As you already know: Sewn.eu is now online and it’s my honor to take you, once and a while, on a journey through the world of quilts.

My first column is about “INSPIRATION”. Every new quilt and new textile project starts with inspiration. A thought, an idea, an abstract notion! Inspiration what is it, do you need it and also how do you get it?

Synonymous with Inspiration is the Idea – the thought. A song, a beautiful picture, a good book or poetry, even a woodland or beach walk, to create something in color or with a design. Quilters will always have the need to create something, this is tangible and most likely forever.

Many of you have recently visited the Carrefour European Du Patchwork in St Marie Aux Mines, one of the biggest European quilt exhibitions. I think that many of the quilter’s daily got lots of inspiration from the beautiful traditional quilts and they wanted to create a similar quilt with their fabric. And let’s be clear, that is perfect for us textile and quilt designers.

Would you like to start a project which is not from a book but you do not know how to start?

Go for a walk through the wood’s or to the beach and take a camera or a notebook with you to write or photograph what you see, what you feel, what you hear, what you smell. Visit a museum with a special exposition and walk around and make nice sketches. Another idea is to walk into a bookstore to look into the art, travel or photo books. A complete new world can appear. I also recommend spending an afternoon in the library, it’s for free and it’s warm.

What’s the secret: many people all around the world are doing, more or less, the same thing. We speak about a joint memory. Everybody thinks; unaware, at the same moment that the same thought inspires something different from someone else. And that happens not only in the art world.

I mention this often, very conscious, about textile and quilting and art and textile art. Side by side; mixed and so on, Quilting and patchwork is for everybody, young and old, traditional and contemporary.

The most important thing is that you enjoy making a quilt, by hand or with a machine, designed by yourself or from a book. There are lots of beautiful pattern books available and it is okay to use them.

It is not necessary to invent the wheel again!

I think my next article will be about a nice book, I already have an idea!

Best regards and see you next time.

Ina Klugt-Berghuis

Ina-quiltsandmore.blogspot.com