By Gabriele Bach
Linden wrote a fine article on this blog
about inspiration and Deborah a very interesting about clean working space. In
both I am interested and for me they belong together. Often I gather or buy
things for special ideas. Beside time I have TOO MUCH from every other item:
- too much ideas
- too much techniques I would like to
try
- too much fabric
- too much other material like threads,
yarns, beads, colours etc.
I always have a lot of ideas. One
difficulty is to decide which one I will realize. Another is, when I am doing a
big and/or time-consuming quilt I don't want to be distracted by other inspiritations.
Using a sketchbook doesn't help. It needs time too and I will end up with so
many ideas I never could realize in my lifetime. And it is frustrating to see
over the time how old some good designs are and still not done.
For my quilt "Backside
Mystery" from the last challenge "Under the Surface" I first
gathered some red fabric scraps. They are still laying on my working table, I
like the view and maybe I will use them for the next challenge. 
At the same time a friend and I dyed
fabrics. After washing, drying and packing away all the fabrics, the gathered loose
threads look pretty and they too could be used for the next challenge.
Otherwise I want to use red felted
balls. I bought them many years ago and embroidered with beads they look
awesome.
Near the felted balls lay silk cocoons,
some I had bought and some I had dyed. They also would be great for a little
quilt.
Mixing everything in one quilt is too chaotic,
even if our next challenge has the theme "Wild".
All of these ideas will give me much stuff
for the next challenges. Only that I will see enough new things and get other
ideas. In two weeks I will visit the European Patchwork Meeting in Val d'Argent http://www.patchwork-europe.com/.
There I will see so many extraordinary quilts that all my own ideas seem to be
boring. Besides all my good intentions I will come back with some stuff, one or
two books, very many fotos and a lot of new ideas.
I know the feeling. The greatest problem - apart from too little time - is to narrow it all down. To edit it all.
ReplyDeleteAhh! Yes! So many ideas.....so little time! A common problem, I think.
ReplyDeleteI'm having trouble keeping all my ideas and bits and pieces filed in places where I can find them. I have found that all ideas and projects don't have to be realised, just the ones that keep coming back to you.
ReplyDeleteGreat blog, Gabriele! I think we all have these problems, however, these are the problems I like to have. I will find it even more difficult since moving into a much smaller space but I will push on in the name of art!
ReplyDelete