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A Design Inspiration

A few weeks ago I asked where you find inspiration.  It truly is everywhere when you become aware that everything around you could be a source of inspiration.  There’s inspiration for the geometry of a quilt, as well as the color for that quilt.  Sunrises and sunsets are two of my favorite things to photograph . . second only to weird horns on cows. This one was taken from an airplane window.

This is the view of a fall sunrise from my back porch.

This sunset picture was taken in February, 08.  I love this picture!

After having several of these pictures printed and looking at them through the years, I decided it was time to come up with a quilt plan.  The first thing I did was create a palette of the colors I might want to use.

After coming up with the design and playing with the colors, I went with more of a purple than mauve and more peach/orange than so much bright yellow and this is the quilt I’ll eventually make.

Below are a couple of designs that didn’t make the cut.  I think there were 37 quilts in my sketchbook before I decided on the one above.  Most of my quilts do start with straight, non-pieced borders.

This pieced border didn’t thrill me, nor did it add to this particular design, but it’s not a bad border for another quilt . . maybe.

If only I had more hours in my day . .

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Oh, what a gorgeous quilt!!! LOVE this one, and love how the colors came out of the sunset and how your quilt has a radiant look to it.

  2. That is absolutely STUNNING Judy… and it represents a sunrise/sunset beautifully! I think you have a real winner on your hands here, I hope you enter this one into a show when you get it made!

  5. I can’t believe people would complain about having recipes on the blog. I mean we all have to eat don’t we….? I think it’s always helpful to have a little extra inspiration – whether for quilting, cooking or life in general. Keep up the good work!

  6. This is a very nice quilt. I must study it a bit to see how you did the interesting shapes around the blocks. Good job.

    By the way your blog was discussed at lunch today with 3 of my friends and myself. Two of us know your blog well and enjoy it and the other two I am sure will start reading daily.

    • I just pick and choose the colors out of a photo and create the palette. Then using the “colors” vs. printed fabrics in EQ, I choose those closest to the RGB colors chosen from the photo to create the palette. I’m sure there are programs that can create a palette from a photo but I don’t know what they are.

  8. Beautiful quilt, Judy! The border seems to open up the quilt and makes it vibrant.
    Anna

  11. Judy, how amazing. I love those sunsets, it’s nice to have longer days and hopefully start seeing some more of these beautiful sunsets soon. Your ability to pull those colors out is totally amazing, then to put them into a quilt design – how cool is that! I really do like your final design. The sun bursts around the border really makes it stand out. You are truly talented.

    • Thanks! I’m loving the longer days but I’lm more happy that we probably won’t see any more snow for a while.

  12. Hey, Judy….at the Lancaster AQS show…took your advice….met with Andi…..she is so nice. Also enjoyed Eleanor Burns…you were right…she’s a HOOT! Won’t be reading email until late tomorrow night. Thanks for suggesting Andi.

    • You’re ahead of me . . I’ve never met Andi! Glad you were able to meet her and had fun with Eleanor.

  13. Judy– VERY PRETTY quilt design. I hope you share the directions. Bring on the recipes–it’s YOUR blog you can do what you want to do–if someone doesn’t want to see them they can skip over them. Actually what brought me to your blog was the quilt designs but I’ve enjoyed the chicken stories the best. Say HI to Ruby for me!

  15. Your photos and your palette are beautiful! And your quilt design is spectacular! But your photos have black trees etc. silhouetted in front of the sunsets. This is what gives the sunsets such a liminous glow behind the branches. You might like to try adding a black lattice to your quilt design, silhouetted in front of your sunset colored blocks, and see how much luminosity it adds to your quilt design. Or if not black, then deepest purple.

    • That’s not my style. Since I didn’t use the very glowing shades of yellow and orange, I think my quilt will be fine — different from the photo which inspired the quilt but pretty all the same.

  16. I also love the quilt that you have chosen to make. The colors are beautiful and the design only enhances the color choices.

  17. Judy, we used to live outside of St. Louis and the sunsets were absolutely amazing there! The colors of the sky were gorgeous!! Oh yeah, and when tornadoes were heading your way you knew because the color of the sky changed!!
    Your quilt: ABSOLUTELY GORGEOUS!! You are an amazing designer! I hope this is one that you share! My favorite is the first one! Just beautiful!

  19. Wow! That is a gorgeous quilt! I love the colors and the design. My husband is going to hate you. You keep posting all these wonderful things you can do with EQ6 and I’m going to HAVE to get it.

    • It’s ok if your husband hates me. Once he sees all the beautiful quilts you can make with EQ, he’ll be thanking me!

  20. That quilt…. it just sucked the life right out of me. That’s about the prettiest thing I’ve ever seen.

  21. Wow!! If you ever decide to share the EQ file for this quilt or the green one in your following posts, I would sure love to have them! They are both fantastic!!!!!

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