I have been almost all the way across the width of Beautiful America in the last two weeks to celebrate the graduation of two grandchildren, one from Florida State U and the other from Washington State U. We had such a good time with them and their families.
I find that my interest in quilting has influenced my way of looking at the world. As we drove those many miles I kept picking out patterns and designs that might have a place in quilting as well as colors created by nature that would look nice in a quilt palette. I keep a lot of ideas on Pinterest, but there are a ton more in the world around us.
Check out the carpets and upholstery of the places you visit. People look askance at me as I walk into hotels, theaters, and restaurants and start taking pictures of the carpet. Some floor coverings are truly beautiful. This restaurant upholstery has some lovely colors as well as designs.
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| Upholstery in an Indian restaurant. |
Other places from which I draw inspiration are gates and fences. They come in grids, diamonds, wrought iron curls and scrolls, split rail (interesting triangles), pickets, etc. Driving across the country I saw lots of variety.
How about a bas relief from Pompeii? Cobblestones, bricks and walls often provide inspiration.
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| Bas Relief from a bathouse in Pompeii, Italy |
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| Cobblestones laid in patterns. Wall of design. These also from Pompeii. |
I love wind turbines. They are HUGE as I discovered when we passed a single wing on an elongated semi-truck. When you look at the standing turbine it is hard to fathom how big they really are. In some places large forests of turbines sprouted from the flat prairies. I find them calming in their slow, productive rotation. One morning they stood tall and white against the pink rising sun anchored in a soft cushion of light ground fog. So pretty. Do they relate to quilts? I don't know, but they are in my mind so may appear in a design somewhere, sometime. No photos because we always saw them from the Interstate - not a good place to stop.
In a forest of deciduous trees I see stippling in the leaves. How about making the stipple in the shapes of leaves? Must try that.
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| Leaf Stippling
Long leaf pines remind me of the tight, straight lines that I often use around feathers in my quilting. The infant trees look like a clump of grass among the tall, straight trunks of older members of their kind.
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Finally, I found McTavishing in the clouds. They can be a constant source of inspiration and are always changing.
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| A cloud for McTavishing. |
I also noticed along the road huge billboards advertising quilt stores. We have come a long way in recent years ladies and gents. I waved to the Handi-Quilter truck as it rumbled by.
Happy stitching this week.
