Michael and I are enamored with DOORS!! They can be big, small, wooden, glass….you name it and we will take a photo of it!!!

Today I have been playing with the designs from this door…..

I started out with a very intricate block spinning around the center square…..

But when I added it to a quilt, it was WAY TOO busy….

So I returned to a super simple block spinning around the center square….

Like the Mama Bear’s bed this one was WAY TOO boring!!!

Then I added four lines and things got interesting, although much different from the inspiration…..

This quilt was a still a bit boring, but when I changed the coloring, it got more exciting…..

A few more changes and I ended up here…..

I know that this is NOT an original design but it was an interesting exercise in how new designs are developed!!!

I will keep playing and maybe I can come up with something new!!!!

For today’s…….

….we are back in Istanbul Turkey, visiting a local market.

These “peas-in-a-pod” were so artistically displayed that I immediately labeled the photo as an inspiration…..

Today I played a bit with some ideas in Electric Quilt and came up with these ideas in just a few minutes…..

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I am excited about trying a few of these ideas for some charity quilts!!!

As I have mentioned previously in this blog, I seem to find quilt inspiration in ALL sorts of places and with ALL sorts of things.

Today it is a random cord of wood photo…..

I played on Electric Quilt for about 15 minutes and came up with two different blocks…..

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And when I alternated them in a quilt, it ended up as this…..

I really like it and can see piecing it with all scraps….

Something else to be added to my list of quilts that I want to make!!!!!

SOMEONE HELP ME!!!!!

I often present a talk that discusses where we, as quilters, find inspiration. Personally, I LOVE finding things in the world that remind me or inspire me to make a quilt.

I love it even more when others send inspiration to me!!

My husband, Michael, just returned from two weeks in Namibia, located on the southwest coast of Africa.

While there he came across an abandoned village that had been inhabited by the Herero People. As he walked around the village, he found houses that were built from a mixture of clay and cow dung. That, in itself, was amazing, but the designs that were imprinted on the walls were the most fascinating thing of all…..

Can’t you just see lines of stitching in there?

Now I am thinking about making a top using squares and rectangles of a solid fabric and adding quilting lines going in different directions for each square!!

And look how the “stitching” lines are at angles rather than being vertical or horizontal……

TOO much inspiration!!!

I was interested in learning more about the Herero people and found out that they are a Bantu ethnic group and that traditionally, they are cattle herders. Cattle are so prominent that their traditional dress is worn with a headscarf that is tied to resemble the horns of a cow…..

Based on the number of pens that Michael saw…..

….this particular village once held many cattle, but the drought had taken away the grazing pastures, forcing them to move on.

So inspiration AND a history lesson….all in one post!!!

Today I am bringing a TRUCKLOAD of inspiration!!!

I was heading in to pick up Julio (my new Juki 2200QVP) and was dazzled by a flash of color in front of me. Thankfully, my phone was in its dashboard holder so it was easy to take this photo as I drove……

Closer inspection…..zooming in on the photo, not on the highway….. showed this…..

I’m still not sure what this is, but it gave me a quick “quilting break” in the middle of traffic and that is always a good thing!!!