I joined my local guild last fall and have mostly found it to be a confounding mixture of close friends and the rest of us. But i got up my courage and joined a new Round Robin for art quilts. It was just starting and everybody was saying they were learning and exploring and it seemed like fun. Well, long story short, I've managed to make only two of the four meetings so far. Now, we are meeting tomorrow night and everybody is ordered to bring whatever "art quilt" they are working on. Eeeeeeeeek. I forgot to be creative. I'm working on putting back together the crazy quilt I made my friend (which with four new blocks will make two lovely lap-quilt size throws to be donated to our local hospice house). I'm finishing a baby quilt (I stole the idea for the border from mini-mini) that is lovely but not "art". I'm in the middle of a quilt as you go that was supposed to be a throw but DH loved it so now I'm expanding it to be a queen size. And I suddenly realize I have not a single "artsy" bone in my body. I love making things by my own sort of twisted mix and match way of doing. But they don't end up making anybody say "oooooh, how abstract" or "it makes me think of flight....or maybe the wind over Paris". And I'm no good AT ALL at those amazing geometrics that take a pretty little flying goose and run it around into all kinds of roller coaster sorts of shapes. I have never gotten the hang of anything geometric. Straight lines are torture for me, so you can imagine what squished angle straight lines do to my tender psyche. So please, friends, advise me. How do I find my inner artiste? I want to do some landscapes, but I haven't had time to explore this yet. I love working with commercial fabric. I want to get into painting and dyeing, but I can't see myself ever giving up those delicious fabrics that the designers so lovingly pump out for us every season. Is there any hope for my artistic bone? Will it develp or should I schlep over to the round robin that sews up tied quiltlets of unmatched double knit for the local dog pound?
Send advice, or point and laugh. But don't leave me to whittle along this evening just me and the power bars. Sunny