Spontaneous Designing Challenge

It was a beautiful sunny and warm weekend here in Northern Illinois. Scott and I spent the entire weekend outside getting our yard ready for plants. We still have a few little things to do and we need to clean and reseal our deck but by the end of this coming weekend, we expect to have everything completed and ready for planting.

Despite so much time outside, I did manage a bit of stitching time. Rather than starting another crazy quilting project, I decided to do something completely spontaneous, a sort "design as you go" project:



If you're interested in increasing your artistic abilities, this would be a good Challenge exercise for you, an excellent starting point!

Gather a piece of fabric, some buttons, some beads and some threads. To make a circle, I used a drinking glass and traced it onto my fabric. I then sewed on some vintage glass buttons and beaded around them. I drew on some leaves and beaded those. Next, I will add some embroidery.

Give this a try! Use what you have on hand and start the same way I did, with the intention of creating 3 flowers. And then expand on it. What sort of fancy stitches do you know how to do? Use them! And don't confine yourself to the inside of the circle. Once you fill in the circle with beading and stitching, think about what you can do beyond the circle. You can create an entire garden if you want to!

I have no idea where my piece is going to go. I can finish stitching within the circle and then stitch or bead around it and leave it at that, but I really want to see where spontaneity takes me. This may remain as a small piece or it may expand into a larger piece. The point is to design as you go.

Many times, some one will look at one of my crazy quilt pieces and tell me that it's beautiful but they could never do anything like that. They're not creative or artistic. Do you know what they're really saying to me? They're telling me that they don't want to. For whatever reason, they're telling me that they don't want to try.

We are all creative! And we all have the ability to be artistic. So if you're interested in getting your artistic juices moving, start with my suggestion and add your ideas to it. You don't have to see the whole staircase. Just take one step at a time and have fun with it. There's no right or wrong way. Many times, I have no idea what a design will look like until it's complete. That's where the fun is!

If you decide to give this a try and have a blog or Flickr album, post the link in the comments section of this post so everyone can see your what your doing. That will inspire others and then you'll see how inspiration is everywhere and you will see that you do have the ability to be artistic!