Originally Posted by Rhonda Lee
How do you come up with the designs used for quilting. I stumble on this rather often .. usually with each quilt.
OK many respondents took this to mean patterns for pieced patchwork. I took this to mean quilting designs for the actual quilting. I call them quilting "motifs"
I go to loads of different sources. I love looking at 18th and 19th century architecture. The decorative elements on these buildings gives me loads of ideas.
Of course there are books. Karen McTavish books give lots of designs that she gives the buyer of the book complete rights to copy and enlarge to put on your quilts. Her designs are beautiful and always go together to form new motifs by mirror imaging them and placing the motif, or element as she calls them, side by side or in a medallion repeat. Any books on hand or machine quilting are usually full of motifs. Look at books by Diane Gaudinski or Harriet Hargrave for some ideas. I love the book The Essential Quilter.
Stencils and pantos are also great sources of inspiration.
Elements of nature such as leaves, ferns, tree bark, seashells, etc. I quilted a quilt using maple leaves I gathered in my yard last fall and put them in a pleasing repeat on tracing paper then transferred them to my quilt top to LA. But there is no reason you couldn't do it with Hand or DSM quilting.
Once you start looking for quilting motifs you will start to see them everywhere.