Ideas and inspiration

Get a cup of your favourite tipple, this is a long post with lots of links!

so where do ideas and inspiration come from? Is it images, is it techniques, is it other artists, emotions, the need to say "something" themes or challenges?  

What ever it is there is plenty out there and sometimes there is none to be found and no matter how much "stuff"  (paper, fabric, yarn, paint, stamps ...) you have, they stay unused or whatever you do make you don't like and it gets discarded.

Two events have sparked my creative machine recently.  A workshop at Hope and Elvis and meeting other mixed media artists and a visit to the Festival of Quilts (FoQ) on Friday.  

I really could have done with two days at FoQ, the amount of shopping opportunities, the quilts, the art exhibitions and the artists themselves is impossible to do properly in one day.  

Whilst I like looking at the quilts, I prefer looking at the modern art exhibitions, talking to the artists and the students who have the opportunity to have a small stand to show their degree and City and Guilds work (see you can't take the encouraging librarian put of me event at a quilt show).

So what inspired me  at FoQ? Well here's a list and links so you can have a look at their work:

• Deborah O'Hare and her amazing hares, you can also see here work here 
• Annette Morgan and her image transfers 
• Caroline Bell
• Linda Onions
• Mary McIntosh
• Susan Chapman and Granary Studios,  works with Linda Onions
• Val Hughes and her gorgeous textured white felting
• Janet Clare
• Christine Chester and paper lamination's about her father 
• QuiltArt
• The Fine Art Quilt Masters exhibitions especially Gravitational Force by Susie Koren
• Kate Crossley
• Through our Hands collaborative 
• Els van Baarle
• Luke Haynes, just love the tonal backgrounds of log cabin

All of these artists use texture and colour in a contemporary way and gave me loads of ideas.

I didn't buy any ready made items apart from this oh so gorgeous red velvet tag from Linda and Susan's space.

How could you not buy something so tactile and delicious!

 If you want to see some visuals of the quilts I'd recommend going on Instagram and use the hashtag #festivalofquilts to see what everyone else has posted.

And of course I bought fabric, a lot of fabric and I'm not exaggerating. I washed most of it yesterday and my dining room table looks like a jumble sale table as you can see!

 

In terms of the shops I purchased from,here's a list:

• The Village Haberdashery (chambrays and modern prints)
• Simply Solids (modern prints)
• Sunflower Fabrics (great colour combination packs and Liberty Tana Lawn)
• Mulberry Silks for silk thread
• The most gorgeous Swedish flax threads from Linladan
• Lealu for the French print chambray

And whilst I love the modern contemporary art look most of this fabric will be used to make quilt tops, the back pile has some great prints of cats of mice and birds to make a fun scrappy quilt and the front pile is chambray's that I'll use to make a raggy quilt (look it up on Google to see examples).

Shame I've got to go back to work on Monday and not play with all this stuff!

Hugs

Jo

xx