Pillow Shams & Music Notes

I think I finally settled on the dimensions for my pillow shams for my BED QUILT; 20 x 30 with a 2" border. Now with my first weekend available to me since the holidays I might be able to make the first cut into fabric and get started on them.

I cut a piece of paper that is 24 x 34 big and pinned it to my design wall, and it sure does look big!



Now for something a bit off beat (pardon the pun)....

I often compare other creative works to what I do with my quilting. I just can't help it. I listen some styles of music that may not be what others enjoy, some of it is a bit "hard boiled" but I think part of me is too. Originally, I was going to only share this with one musical friend of mine but since I have turned my pontificating in on itself into a quilting discussion I've decided to post it here instead. So, here goes...

Now, I don't expect you to see exactly what I seeing here in my musical choices, but am wondering if you make that connection from one media to another the way I am here? Do movies, music, and fine art influence your work as well? Does your inspiration come from unexpected places? I would love to know what non-quilting things inspire you.

Musical Notes folding into Quilting:

Something has bothered me for a while ever since I first heard the Pink album "I'm Not Dead". Why would her lyrics and music depress me so much when I find so much uplift in the music of Missy Elliot (she is a new discovery to me, she speaks from a completely different place, but yet it is so familiar to me) and Trent Reznor’s music (recent albums created in the last five years from Nine Inch Nails)?

Most people would on the surface think that they are saying pretty much the same thing.... the "screw" the everyone and the world messages. But, I really think that in especially Trent's music the exploration is so much deeper than that. His lyrics are specific to his own experiences yet abstract enough to speak to many people, myself included. Each person taking away personalize message of what they hear for themselves. Both musicians have been through some really serious events in their lives and write their music from the journey of what it is like to sink to the darkest dark, then rise up again. I think it must be the event of rising up again that intrigues me so much.

When I heard Pink's music I didn't hear that depth that she seems to want to portray in her music. She wants to say something, she want to be controversial, but (and this is only from what I heard in the music from this one single album and not from any other sources) doesn't have that depth of angst that the really great artists have. I even found myself pitying her naivety. The brilliance of Trent’s music is nearly a place of crazy. I favor his work more because right now I am obsessed with recent Nine Inch Nails music again.

I admire that place of crazy genius so much in so many artists, music, acting, and fine art. These creative geniuses always find ways to express themselves in ways that are meaningful to others (and it does help to have a good agent too). I would like my work to be as deep as theirs, yet I’ve held myself back for so long, feeling that I don’t have that enough to say, yet. Each decade that I get older I feel that I have gathered more experiences that might be of value to someone else and then I look around me and see that I am also still naïve. I am also realizing as I write this that my benchmark for the truly great artists is to have the depth of angst in their work that tugs at the audience’s soul in ways that the common light and fluffy work doesn’t. I am unfortunately still in the later category with my work.

Can my quilt designs have angst? I suppose so as long as I treat it as the medium I happen to work in at this time and not let its reputation dictate what I do. Again, I question what sort of message I want to say. It is an avenue that I want to explore more this year.