3 ways to spark your quilting creativity!

There’s been a lot going on in my world lately. Between extra shifts at work, extra medical appointments to drive to, conferences, and pre-holiday parties, there has been little time left over for my quilting and other creative outlets. And, if you’re like me, the longer it’s been since you quilted, the harder it is to get back in the groove. So, I was very happy when Carla asked me to blog this week and to make a project using Northcott’s NEW ColorWorks Concepts line of fabric. I knew that having a deadline would give me the push I needed to get back in my sewing room, but I also needed to use some of my tried and true techniques to get me in the right mindset. So, here they are – 3 ways to spark your quilting creativity!

Browsing magazines and Pinterest for inspiration

Whenever I’m stuck in a rut, I dig out some quilt magazines or search through Pinterest for projects that inspire me. I almost NEVER want to make something exactly the way someone else did, but their ideas are great stepping stones to coming up with great ideas of my own. New color combinations, unusual ways to set a quilt block or new machine quilting designs may find their way into my projects in unexpected ways. Follow me on Pinterest to see some of the great pins I’ve found.

Cleaning your creative space is a great way to get rid of creative “cobwebs”

When life gets busy, my sewing studio tends to get messy! The left over bits from projects I’ve worked on may be left in a pile on my cutting table, rulers, threads and scissors may be on the ironing board, magazines that haven’t been read may be stacked on my chair, purchases that made at my local quilt shop may be on the floor, still in the bag. The result is a stifling clutter that makes it impossible to create. When my studio is messy and I happen to have a moment to work on something, I’ll walk into the room, stand there for a minute and then walk back out, overwhelmed by the mess. So, the first thing I did when Carla told me that my blog week was coming up, was to tidy and clean my room. It’s not perfect, but now I feel like I can actually work in there!!!

Fabric ALWAYS inspires me!!

I have to hand it to fabric designers, because they come up with some of the most beautiful designs for their fabric lines. And no matter what frame of mind I’m in, when I look at fabrics I can’t help but get ideas! So when I was told to go on the Northcott website to pick out the fabrics I wanted to use this week I was a bit like a kid in a candy store. What to choose??? The ColorWorks Concepts line has some really amazing panels that can be used as is or cut up into any shape. Nellie and I had already designed one quilt with this line, but we designed it in EQ7 with digital images, without seeing or touching the actual fabric. Our pattern is called Modern Vibe and when we actually received the fabrics and made the quilt we just LOVED it!! Northcott hung our sample in their booth at this year’s Fall Quilt Market.

This time I was going “old school” and was going to get the fabrics to play with BEFORE I designed something with them. I was so excited and when I looked at the website I knew that I wanted to use the panel with the New York Beauty design.

Now to wait for the fabric…

So I emailed Elaine at Northcott to give her my list of fabrics. Although I have no idea what I’m going to make I asked for one panel and 1 meter of four other fabrics. I figured that would give me enough variety and enough yardage to make SOMETHING. Now to wait for the fabric to arrive. But at least I’m now in the mood to create and I can’t wait to get started. Hopefully you can use some of my 3 ways to spark your quilting creativity – my fabric should arrive tomorrow – see you then!