Creativity and Inspiration

In a recent podcast interview with Pat Sloan we talked briefly about creativity and inspiration. Creativity for me happens when I imagine the possibilities as I plan a quilting project. That happens after I have had an inspiring experience—be it discovering a leaf along the road on my morning walk to the Mississippi River or reading about a new technique or seeing a color combination I hadn’t used before. Serge Bloch said, “creativity is the art of combining a little idea with another little idea” and eventually you have a great idea. When I’m working on a quilted project that is what often happens. I have a little idea and then while I am working on that another idea inches it’s way into my consciousness and I begin a different line of thought. I also do a lot of what some would call procrastination but it’s really just taking time to sit back, reflect and gather in additional information or ideas and allowing them to simmer before continuing.  I savor the process of creating rather than being driven to move to a finished product.

A small project to illustrate the process is this collage that was going to be just a patchwork of shapes of my hand dyed vintage linens cut and sewn in an interesting way with soft pastel colors that reminded me of a particular spring morning. Perhaps I would add some decorative threads hand stitched for accent. I got that part of the project done and it was not as inspiring to look at as I had visualized. So I put it out of sight for a few days, contemplating off and on what I might add to make it more interesting. A spring-like patchwork needed a spring-like flower and some additional linens with different texture, some silk ties of the right color, a touch of rainbow organza leftover from another project, and then some beads and a little more stitching.