearls on a string. This would work to fill borders and other long thin spaces. I don’t think it matters how many petals fit around the circle, as long as there are 4-6 sets of one long and one short petal.

I also thought I could return and add leaves to the string to make a wider border in a second quilting run. Something like this:

Bougainvillea quilting idea — String of bougainvillea flowers with leaf triplets to fill a wider border.

It will take a bit of refining, but I think I could quilt this.

I hope you like the little bougainvillea-inspired FMQ design. Next time I need a warm-up at my Sweet Sixteen I am going to have a go at this one.

Today’s post doubles as my daily Everyday Quilt Inspiration offering. See you for more Everyday Quilt Inspiration fun tomorrow. In the meantime, if you haven’t been following along, you can find the start of this 31 day series here. Only one week left until the daily writing challenge is over! Amazing.

Linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts.

October 23, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Sentimental Scraps

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

One thing that most quilters do is save their scraps for another project down the line. But if those scraps aren’t sufficient for another quilt, yet have strong sentimental value, it can be hard to decide to do with them. So what do you do? Move them on? Throw them away? Or make something entirely different with them?

Today, for my 31 Days of Everyday Quilt Inspiration challenge, I want to share with you the story of a quilted clock, inspired from all sorts of sentimental scraps and inherited notions.

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 23

Sentimental scraps and fake flowers

There once was a fabric off-cut amongst my collection that I didn’t want to part with. It was left over from a project (not actually a quilt) that I did for a friend who now lives overseas and whom I miss very much. I decided that my sewing room needed a clock, and that this special black and white batik should be the background.

There were also a stack of fake flowers left in my mother’s belongings that I couldn’t quite commit to throwing away. I am not a “fake flowers sort of person”, but I know she enjoyed decorating her last residential unit very much. So I pulled the flowers to pieces so I could sew with them.

fake flowers amongst my sentimental scraps — One of the deconstructed tiger lilies from my Mum with a bell centre.

Sentimental trinkets and real flowers from my love

Also among my mother’s things was a brand new wooden frame. It framed a print I know she loved, but it was never destined to hang in my or my siblings’ homes. It never even got to hang in her home – it was still in it’s wrapper. So I pulled that to pieces too.

In my own things I always have ribbon scraps from flowers my hubby buys me. He knows that if he buys me flowers regularly I don’t immediately get suspicious if he suddenly starts. This avoids questions like “What have you done this time?!”. Hahahaha. High IQ has my hubby.

Sentimental scraps quilted clock — I echoed the tiger lily with bobbin work and hand embroidery. I think this is my favourite part asthetically.

Acquired supplies and new techniques

Also among my own things was a very heavy blue thread that I bought secondhand from a class instructor because she was downsizing her thread collection. And I had just learned bobbin work….. So I added a ghost tiger lily to the background.

More sentimental notions and hoarded items

The bright blue button was languishing in one of the button collections I have inherited along the way. It spoke to me as the new centre for the deconstructed white tiger lily.

There was also a bell among my buttons. It came from one of my previous cats’ collars. My indoors-only cats have no need for bells, so I tend to remove them and stash them away for later. Bit of a magpie, me.

Easing my conscience over unused supplies

Finally, I needed to find a way to mark out the clock face without obscuring the batik fabric that I was trying to honour. In my USOs (un-started objects!!) I (still) have a sample of a fabric called “glass”. It is like an ultra-fine tulle. I bought it to try it in shadow trapunto. That was years ago…. and I only just got around to trying shadow trapunto last month. But not with the glass yet. Anyway, two layers of this, fused over the batik, gave just the right degree of opaqueness.

I bought the clock parts especially for this project and made the clock face size to match.

I agonised how to put all this together for a long time. Shuffled my sentimental scraps and notions around many times. In the end though, I was happy with the result. I know some of my friends think it is a bit odd. But I actually don’t care. This piece is for me. 🙂 They were my sentimental scraps, after all.

See you again tomorrow for another round of Colour Inspiration Tuesday. Thanks for reading!

October 22, 2017January 19, 2024

Everyday Quilt Inspiration: Previous Quilts

31 Days of Finding Quilt Inspiration in Real Life

Have you ever made a quilt for someone and wished you had a second one to keep? Have you ever made a duplicate for that reason?

Or have you ever made a quilt that you thought could be better? And then been so driven to actually make the better version?

Sometimes the best ideas for your next project might just lie in your last project!

Finding Quilt Inspiration in the Everyday: Day 22

Since we are talking about my quilting friend Susan (well, at least we were, yesterday), I want to tell you about a quilt I made for her milestone birthday a few years back. I called it: Tomato on a Snoozy Pizza. Yes. Really!

Tomato on a Snoozy Pizza quilt — The Kool Kaleidoscope quilt I made for Susan

This quilt is a slight variation on the Ricky Tims Kool Kaleidoscope. I changed the method to better suit my strengths, but the overall principle is the same. I also added a little appliqué to the kaleidoscope at the last minute to correct areas I wasn’t happy with. The kaleidoscope’s colours came from the batik border fabric. I knew Susan would love it.

Now about the quilt’s name…… When I was laying out the large wedge-shaped pieces for the kaleidoscope medallion, my young son (who was about three and pronounced Susan as “Snoozy”at the time) insisted that I was making a pizza. And proceeded to “help” me by laying extra pieces of red fabric on top.

“What are you doing, matey”.

“Putting tomato on Snoozy’s pizza, Mummy”. hahahaha

And Snoozy’s pizza it stayed!! 🙂

How I was inspired by Snoozy’s Pizza quilt

I was really happy with how Susan’s quilt came out, and she loved it too – I even managed to keep it a surprise for her. 🙂 I didn’t really want another one just the same, but I did want some token to remember it by. So, I set about making a miniature version art piece out of the scraps.

miniature art quilt

At the time I did this project I had been learning thread painting and was also starting to take an interest in embellishing quilts with other materials. So this mini quilt has thread painting, ribbon and felt to represent the original, more conventional quilt. There is no piecing in this piece. Only appliqué and embellishment.

Kaleidoscope mini quilt detail — Thread painting and satin stitch were added to create some of the details.

The only supply I purchased specifically for this project was the green ribbon for the inner border.

To finish off, I stretched the mini quilt over a paint canvas and added a hanging wire. I am very happy with my token reminder of the original quilt Tomato on a Snoozy Pizza.

I would never have thought to do a project like this, if I hadn’t been motivated to have a keepsake of the quilt I made for Susan. But now it is one of my favourite keepers.

What about you? Have you ever made a quilt inspired by previous project Please comment, we’d love to hear.