Feeding Creativity {And a Giveaway!}

A little creative quilt holding going on here!.

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Happy February to my Farmgirl Friends!

I’ve been thinking a lot about creativity.  What fuels it, what keeps it burning, what helps me to keep creating.  I decided to share a few things with you that I find really helpful!  I realize that we are all different and are inspired and motivated by different things but I’m excited to share what helps me!

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My Own Creative Space

I think a separate creative space is really important.  Even if all it is, is a corner in the dining room!  I have a friend that has her creative space in her guest bedroom.  She calls the room her “Pretend Guest Bedroom”!  But what I love about having a separate space is that it is impossible for me to be creative if it requires dragging everything out whenever I want to make something.  I realize that I am very lucky in the home that we built a few years ago because that was one of the requirements was that I have a complete separate space for all my sewing/crafting/writing/creating things.  I’ve waited many years for a space like this… and I’m thankful I made it a priority!

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Surround Myself with Inspirationpiration

I love having all my sewing tools, books, and magazines handy and visible.  They inspire me just by glancing at them sitting neatly in their metal locker baskets and jars!  Because I am such a visual person, I need to see my creative tools!  If they are put out of sight, they quickly become out of mind!

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Keep Organized

I simply cannot create in a mess.  There is something in my personality that has to have everything organized in order for my creativity to flow.  Quite frequently when I have a lot of deadlines and numerous projects going on at once, things will get a bit out of control and I have to set aside time just to get everything in its place!  A few months ago I knew the day had come to do something different with my fabric.  I wanted to sort it by color and I sat down and sketched out a design plan for a shelving system and my husband built it for me.  Total game changer.  I now have my fabric folded and neatly sorted by color and I feel more creative than I have in a long time!

(On a side note:  my grand-girls sewing creativity has grown by leaps and bounds since I organized my fabric by color!  They come visit and immediately start pulling fabrics to sew with.  It makes my creative heart so happy to see!)

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Keep a Sketch Pad Close

I’m a visual person.  So notes, lists, sketches are really important in my creativity.  Now don’t get me wrong… I am NOT artistic in that I simply do not have any ability to draw.  But I sure scribble ideas, make notes, draw quilt patterns and keep lists!  I like to have my purchased sewing patterns printed up where I can read over them when I’m laying in bed at night… viewing them on my phone or my computer somehow just doesn’t feed my creative brain!  (Which is strange since I’m a blogger! Smile!!)

And when I feel really overwhelmed with deadlines, I sit down and write them out and immediately the pressure is lifted and I can create again!

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Some inspiring pin cushion ideas I’ve pinned on my Pinterest page 

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Stay (mostly) away from Pinterest 

Don’t laugh!!  I know that most people are hugely inspired by Pinterest.  I do have a Pinterest account and I do use it occasionally for saving inspirational things.  But what often happens to me is that I have a solid idea in my mind and decide to research it on Pinterest.  Very quickly I am spiraling down a rabbit hole and my original idea is completely gone.  There have been times I never could get it back!  So unless I am completely void of any ideas, I stay away from Pinterest!

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One of my favorite inspirational accounts on Instagram @sunnydaysupply

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And Then There Was Instagram 

Contrary to Pinterest; I do find a lot of inspiration on Instagram.  However, I limit myself to following only the accounts that inspire me and frequently I go through and stop following the accounts that do not.  I try to keep it as clutter free as I can!  (On a side note:  not all the accounts I follow inspire only my creativity; a lot of them inspire me in my running and my physical fitness.  Inspiration and creativity come in many forms.)

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Use My Phone Camera

I’m not a photographer but taking pictures is really important to me.  One huge advantage we have today is the camera on our cell phones.  Taking pictures is so easy now.  I try to take a picture every single day that inspires me to create.  Sometimes it is as simple as one little spring buttercup blooming in the woods on our farm.  I can always scroll through my picture albums and find inspiration.  (This little buttercup gave me the idea to make a spring tulip table runner, which I’m still sketching but will soon be a little quilted runner!)

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The above quilt is something that was way out of my comfort zone… and I LOVE IT.  

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Try New Things

It can be super hard for me to try new things.  But I pushed myself to try something new every month in 2019.  I had some huge fails, I had some big wins!  But I felt that it opened creative doors in my brain that helped me to grow.   I’m attempting the same for 2020!

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Keep Projects At Hand

I love to keep a simple project in my living room so that when I sit down to relax, I have a little something to keep my hands busy.  I recently had fun learning how to make the fabric yo-yo’s and I got my grand-girls involved in learning.  I have a wooden tray where I placed fabric, scissors, needles, thread, and the different size yo-yo makers and I have just left it sitting in the living room.  When the girls come to visit, they plop down and whip out a few yo-yo’s!  We don’t know what we are going to make yet, but we have all kinds of ideas that we are throwing around (and none of them came from Pinterest!).

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And now it’s Giveaway time!!!  

If you have made it to the end of this post, I’m really happy!  All you have to do to enter my giveaway is comment below with one simple thing that helps you stay creative.  Next month I’ll draw a winner and you’ll receive a fun home-made item from me.   I have no idea what it’ll be yet… but I promise it will be made by me and hopefully something that will inspire you to keep creating!

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Until our gravel roads cross again… so long.

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Dori