Inspiration

"The creative mind plays with the objects it loves."
                                  Carl Jung

Let's play!

Ideas and inspiration

I just have to share this site with you! The Pattern Observer features photos of found patterns.......patterns found in nature, in art, in fashion design. Colors. Textures. Gorgeous photos. Inspiring!
Last week I was lying on a granite rock at the edge of an alpine lake in the High Sierras. Up above were fir trees. The tips of the top branches looked like snow flakes. Symmetry. Detail in the feathered edges of the needles. Pattern. Contrast against the blue sky.
Where do you go for inspiration? Tell us everything!

Inspiring

Here is an amazing virtual quilt museum. Do you need an 'AHHHHHHHHHH' moment? Check out the beauties at the Eco American Quilt Museum. It's well worth the trip!

Carousels

A summer icon: riding a carousel. We got to visit a restored Merry-Go-Round in San Francisco this summer. Kids were only a dollar! How refreshing.

Lose yourself on these Antique Carousels !

Journey into Quiltland

How did I start making quilts? The charming girls are sharing their stories!

Stored away in my doll house, from age 10, there is a little bed quilt made of flamboyant 1970s colors. I hand stitched little squares of torquoise, green, and purple together.

(Where did I get that fabric? A friend of my grandmothers had sent us an entire apple box full of her sewing room scraps. And my Mom, bless her heart, gave us lots of room and space to play and make stuff. She didn't freak out at the mess factor.)

I definitely have a sewing gene. As a teenager I sewed lots of clothes. Mom was there if I needed help reading those blessed instructions. As a college student and beyond there was always a project in the works. For college graduation I got a sewing machine.

Two things happend in my 30s:

• I grew tired of making clothes that would end up in the out-of-fashion-pile at the back of my closet. Hours to sew no longer stretched ahead of me endlessly.

and

• Friend Laurie threw us a surprise baby shower, and then took me to a quilt store, waited while I chose fabrics, and took me home and showed me how to use that rotary cutter and ruler. Before Laurie that cutter had me terrified. So sharp! That was in 1995.

I've been making baby quilts ever since. I can finish them! Lots of large UFOs are lurking in my workroom, but the little quilts are done.

So, thanks to good friends and good family, I am a quilter!

May Flowers

Sierra Nevada wildflowers are magnificent this spring! We are still having cool weather, sprinkled with rain. Flowers are blooming that I've never seen before. Thanks to some dear friends, I got to hike in the mountains today. The dogs romped, the friends talked, and I am at peace and satisfied.

What inspires you?

Color inspires me!

I had the pleasure of taking pictures of rainbow colors on Maui this month.

What inspires you? Write me a note, and you will be entered into a drawing, on April 30th, for 1930s charm squares!

Friday Photo

Marble and Brick Detail, Sonoma Public Library

Friday Photo

Piano key borders? Sonoma Public Library Building

Machine Quilting Inspiration

For anyone who's had the pleasure of seeing Diane Gaudynski's work in person, you know why I'm excited about this find. Here is a real treat: Diane's Blog. Go look at her quilts!

Friday Photo

Old Brick Building in Sonoma: Texture!

Friday Photo

Stucco Detail seen on Sonoma Square

Friday Photos

Mustard Bloom: Napa Valley in January.

I see a row quilt.

Friday Photo

More quilting designs-all around us!

Friday Photo

Welcome to Friday Photos!

There are things of beauty all around us. This historic Methodist church was built in 1860, in California's gold rush country. Today the texture and patterns in the steeple caught my eye.

What inspires you?

Quilting Designs

Leah has posted a dresden-plate inspired machine quilting design! (Day 66) I think it'd look fabulous in a border. Check out her 365 days of quilting designs.