A new friend asked me where I get ideas for my quilts. My first thought was “everywhere,” but I quickly realized that was a lazy response. It’s more specific than that. My quilt ideas often begin with colors. Then I refer to notebooks that I’ve been keeping for over 20 years.
I have fabric swatches preferred solid colors in a notebook, along with the name of the manufacturer. I am blessed with keen color memory and will search for fabric in a specific hue if I see it out in the world. Photographs of exotic birds and insects have inspired many color experiments. When I can’t find the color that looking for, I choose the closest match. Perhaps I’ll begin to die fabrics, but for now I use what I can find.
Once I have chosen colors, I look through notebooks to see what sparks interest. It’s good to look back and see ideas from years ago that I then hesitated to make but that now feel easy to create. The design is the starting point. From there, I let go and see what new ideas I come up with. I may end up with a quilt similar to the design. Or I experiment and end up with something even better and unexpected. I never know, and that’s a good thing.