“Write what you know” is the advice often given to would be writers. Quilt what you know is the advice I’m giving myself. And what I know is what surrounds me every day in and outside my house. I’ve started to capture the quotidian bits of my life with my camera with the notion some of the results will spark a quilt idea or two.
Now I’m not talking about artfully composed photos. Instead, I’m going for photos taken of odd subjects, often at weird angles, caught on the fly.
Why? I learned a lot from the last prompt of my master class, which was to design a quilt from decidedly uninspiring photos. I find that I try to duplicate beautifully composed photos, but have no problems riding roughshod over tourist snaps. If a photo is already a work of art I can’t seem to figure out how to extract anything from it.
So, each week I plan to post an inspiration shot. Here’s the first, of our freshly shoveled driveway as seen from my sewing room. My husband is a precise shoveler. I did apply the black and white setting on my camera to bring out the pattern. I see a possible fabric design in it.
The Snarky Quilter 
That feels like one of those ” Guess what this is photos.” I would have never have guessed that (but I don’t know snow much). The lines and the angles give it a lot of dimension: making it seem to come up to a peak in the center. I’m going to enjoy seeing more of your photos.
My intent wasn’t to fool the viewer, but I can see where scenes taken out of context can lead to “what is that?” And you certainly have no idea what a shoveled driveway looks like. I’m so jealous. I’ve taken some more weird photos that will be coming up shortly.
Herringbone is a classic, and I especially like the way the design goes haywire at the upper right. Will be interested to see what you do with this!
That’s where the bushes are so dense he has nowhere to put the snow, and he doesn’t like to stand too long in the street. I think it could make an interesting monoprint.
Your husband appears to be an OCD shoveler!! That’s very impressive and I can absolutely see it as an inspiration for fabric.
You should see the way he folds his sweaters!