Tuesday, August 4, 2015

Burst your box!


Opening up to experiences...

How many of you have struggled with finding your creative mojo?
Do you get the itch when your sewing, to just burst out a new project?

OK, I know that's a funny question.

OF COURSE!  ( we need more then one project to work on!)

he he.

I am lucky that I have enough wall space to work on ten quilts at a time and skip merrily between them... Believe me I do. Skip to my Lou!

But sometimes, I get so busy in working on projects with deadlines, that I just want to bust out something completely out of the blue...

So where do I start?


In my Orphan block stash.

Yes, I call it a stash!  I have oodles of them!

Sometimes my 15 minutes of play is, stopping to sew an IDEA. Then I put it aside, and go back to what I need to do.  I capture the moment of OH! or AH HA! in the moment, so I can have that energy played out in a block.


Flipping through my blocks make me look at where I was 'then' as a creative person, and where I am 'now' as a creative person, and often that person is not the same person...

Right?

We are not the same creative person we were when we started, whatever our creative outlet is...

I find great interest in what I've made in the past and lost interest on... and I look to find what I still like about it, and what new thoughts bubble up.

This block in particular,  First, it's a star in of a million of different stars in my orphan box. Two, It has  more white then I normally use. ( interesting) Three,  Weird, but completely lovable collection of fabrics in the setting fabrics...  HMMMM, a place to start.

I look for what I like...

THAT is a great place to start.


Then I found this block and well,  it's a total squirrel moment, 
an "OOH! Love that! 
Now what can I do? "  and I am off and running...

So go visit your leftovers... And see what inspires...

Or if you really want "outside the box"...


Let your dog decide what is interesting, and run with that....


OK, maybe not...

But you get the idea... Find a new angle to play with, and RUN WITH IT!


6 comments:

  1. Yes... Indeed I was the squirrel this Sunday as I cleaned up my sewing room. I actually put stuff in the "cut it up"/made fabric bin... Can't wait to wrap my brain around all of these ideas. But in the meantime I am working on dear Jane part deux... And will whip up some 15 minutes of play blocks... 😁

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  2. I just finished sorting through my UFOs and orphan/sample blocks. I do finish quilts, but I start a lot of them, too. I made a list of them so I knew what I had. I was feeling like a loser with so much going on, as that is how my brain functions. Then I go to check out blog posts, and wham, you speak to it. So, I am creative, not crazy?

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  3. Well I just adore the star block which prompted your squirrel moment. I don't have room on my walls to work on ten projects, I have room for three quilts on the design wall but usually have others in various stages in my plastic bins. I'm not a happy girl working on just one and always want to get cutting on my next idea!
    I have a box of "parts" - blocks that din't make, blocks which were cut up and so on, I'm waiting for a creative idea to hit!

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  4. That gorgeous third block told me it wants an aqua border, and to be a pillow with an aqua polk-a-dot back... Just passing the message.

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  5. sometimes all I can do is sit and think, there are so many blocks and projects I want to make and now seeing the play you have here with 1/2 sq triangles I now want to make loads of them and play around.

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  6. I took a sampler quilt top that I have had for, well let's say quite a few years now, and cut it into strips and recreated a completely new quilt top :) Crazy? Maybe, but now it is going to be the fabulous quilt it was clearly meant to be!

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