You don’t have to be a professional to create stunning art quilts. All you need is a little refresher on art and design basics, plus a few tips and tricks from master quilter and creativity coach Lyric Kinard.

Learn to understand, appreciate, and create works of art one step at a time with Art + Quilt: Design Principles and Creativity Exercises. Brush up on the basic elements of art, and then learn the principles of design that will strengthen your artwork. Work through homework assignments and field trips that harness your inspiration, then direct that creative energy into your work.

Here are a few short exercises from Art + Quilt that will get you primed to play and make art. 

Wouldn’t it be lovely if you could find 45 minutes every day for your art? Turn off the TV for an hour. Take a 15-minute break during lunch or after work to imagine and be inspired. Wake up 30 minutes early or stay up half an hour late to play with some art and experiment. Once a month take yourself, and perhaps a collaborator, to anywhere that interests you and seek inspiration.

Five minutes to imagine

Field Trips

Set a date, bring your sketchbook, camera, and perhaps a friend. Go to a museum, park, gallery, grocery store, downtown, or anywhere interesting, and contemplate your surroundings with an artists’s eyes. Be inspired. Look for exquisite compositions, well-balanced forms, and distinctive color combinations. Be inspired by a beautiful flower and the flotsam in the gutter. Sketch it, write about it, photograph it. Write down what inspires you and why. When people see your sketchbook and come to look, tell them “I’m an artist!”

Do you say “I wish I had more time to be creative?” Then this book is for you! Whether you create quilts as a hobby or as a professional artist, Art + Quilt will help you clarify your goals and take your craft to the next level through design and composition.

How To Use This Book
Why Art?

An Introduction: Getting Ready to Create
Open Your Heart and Mind
Recognize the Creativity You Already Possess
Dream Your Dream
Inspiration vs Perspiration

Learning The Alphabet: The Elements of Art
Texture
Shape
Line
Color
Value

Building Your Vocabulary: The Principles of Design
Unity and Variety
Focal Point
Balance and Symmetry
Scale and Proportion
Depth and Space
Motion
Rhythm

Write On: Creative Composition
Homework Assignments and Field Trips
-Playing the Design Game
-Rephrase, Please
-Nouns
-Searching for a Muse
-Poetic License
-Music to the Eye
-Collaborative Collage
Student Gallery

Poetry: The Art of Evaluation and Critique
Uninvited Criticism
The Rules of the Game On Your Own
The Rules of the Game with a Group
Critique
-Description
-Analysis
-Interpretation
-Questions for the Artist
-Judgment
An Analytical Anthology

Conclusion
Index

Lyric Kinard creates award-winning wall quilts and wearable works of arts. She has studied with many well known textile artists around the country and continues to expand her skills in the area of surface design. Her articles have appeared in Quilting Arts magazine and she recently completed her first video, Quilting Arts Workshop: Surface Design. She lives in Cary, North Carolina with her husband and five children. Author web site: http://www.lyrickinard.com