Monday, July 18, 2011

Where I find my inspiration

I ran across this blog post today and it got me to thinking about where I get inspiration.  I met Pat Sloan at a local quilt guild meeting a while back.  She's hilarious.  She also collects quotes like I do.  When I saw her inspiration board in this post and I thought I'd share a few ways I get inspired.

The Basket O'Joy and the Box O'Fun

Sometimes you just need a jumping off point.  Whether it's cross stitching, quilting, crafting or whatever your thing is, we've all found ourselves at one point or another wondering where to go next.

Some season specific quilt books I enjoy

Sometimes I'm in the mood to work on a "season."  So I'll go to the stash pile and root out the charts or pattern books that I have, let's say with fall things in them.  Then I'll go root out floss or fabric that suits the colors of the season since I'm pretty driven by color.  You might be driven by shapes or motifs.  That works too.

Fabric and a floss toss

Other times I rely on magazine photos.  I'll go through magazines like Pat does and cut out pictures.  I usually just keep them in a folder.  I like the idea of pasting them in a notebook or onto a piece of card stock too. 

You could also do this with actual photographs.  I'll go through my digital photos or I'll even go take pictures.  That's why you'll usually find my camera in my purse because I never know when I'll see something that inspires me!

Other times I'll go to the card store and browse the greeting cards.  I've got a small pile of greeting cards that I keep for color ideas.  Sometimes I just like the words or sentiments.  You never know what will strike your fancy.

Paint chips in fall colors

You could also keep an inspiration cork board or an inspiration box filled with things that give you ideas.  It could be actual objects, paint chips, floss, fabric, whatever your heart desires.

Paint chips with a floss toss

Once I've gathered my stuff, then I'll lay it all out and see what tickles my fancy that day. Sometimes I'm inspired to jump right in and get started. Sometimes I need to percolate on it for a bit. Sometimes just this act of doing is all I needed to satisfy me.

Possibilities from the Basket O'Joy

I hope this gives you some new ideas.  How do you find inspiration?  Tell me in the comments!

The Inspired Stitcher

2 comments:

Jenny said...

What a great post - this is so cool, Lisa!

I like magazines and books too (I eve "read" charts in bed some times), but my main inspiration is the net, hands down.

I surf the net for hours on end; on-line stitch stores, other stitchers' finishes and work, on-line photo albums, stitchers' bulletin boards, e-bay, designers' blogs and stores and so on.

I often do what you do - I decide what I am in the mood for stitching and then I research it, for example, if I feel like sprucing up my laundry-room, I research that! Ideas, designs, home design blogs, laundry and ironing related designs, etc. Most of the time it does not mean that I actually buy anything or start stitching laundry related stuff, but it gets my brains going..

As much time as I spend with "google images", it always cracks me up when people claim that "men are more visual than women" - I don't think so!

Marsha said...

Just got caught up on your trip and inspiration post. What a wonderful trip you had. Sounded relaxing with good food and company. I find inspiration in catalogs, magazines, blogs and other people's work. I especially love Martha Stewart's living mag. I keep subscribing just because it's a beautiful magazine to look at. I pulled a catalog page last week and Rich thought I wanted the quilt pictured but that wasn't it. It was the color combo I liked in case I wanted to make another quilt for our turqoise room. I'm always pulling our mazazine pages. Your blog itself is an inspiration just like you Lisa. I'm so glad you decided to blog (I didn't know about those thimbles)