I have been struggling with design plans for my next couple of show quilts for 2015. I have plenty of ideas, but not enough focus. So I am spending a fair amount of time looking through some design sources…Dover Publications royalty free drawings in their books, my own and my family’s photographs, NASA’s deep space copyright free photos, and drawing things myself on my software. I want to make a new illuminated manuscript quilt, a new story landscape, an Ikebana/Sashiko quilt, and a new deep space quilt for starters. And really, I love the design at the top that I downloaded from Dover Pictura.
I think I have my new story landscape concept. It will be a deep dark forest with light coming through the roof of the forest. More on that later. I have the Ikebana Sashiko concept in mind and only need to draw up the overall quilt pattern before I can start that one.
I have multiple deep space ideas. The choices have to have some distinct features…some of the NASA picture are beautiful, but still are mostly gaseous clouds, and they won’t work because they would look like just blobs of color on the flat quilt. It’s already hard to get viewers and judges to know they are looking at representations of real pictures when they see deep space quilts if they aren’t familiar with the NASA pictures, and many are not. One of the best things I heard at Houston was when I walked up to my quilt behind some viewers who were saying “This is my favorite here. It looks like something from outer space.” They didn’t know who I was, but clearly they got what I was trying to do with Sky Horse. Between my kids and me, we have found six candidates.
But the quilt I want to make first, the next illuminated manuscript, is still escaping me. There is a plethora of inspirations, and perhaps that’s the problem. I think I will just have to take a stab at one to pin down the idea when it floats by. LOL
In any event, I will be making a few Christmas presents over the next couple of weeks, and working on my designs. I’ll share my next show quilt journey with you, unless I encounter an important reason not to.
Have a wonderful week. Sew happy everyone. Take time to practice.