More Inspiration

I bought myself a treat a week ago and have not been able to get my nose out of it for more than five minutes. It's Material Obsession 2 by Kathy Doughty and Sarah Fielke, two Australian gals whose blogs I have been following for quite a while now. I first saw the book last winter and have continually migrated back to it so it is now part of my library.

I'm not sure if it's the difference in climate or what it is but I find that many of the Australian bloggers have a much different sensibility than North American quilters - they have an overriding love of bright, bold prints and produce exhuberant pieces that just make your heart sing. That might sound funny coming from a book with a black quilt on the cover, but look closely and you will see how they have reworked traditional patterns and made them refreshingly new.

What I particularly like about it is the notion of shared inspiration that they have used. There are 10 pairs of quilts and each pair was developed from a common concept (scraps, foundation piecing or a repeating block) or fabric. I am continually intrigued at how the same pattern is interpreted so very differently, depending on the quilter, and this book is a perfect illustration of that. It also encourages you to take their inspiration and continue to work it so that it reflects your taste and style. To colour outside the lines, if you will. There are no wrong answers.

This is the outside back cover and one of my favourites in the book. As is so often the case I'm already redesigning it in my mind's eye...I don't know that I would use the same application of the blossoms and I don't particularly like square quilts so I'm thinking that the blossoms could be incorporated into a more rectanglular centre block and then the quilt would also become rectangular. But that's what would make it mine, right?


There's also some really tempting applique to try. Look at the detail in that blossom!





















And a fantastic, bright, scrappy Spider Web...

Oh, and did I mention...the photography is superb - Kathy's husband took the pics. It all adds up to endless hours of flipping and dreaming and who knows, maybe some day creating.









Sarah's new book, Quilting From Little Things, is just out recently. I've seen bits of it online but have yet to lay my hands on a hard copy, and it looks like it might be tempting too...








But quilters know that inspiration can be found anywhere. Like, say, on the street. Dori sent through this shot that she took on her way home from work one day. It is simple pavers but obviously creative little hands (maybe future quilters) took chalk in hand and made the time to make it their own...M