It’s back to school time all over the country. Evidence of this is all the school supplies showing up aisle after aisle in retail stores. You don’t have to have someone in your household going back to school to utilize these great supplies – especially when it comes to your quilting creativity.
Our friend, Jacquie Gering, recently pointed out in an article for the Modern Quilt Guild’s August newsletter, that school supplies can be a great source of creativity.
Says Jacquie, “There’s something special about newly sharpened pencils, virgin crayons, and crisp empty notebooks. Back to school is a time for fresh possibilities and new experiences…As a creative person, I get stuck staring at a blank design wall wondering if I’ll ever come up with a new idea. I feel stale. That’s where the newly sharpened pencil and crisp empty notebook comes in… They seem to inspire a new attitude for a new year, and remind me to open my mind to the ideas I know are stuck inside.”
Sometimes, all it takes to reboot your creativity is to participate in a specific project. Unlocking creative ideas can come from planning and making a quilt to be submitted to Road to California 2016’s Quilters Showcase, or following through on a quilt challenge like the Road 2016 Bag Challenge or Tiny Quilt Challenge.
The Modern Quilt Guild is looking for creative ideas for their 2016 Quilt of the Month series.
Twelve new quilts, that are original ideas that have never been published before, will be chosen to be shared with MQG members. Submitted designs should have a challenging creative element (like a color study, new technique, or unique structure or piecing — they want their members to learn new things and challenge their skills). Most importantly, they want to see the vision behind the design. A visual guide to the quilt submission — a sketch (using your fresh back-to-school notebook and pencil) or a computer-generated design – however way best shows the quilt as close to the final product as possible. Designers retain all rights to their quilt patterns, and the MQG will compensate winners for the right to first publish the pattern in their MQG newsletter and on their website. For additional information and submission rules, you can go to the MQG website.
A new school year or committing to a specific quilting project are great ways to reboot the creativity within you.
How do you reboot your creativity?
]]>
