CREATIVITY IS . . .

I am not a perfectionist, but I am very disciplined to good use of my time and resources.  This principle in the above poster is nagging at me.  So, I am trying to go this way in my quilting.

This year I have become more involved in my Art Quilt Guild and in my Modern Quilt Guild.  Both of these guilds really challenge me to use that "other side" of my brain. They also require me to "let the ideas flow" rather than having everything so overly planned.

I should tell you that I majored in math and foreign language in college and spent a number of years teaching all the different levels of each of those disciplines on the high school and college levels.

I believe that all of us have an artistic side to our nature.  I am very creative when it comes to quilt making, I think.  It is not really difficult for me to use a color wheel and choose fabrics for a quilt design.  Sometimes I just take a look around me and choose a palette for a quilt.

I absolutely love this picture.  I am pulling fabrics for a quilt in this palette.  No, I don't think it will be a bird quilt, but the color palette is what has my attention.

Once in a while I choose to do an original quilt design, but when it comes to picking up a pencil to make a drawing or a paint brush to paint a picture, I freeze.  Well, that might be a strong word.  It is more like I go blank and cannot think of the way to approach the drawing.  What I see in my mind's eye does not come out on the paper.  I have never had an art drawing lesson.  I am finding that it is more difficult "to teach myself" how to draw than it was to teach myself how to quilt.  I have been trying to put a little time into sketching something almost daily.  I guess it will eventually come, but at the present it isn't looking too promising.

My Modern Quilt Guild is having a monthly blog lottery.  You make a number of blocks using the pattern or idea offered by the coordinator.  This month the inspiration was mosaic blocks and you can enter up to three blocks.  At the meeting you will put your name in the basket for the number of blocks you made and then the coordinator will draw the winner of all the blocks.  I am rarely, if ever, a winner, but it is fun to learn the technique.

Today I worked on some Mod Mosaic Blocks by following Elizabeth Hartman's tutorial over on Oh, Fransson blog   http://www.ohfransson.com/oh_fransson/2012/01/mod-mosaic-tutorials.html.  This was a very freeing experience.

The first one I did I pulled some mostly traditional fabrics from my stash and made it.

The inspiration piece was the Kaffe Fassett piece in the lower right corner.  Then I began to look for other things to add to it.

Trying to use up my stash that consists of a lot of traditional style fabrics and mixing them with more modern fabrics is fun.

Not too bad for a first try!  I do like using the small pieces.  The orientation of this block is fun.  If I turn it around then it looks like this.

Maybe I like this orientation better.

 

I picked another set of fabrics for this palette:

 

 

The second block I made looks like this. . .

Again, the center block is from Kaffe Fassett and these sections are much larger than the first one I did.  I guess the challenge for the winner will be to put all these very different mosaics together into one piece.  The only requirement was that the sashing had to be white.

My two blocks together . . .

Ummm, I think they will play well together in a scrappy layout.

This is how I am artistic or creative.  Still haven't made a drawing.  Okay, I will keep practicing.

 

The Bit is still in charge of the computer cord . . .


                                              -sandi