TropicalSoup

Reinventing the Wheel

{aka Great Minds Think Alike aka how Pinterest and Flickr can be self-confidence thieves}

 

(this pic from early 2008 is completely irrelevant to the post - I just love it - it was the promotions board outside the local shop at the end of our street in Rarotonga - and well, the choices are just so very Cookie. How do you like your doughnuts?)

 

I adore Pinterest and Flickr for their vast and ever-changing inspiration for, well, any creative endavour you could imagine, really. I love that I pop in a few keywords, and kapow - instant inspiration on tap! Of course, I am also slightly impressed by the sheer time suckage power that these sites have, for me at least!

 

Sometimes though, (and this happens both when I am actively searching for something for a particular project, or randomly Alice in Wonderlanding through all the eye candy - see *time suckage* above, ha!) the sheer volume of inspiration can be overwhelming, to the point where I lose the enthusiasm to make something because *it's all been done before*, or I am simply so overwhelmend with ideas my mind can't settle long enough to decide on one. (Rachel from Stitched in Color wrote very eloquently about this earlier this year - and her post's message has stuck with me)

And sometimes, in the midst of all this glorious imagery, you stumble upon something that is uncannily like the idea that's been percolating away on your noggin for an *original* design...already stitched by someone else. That's where things tend to get a bit shifty for me - obviously the idea I thought was the product of my imagination, has germinated in someone else's noggin too (which is really very cool if you think about it - great minds think alike and all that) but I confess it does tend to cool my enthusiasm for some of those intended projects - not so much the *someone else has already thought of it* aspect (because that is bound to happen), but because of concerns of accusations or the perception of plagiarism, even if it is a completely random or accidental development of a design by 2 separate people in a remarkably similar fashion. Sad but true - I'd simply rather not make a particular quilt (or not share it here, at any rate) than open myself up to that sort of criticism and confrontation - as I've seen those bombs explode elsewhere online and well, this is my happy place!

So, on the back of all this, you can imagine my surprise just a day or so ago - I was hunting through Flickr, hoping for inspiration to hit on how to use my Soul Blossoms collection (I have been hoarding it, and it is starting its siren call, begging to be used - does your fabric do this?)...when I happened to stumble upon this beauty - look familiar? The resemblance between this lovely quilt by Hideaway Girl and my Like a Record Baby quilt is pretty uncanny, right? Now, Hideaway Girl made her quilt nearly a full year ago, and I haven't seen it before now, and yet I still got antsy when I saw it, worrying that there would be this perception that I had taken her idea and made it my own, without attribution etc.

{And here we should pause for a moment to acknowledge that a. yes, I do think (and worry!) entirely too much; and b. a worrywort quilter who is also an ex-copyright law lecturer is just a combination that is not going to end well, ha! There's probably good reason for a third point as well so c. yes, I must not hang out inside my own head ofr extended periods of time - no good will come of this!!!}

That said, thankfully, I'd already shared the photos of my quilt before discovering Hideaway Girl's, so part of the mental tug-of-war was irrelevant since it was already out there, phew! And there are some definite differences - though gosh I love the sense of decadance that she has created by pairing Soul Blossoms and a dark grey!

And the really crazy thing? When I was first formulating the idea of the LARB quilt, I was seriously considering using my Soul Blossoms and a darker neutral - how freaky would that have been?!?! At the end of the day though I went with the Remix jelly roll simply because it was a jelly roll and so already cut, and laziness should always be rewarded, ha!

The owl and The Pussycat - a HoopUp Swap

I have joined the gorgeous Hoop Up Swap {round 3} over at Flickr. Above is my inspiration mosaic - The Owl and The Pussycat, by Edward Lear. Below is my inspiration piece, for the rest of my group, it's a wee way off being finished yet - what do you think? Drawing has never been my strong suit, but I am making a concerted effort to do more of it...practice makes tolerable and all that!

 

I'm linking up with The Southern Institute's Creative Me and Skip to my Lou's Made by You Monday

What do you think the chances are....

...of the Shoemaker's elves coming over tonight and applying the binding to these 2 quilts? Yeah, that's about what I thought too! I quilted them both over the weekend, and promise to share once the quilts are bound (either by me or - unlikely but still appealing - by small minions).

 

In the meantime, I think this will become a quilt for our bed, though making a decision on layout and style is about doing me in! (It's Anna Maria Horner in Good folks, what I have left of Garden Party, and a few solids. yum)

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

I'm participating in Amy's online quilt festival, where the brief is to post about a favourite quilt.

I made this quilt in a weekend class taken by extraordinary Masterton quilter Katharine Morrison in 2002 (I remember sewing the binding on 6 months later whilst I wated for D to come out of shoulder surgery...); it's called *The Bloke's blanket* and was my first true introduction to improv quilting. The idea was to use all your randomly shaped and sized scraps, to piece together blocks that you'd then trim and join, with some random use of sashing. The primary problem for me was that at this point I'd only made 2 quilts, and my scrap stash was a little light, and the pieces were rather large. I think I spent 2/3 of that first day of class cutting my scraps up! (I've since made up for that, several times over)

It's quilted heavily with parallel lines about 1/4" apart, which I love, but certainly wouldn't try on anything bigger than this, it was hard to stay patient...

Why do I love it? About 3 years ago, it stopped being a throw quilt and became our picnic quilt...it gets dragged out and about and every picnic meal we've had since then - on beaches in Rarotonga and the Seychelles, (and even Ohope Beach in NZ!), on our front decks overseas and our lounge floor at home, this is where we gather. I have such lovely memories of this quilt's place in the rhythm of our family life. It's been washed more times than I can count, is showing some real fading in spots - from both the washing and the drying and the bleaching under the sun, and isn't often grubby-fingermark-free (see bottom of quilt in picture - we'd just finished a picnic lunch inside on yet another cold and miserable rainy day and there had been some warm milo spillage! - may as well see it the way it is) I love all that this quilt stands for, and yes, it's in the washing machine again!

Inspiration

This little you tube clip has been around for a while, but it never fails to inspire, to make me smile, sing along, and practise drawing!

(blog)Bull at a gate

Some of the fabrics that resulted from my little internet spendy a month or so ago. Watch as this month they are magically transformed, ooh as they are cut, aah as they are sewn, wonder when they will be finished....

So I just signed up for Blogtoberfest, committing to posting here every day this month. I'm hoping it will give me a chance to get better acquainted with blogging again as well as help me figure out how to do things on this confounding interweb blog thingummy! (see extra html at right above blog button for proof! HTH do I get rid of it?) as well as be the kick in the pants gentle nudge I need to get my creative fires stoked again, and cross over from just ogling others' work, to creating again myself. Thankfully the lovely ladies behind this fest have been gracious enough to just let any old body sign up, without requiring their blogs be immensely popular, well read or even read at all. phew.

I have been thinking for a long time now that I would like to morph this blog into a more crafty-oriented space - a bit less family newsletter, a bit more inspiration gathering and showcase for my creations, if you will. Especially now that we are not halfway around the world from our families, and my mum is no longer threatening all manner of evils if we don't return with her grandbabies, or at-the-very-least-send-pictures-more-regularly-honestly-were-you-raised-by-etiquette-challenged-wolves! Of course, there'll still be plenty of Cole and Immy - that's who I am and where we are right now. Hopefully, this will give me a chance to have a little me shine through too.

And yeah, I realise I could have just started a new separate, dedicated blog, but where's the complications in that? So, people, fill your handles, here we go!!!