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Creating Your Own Quilting Inspiration Journal

Several months ago, I started keeping an Inspiration Journal and I want to share it with you. I love my journal - it stimulates my creativity and brings me joy.

Do you have a pile of little pictures you've cut out of magazines or printed out from the internet? Do you have lots of ideas for quilts you want to make or design swimming around in your head? An inspiration journal will help you organize all of those bits of paper and ideas and may spark new ideas too.

What is an Inspiration Journal?

Well, the real answer is that it can be anything you want. It is a place where you collect ideas that speak to you. Yours could be a three ring binder, a spiral notebook, a fancy journal or anything you like. In it, you write, draw, sketch, paste pictures, doodle - whatever! It is a place to record all your quilting thoughts, dreams and ideas. Periodically you can look through your Inspiration Journal and you'll have a treasure trove of ideas to work with.

A Peek into Joanna's Journal

As a very visual person, I was motivated to create my Inspiration Journal after seeing the photos in Mark Lipinski's article in the January/February 2009 Quilter's Home magazine. Mine is a small, spiral-bound notebook, about 5 X 8". I keep a pen clipped in the spiral part and carry it in my purse, so I can capture ideas any where I go.

Here is the cover page. I bought this notebook on a trip at a five and dime. (When this one is filled up, I'm going to pick something much prettier for my next one. I deserve it!)

photo of cover

If you want a pretty journal with a quilting theme, take a look at the ones at Cafe Press.

Back to my journal. Here the first page. The carpets in the hallway of the hotel we stayed in on our trip looked like a quilt to me, so I sketched the carpet in my book. Below the photo of my sketch, you can see a picture of the quilt that I designed based on the carpet that inspired me. Before having this journal, I would have noticed the carpet, but I wouldn't have captured it and the idea would have been lost.

quilt designed from page 1

Here is another page from my notebook. When I see something in a magazine that I like, I cut it out and tuck it into my little notebook. Later when I have a few minutes, I glue the clippings onto the pages with a glue stick. Sometimes I add notes. On these two pages, you can see a design idea that I sketched (using my 6 year old's markers) and some photos from a quilting catalog that I saved.

two more pages of journal

Another Artist's Journal

Here is a YouTube video by artist Lisa Spangler of Hero Arts. Although she is not a quilter, you can get good ideas from her as she shows you her inspiration journal and some of the resulting cards she created.

Thank you for looking at my inspiration journal. Have a great time making your own!

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