All About Me in 28 Days (Day 15)
Today, we are discussing someone who inspires us. That is actually a tough one for me. It’s not because I don’t feel inspired in different areas of my life; it is because I am so often inspired that it becomes tough to narrow it down to one person that I can explain in a way that is readable and concise. Often inspiration is fleeting, beautiful, and beyond words.
image courtesty of www.quiltville.com
This is Bonnie Hunter (and her late doggie, Buddy). Bonnie is the talented owner of the Quiltville website. I heart her for so many reasons! But, she (and her website and blog) are a source of constant inspiration for my quilting endeavors. Of course, Bonnie’s sunny outlook on life and tendency toward charity quilting is inspirational as well!
I especially find myself drawn to her work with recycled materials. After seeing a pattern for a mystery lap quilt on another site, it was the information that I found from Bonnie’s site that convinced me that it was safe (and economical, and just plain good stewardship) to use vintage thrifted shirts to make the quilt. The quilt turned out lovely and that began my love of Bonnie’s site.
She makes a myriad of free patterns available on her site as well as publishing books of innovative designs. She encourages us to use what fabric we have available (she believes that if a fabric is ‘ugly’ that you haven’t cut it down small enough). She encourages using lots of colors and mixing them all together to create a look that has depth as well as beauty.
She has inspired me to stretch my limits in quilting. She has enabled me to save money by encouraging the use of lower cost, left over scraps, or thrifted materials. She has given me ‘permission’ to use colors in new and innovative ways (in using up what I already have). Her patterns have shown me how to use color in a way to make a relatively simple block pattern appear more complex. She has encouraged me to break out of my comfort zone to try new patterns and work with smaller pieces.
It is so simple to whip together a quilt out of pre-matched, designer materials (and I enjoy doing that also), but it isn’t nearly as much a creative endeavor as using random materials to create a more personal quilt.
