Inspiration

I have said before that I get my inspiration from looking at nature and taking pictures which I then use to create my art quilts.  Often this is the way a piece of my art gets started but there are times that a color or a piece of fabric inspires my imagination. It just clicks, I see mountains, oceans and full landscapes in commercially printed quilt fabric. So when I had the chance to take a road trip to attend the American Quilt Society spring show in Paducah, Kentucky the mecca of quilting,  I jumped at the chance.

I started with a trip to quilt store to outdo all quilt stores-

I admit I was so excited to shop that I showed up on Sunday, the only day that this shop is closed. Checked the front door for the hours, peeked into the store then went back to my hotel to wait till Monday. I showed up at opening and bam right inside the door my favorite fabric designer and on sale no less! Looking thru the isles and isles and more isles I found more inspiration than I could have imagined. I knew this store was big but dang they had more colorful and interesting fabric than I thought.

Three hours later and many, many choices to delete from what I selected, I settled on pieces that I knew I would use, two batik fabrics that had wonderful color and could be cut up to colage along with a print that I have used before but in a peachy color I have never seen before. I have so many new ideas running thru my head along with the image overload of all the fabric that I had to go back to my hotel room to take a nap. Here is my selection.

I then went to one of the many quilt shows in the area. More inspiration from a selection of art quilts done for the National Parks system. There were all depicting national parks from the southern region of the United States. I was happy to be allowed to take pictures for they were very impressive.

I was able to get to the International Quilt museum after my rest. This is a wonderful place to visit anytime of year, they have a rotating permanent collection along with special exhibits.  No photos are allowed inside but it is an excellent collection.  Please consider this museum yourself if you are in the Paducah area.

I took a trip around the old town of Paducah. Lots of little shops full of antiques, clothes, a tea shop, another fabric shop, artist gallery and just for the week of the show a book store from the American Quilt Society. I am crazy about books of any kind and they were selling for five dollars a piece. If you bought five then you got a sixth book for free, so of course I picked out five. Lots of new ideas from these books too, how am I going to decide on what to start?

That evening I had a ticket to the “sneek peek” of the show. This gives you two hours to see all the quilts that were chosen for the different juried exhibits of the show including the winners in each catagories. You also get first choice of the vendors wears before the general public. There were plenty of folks at this sneek peek but not as many during the regular show hours, well worth the extra cost. I am in awe of all the precision and creativity in each “sane” or reqular quilts.

I then head to the second floor for I have been told that is where the art quilts are displayed. I am not disappointed in my delight to see all the creative and ingenious art. Wow, just wow is all I can say at first. I was so excited I have to admit I forgot to get most of the names of the artists of these beautiful pieces of art. What do you think?

Lastly there was a special exhibit of art quilts done all in denim. Yes I said denim, so many colors of blue that one can see. The artist is Ian Berry a skilled artist using only a single color pallet of used jeans. It is so amazing what one can do with prue talent.

Lots of pictures for such a wonderful time. Now to get off the computer and take this inspiration by the horns and create.