A flock of geese - the start

Weeks ago I came across a flying geese quilt on Pinterest that I fell for hard. That combined with me giving away about half a dozen quilts to my siblings, prompted me to start a new flying geese quilt. One of the quits I gave to my sister is my 'Lotta fly away' and I gave the 'On point' to my brother. I love both of those quilts so I kinda thought I make myself a new one using a little of both .....

I adore the flying geese pattern and my stock of K.Fassett shot cottons, Zanzibar fabric, stash of Moda cross, gingham and ticking treasures are waiting to be made into a new large quilt with lots and lots of geese.

Let the sewing begin.

On-point -work in progress-

I normally don't give that many update throughout the progress of a quilt-in-making but this one is so special and so vibrant that I can't help myself photographing it all the time.

Hopefully this isn't getting to boring for you and the next post about it will be the finishing line.
Promise !!

On Point - a new start-

I forcefully jolted myself out of my lethargic, motivation-less state and started a new quilt. I got up from the sofa on Friday evening gave myself a kick in the b*** and started cutting.
Quelle surpise, it worked and thank goodness for that as I was beginning to seriously wonder if I had lost the quilting mojo for good.

When I came back from Zanzibar some 10 days ago I brought back some traditionally handwoven Swahili Kikoi that are worn all over Africa. The fabric is a 100 % cotton and usually made in vibrant beautiful colour combinations and as you can see with lots of stripes.

They are beautiful to the touch, very soft and "strokeable". I already had some from previous visits but wanted to get a few more with an idea for a quilt lurking in the back of my mind.
 

I must have acres of striped fabric in my stash and it is about time I'd do something with it. So my idea is to combine the Kikoi with a variety of Oakshott stripes. I am thinking to combine the colourful stripes with the more subtle stripes to a achieve contrast and all of that on point.

I somehow think I have my work cut out.

Where does it all come from ?

The IT being my Inspiration.

Today I would like to share with you another source for my inspirations. Whenever I start a new quilt I usually describe in my blog post how and why I got to design this particular quilt. Sometimes it is inspired by another quilt and on other occasions triggered  by art (as in the Comet) or indeed by the everyday. Inspiration comes in many shapes and forms. In Spring this year I went to the David Hockney exhibition ' A bigger picture' at the RAC and was utterly blown away by the scale of beauty and colour. Hockney had taken over the entire gallery and filled it mostly with works from the last 10 years where he reinvented himself as a landscape painter, painting his native Yorkshire. I love every single painting he produced and when I left my head was buzzing with colour.

Very interesting was also his use of modern technology. He painted over fifty i-pad drawings documenting the arrival of Spring. They are absolutely fantastic and I find it very inspiring how a man of more than 80 engages with new technology.

If hope some of you have had the chance to see the exhibition. This was one of those lifetime events that won't come along twice. If you google the exhibition then you will find plenty of images of his paintings in case you missed the exhibition but there is also an excellent accompanying book still available.  

Whilst I am a creative person and a decent photographer I am most definitely no painter and my drawing is questionable at best. But what I took away from that exhibition was the desire to make something big in strong and rich colours and to fiddle around with my ipad !

A few days later I was having one of those moments where I was wishing myself away from it all and far away to a beautiful beach. I have been lucky enough over the past ten years to have been a couple of times to Zanzibar where there are magical beaches. I never felt the urge to take a colour photo of "my beach" because no photo can do it justice in my opinion. What is so beautiful and mesmerizing about this beach is that it is white and flat and when the tide is out the water retreats very far and you can walk towards it for what feels like forever. When I am there I experience no desire to do anything other than walk, sleep, read and eat. Trust me this is something very rare when it comes to me as I hardly ever stop. So I went about creating an image on my i-pad that reflects this perfect beach to me.


My plan is to make it into a quilt  at some point and put it on the wall opposite my bed where I can look at it and dream myself far away.

 

What are your sources for inspiration ?