Weblog and Idea Spot for Quilters

13 September 2007

A Quilted Mind

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Everywhere I look I see a quilt. Floor tiles in a new restaurant, the pattern of dirty clothes on the floor in my daughter’s room, an artful arrangement of flowers in a vase, light coming in through the lace curtains in my livingroom, edges of cereal boxes lined up in a display at the grocer, a stack of construction timbers waiting in line at a jobsite, pretty little poufs of flowers in a park, and the irony of this one really got to me, the colorful spines of my quilting books. When I walk past the right sort of visual stimulus something just goes, “whirrr, click!” in my brain and it becomes another quilting idea. I often blurt out to whoever I am with, “What a great quilt that would make!” This is great if I’m with a fellow quilter, but only serves to reinforce my eccentric reputation if I’m with other friends or family.

Sometimes these ideas fade before I can get to a notepad or camera, sometimes they stay with me long enough to be incorporated into an actual quilt. Once in a while I’ll get the idea down on paper, buy a bit of fabric and set it aside, coming back to it in a few years when I have an empty spot in the quilting queue, only to find that the idea makes no sense to me or now seems trite or boring.

Whatever the actual results, I relish each sighting because it stretches my quilt designing muscles, keeping my mind’s eye open to the world around me and helping me internalize the beauty to be enjoyed in everything I see.

2 comments:

  1. What a great post, you said so eloquently what probably so many quilters feel/think. You are correct in a follow quilter understanding, and the rest of the world looking at you kind of sideways.

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  2. I have enjoyed reading your posts - including the one on batting. Very interesting - thank you.
    Welcome to the Q4P blogring :))

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