Where do I get my ideas for quilts?

When I first started quilting in 1986 I basically found a quilt pattern in a book that I liked and then decided to make it. These were mainly traditional quilts like double wedding ring, sawtooth star, schoolhouse.  Many were pieced, but there were some that were raw edge fusible appliqué. Several of these early quilts can be seen under the Misc Quilts tab above or by following this link. https://chrissquiltinguniverse.blogspot.com/p/misc.html. A good example of one that I made from a pattern in a book is this Amish one. I loved hand quilting all those cables and feathers.

Even though I was using patterns I did begin to modify those patterns by choosing fabrics that were very different than those shown in the patterns. The dinosaur quilt would be a good example of that. The original colors were yellow, red, and black. The pink, blue, and purple dots and stripe fabrics were really fun and our daughter loved them. She still has the quilt. 

The Halloween quilt that I made was also from a pattern, but I changed several of the trick or treaters so they were wearing costumes that our daughter wore. Our daughter has this quilt hanging on the wall of her office. 

So I was starting to add my own touches to the quilts that I was making. In 2004 I started making original art quilts. So where do the ideas for those art quilts come from? I would say they come from several sources. 

One

Photos that we have taken or ones I found online serve as inspiration. Neither of these are copied exactly. They are only inspiration. All photos need to be edited. They need to be zoomed and cropped. Things need to be left out or moved. Values need to be changed. I have collected many photos for ideas for future quilts. If I find something that I like I save it for the future. The photo that I will use for next year’s recycle show I’ve had in my photo collection for about 5 years. So I use photos to spark the idea for a quilt.

Two 

My daughter helps come up with ideas. She definitely helped last year when I needed an idea for the Bellefonte Art Museum word challenge. My word was wonder and she said to do wonder bread. I decided to do an Andy Warhol like quilt. I’m from Pittsburgh so that’s appropriate. I’m not sure what I would have done if she did not suggest this. 

Three

My husband also comes up with ideas when I’m stuck. This year’s recycle piece was his idea. He said to make a stack of Poe books with a raven on top. I used AI and online research on Ravens to finalize the idea. 

Where do you get your ideas for quilts?

Thanks for reading.

Chris