OH that IKEA !

Sometimes I am asked where my inspiration comes from... OK maybe I ask myself when I am pretending to be interviewed for a feature in a quilt magazine, don't crush a girl's dreams...  but it is a good question. Where does inspiration come from?  Can you make it happen?

I think you find inspiration by being curious.  You cannot demand it to appear, as people do with things like respect... you must respect me !  OK, good luck with that.  Same with inspiration. Inspiration appear ! Nope. Nothing.

The curious mind finds inspiration when she least expects it.  Or when she has just had a lovely $1 breakfast at IKEA with her sister and niece.

This is what struck me last time...

My VINTERFINT mug... ooooo la la and made in France no less !

I think IKEA designers are amazing... the things they come up with to fill our lives with wonderful designs to please the eye.  VINTERFINT is their Christmas/Winter line this year and it is a treat.  I highly recommend a morning visit to your local IKEA to have a $1 breakfast and then peruse the wares.  This is not to say that IKEA is forcing me to endorse their store... they have no idea who I am... yet :P

To my eye this mug is a quilting design waiting to be let free from glass.

This is what I have come up with so far... I am calling it FLEGG... combination of flower and egg.  If IKEA designers can have fun making up names that we have to say when ordering their creations, then so can I.  "I would like my quilt done in an allover FLEGG design please."

The amazing thing is this is only one possible design.  I am doodling endless other options.

FLEGG practice number 1

FLEGG on the other side...

Keep your eyes, mind and heart open.  Inspiration is everywhere waiting for you to slow down and pay attention long enough to notice !

The Relentless Pursuit of Perfection... my quilt not a Lexus

Here, finally, after much wiffle waffling over photos is my church door quilt...

I have nearly done myself in worrying about getting the perfect picture of this quilt.

I started with this...

but felt it was ho hum...

I even tried photos in the evening light to show the quilting detail like this...

  

and this...

Nothing was good enough.  Nothing showed just how lovely it was in person.

That is until a friend reminded me that when you go to see say a Van Gogh (who I love) you are bowled over by the magic of being in the presence of his art.  You are so excited to hold the image in your mind's eye that you make a stop at the museum store to buy a print.  As wonderful as that print or t-shirt or mug might be, it cannot compare to the original and here is the key  - it is NOT supposed to.

Now before you roll your eyes and say oh please here she is comparing herself to Van Gogh now... that is not my intention, though granted we are both slightly unstable redheads.  What I learned is as much as I love to share what I make, the pictures I take will never be perfect.  If I wait for them to be, it is as good as waiting for a brand new Lexus to show up in my driveway (though really I would rather have a Mini or a Fiat but they do not fit with the title of this post).

So here it is.  Since I moved to Ancaster 17 years ago I often said the doors of a local church (St. John's Anglican) would make a stunning quilt.  Well I finally did it and it only took me twice as long to post these pictures as it took me to make it.

Problem now being I stop at every local church to take pictures of the doors, and walls and windows in search of my next inspiration.  Please do not beep at me as you pass, I will jump, my photo ruined and may fall backward down the steps and injure myself in front of the church in question. Most unseemly.

and one more just in case