I took my first quilting class when I was 24 years old. It was your standard traditional sampler class. Each week you learned how to piece a different shape and different kinds of block designs built on said shape. Even in that class I was one of the youngest students. Fast forward to my first class with Nancy Crow. I was 38 and definitely the youngest woman in the room. Most of the other students were in their 50’s and 60’s. As part of the Crow class, students are given 20 minutes to give presentations of their work, and then other students could ask the presenter questions. I have done many Crow classes and several presentations. Below is a finished study from my second class, “Strip-piecing & Restructuring #3”, with Nancy Crow in 2003. This study was done on my first trip to the Barn.
“Study-SP3” 2003, 48” w by 43” h commercial fabrics, hand quilted
One of the questions I am most frequently asked is “Where do you get your ideas?” This is not an area where I have ever struggled. I have always felt that I have more ideas than time! And almost anything can spark an idea for me — nature, books, music, museums, travels, conversations — the list is endless. I have always been blessed with a very vivid imagination and a curious mind.
I am also a booklover. I read all kinds of books. One of the things I loved about living in New Zealand was the access to British books in the bookstores. I miss that. Anyhow, a well stocked and deeply read library is a great foundation for generating ideas. Between my husband and I, we collect books on birds, flowers, trees and of course, art. This has been a wonderful resource while quarantining at home. Do you want to study variations on a motif? Look closely at a bird book. Thanks to my husband we have all of the volumes of the Handbook of the Birds of the World by Lynx Edicions. Below is page 190 from Volume 5 Barn-owls to Hummingbirds.
The variations on motifs in nature are often illustrated in handbook and identification guides.
And if you want to dive more deeply into the art world read the text of your art books! Of course I love the pictures of all of the artwork, but I learn even more by reading about the artwork! I recently finished the catalog to the “Hockney — Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature” published by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, 2019. I read it from cover to cover. It talks about perspective, color, and new ways of representing space, light and time. The conversation with David Hockney at the end is a must read. This is just one of the many art books in my library.
So how are you generating your ideas? How are you growing in your knowledge? How are you gathering imagery meaningful to you? What’s in your library?
One of my art book shelves