Art Quilters Unite! 8 Ways to Nurture Your Creativity
Posted by Lindsay Conner on Oct 18th 2018
Visual Guide to Art Quilting: Explore Innovative Processes, Techniques & Styles is a new book filled with techniques, recommendations and advice for those quilters that want to dip their toes into the world of art quilting. But it's just as much a reference for experienced art quilters, with articles and tutorials from some of the most notable quilting artists in the field.
I think creativity is part of human nature. We all have experience in creating something, whether it's a meal, a painting in grade school, or an essay. But I think that being creative is also something that can be learned as a person nurtures that gift!
What are some way to nurture your creativity?
1. Listen to music outside of your normal genre while you work on a quilt.
2. Make a recipe using only local or seasonal ingredients as your base.
3. Instead of writing an email from top to bottom, why not start at the end?
4. Make a quilt using an item from the dollar store (or your child's craft box) to change up your medium!
5. Join a creative group, like a quilter's guild, and see what work others are making,
6. Visit a museum, a vintage bookstore, or go antique shopping. Make a quilt based on something you see!
7. Freehand sketch something you see in nature. Now make a piece of art using a totally different medium (clay, screenprinting, photography, etc.) that gives you the same emotion feeling as the item you drew.
8. Find a friend, and give each other a specific quilting challenge or assignment. Meet back together in a few weeks to share your results!
If these tips seem a little out of the box, that's okay! They will get easier with practice. And you can always borrow inspiration from the art quilters featured in Visual Guide to Art Quilting. With so many ideas (think surface design techniques, fabric dyeing guides, composition, and more!) together into a single organized volume, you're likely to become a more well-rounded art quilter after soaking it in.
Art quilting is hard to define, but it is a way to "break the rules" of traditional quilting. As you embellish and decorate your art quilt, conveying a unique idea in the way that only you can, I hope that this new book inspires you to nurture your own creativity, have fun with your quilts, and become a quilting artist!
