With so much artistic inspiration available - online, in books and magazines, outdoors, at museums, galleries, quilt shows and in our beloved fabric shops - I do appreciate the written words that serve to spark creativity, too. Some of my favorite creative quotations appear below:

Have nothing in your homes that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful. ~William Morris

Friendship is a tapestry woven through the years with threads of joy, laughter, happiness and tears. ~Anonymous

I cannot count my day complete 'til needle, thread and fabric meet. ~Anonymous

There's nothing quite like seeing something you've created come to life and resonate with someone else. ~Danielle Mason Hosker, linen business owner of Antage Bleu (Atlanta, Georgia)

Thou shalt sit on a cushion and sew a fine seam, and feast upon strawberries, sugar and cream . . . ~"Curly Locks" by James Whitcomb Riley

The things quilts sew into our hearts:

threads of common joys and treasured memories, pieces of cherished conversations and shared secrets, colors of rich smiles and endless laughter, patterns of friendship and love's sweet rewards. ~Temecula Quilt Co.

What we do flows from who we are. ~Paul Vitale

Creating takes courage. Everything you create reveals a little - or a lot - about yourself. Be brave and go for it. ~Anonymous

When I can no longer create anything, I'll be done for. ~Coco Chanel

True creativity is a fire that burns within, sparking ambitions and ideas, keeping you awake at night with all the possibilities. ~Luana Rubin of eQuilter.com

I truly believe everyone needs a creative playground. A place to create freely without an art director guiding you, a marketing strategy pushing you, or a due date hanging over your head. Pieces created in a space like this are infused with a special energy. ~Salli Swindell "They Draw & Cook"

I, myself, am entirely made of flaws . . . stitched together with good intentions. ~Seen on a fibre art piece at Banbury Regional Art Gallery (Australia)

For those of us who share a passion for the creative arts, fabric is so much more than just the medium for creating fantastic clothing, beautiful home decorations and unique craft projects. Prints and patterns are artistic renderings that impact us in the same way a work of fine art does. ~Simplicity Fabric Guide: The Ultimate Fiber Resource

The best things in life are quilted! ~Anonymous

Each quilt tells a story, and it doesn't take a lot of imagination to let those stories carry you away. . .. Remember if a picture is worth a thousand words, then a quilt is worth a million. ~Jim and Jan Shore "Passion for Quilts"

No thread running through the history of American Quilts is stronger and more consistent than their use of links between women and their female descendants. ~Ricky Clark "Fragile Families"

This world is but a canvas to our imaginations. ~Henry David Thoreau

Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn't really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That's because they were able to connect experiences they've had and synthesize new things. ~Steve Jobs

. . . just as the pieces of the quilt are sewn together with interlocking stitches, all people are linked together in the fabrics of our world. In a way, the patchwork quilt represents all the different people of the world. We are individual in our attitudes, life-styles, and backgrounds, yet we share so much of what it means to be human. ~Teresa Gustafson, "Love Is A Blanket"

“I make my quilts as fast as I can so my children won’t freeze. And, as beautiful as I can so my heart won’t break”. I think that is the epitome of what quiltmaking provided for women throughout the history of the 19th century. ~Gerald Roy – first sentence of collector’s preface “Quilts and Color: The Pilgrim/Roy Collection” at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Blogs are deeply inspiring to me because passions are shared and linked together virtually to form a beautifully patterned quilt where all voices are valued and important. They are the stitches and fabric, and each has a valued spot in this diverse community. My design blog is a big, warm hug on the internet that promotes creativity. ~Holly Becker . . . on creating a Blog

Creativity comes from a conflict of ideas. ~Donatella Versace

Whether it goes back to the old adage about idle hands being the devil's work, or simply is a passion for the creative, crafting is on the rise, and it's definitely not just for your grandma or maiden aunties anymore. ~Wendy Dwyer, "Luminaries" on the campus of the Indian River State College

Quilt-making is the ideal prescription . . . it is soothing and there is no exercise can equal that of really creating something with the hands. And later the product of these hands may be handed down as treasured heirlooms. ~Carrie A. Hall and Rose G. Kretsinger, from "Romance of the Patchwork Quilt in America", 1933

Every moment of your life is infinitely creative and the universe is endlessly bountiful. ~Mahatma Gandhi

Our stories and our craft tell us who we are and where we've been. Without the story of the craft, we lose our legacy. Even Alice in Wonderland understood that once she came back up the rabbit hole it was her turn to tell the story. If we don't tell these stories. . . . our precious fiber heritage and the rich connections between women and cloth might disappear like lost threads. Each stitch matters. ~Nora Murphy, "Knitting the Threads of Time: Casting Back to the Heart of Our Craft"

At the end of the day, the simplest things in life are what make you happy. ~Anonymous

Everything we create resonates with our deepest needs as human beings, as creative beings, to make things of beauty and worth. It's this act of creation that allows our souls to breathe, enables us to activate our spiritual selves and connect with nature. ~Lela Nargi

I know I need to blow on the tiny ember of creativity that is within me still and I need to re-prioritize. ~Pat Mofjeld

Every dream begins with a dreamer. ~Anonymous

In my dream, the angel shrugged and said, "If we fail this time, it will be a failure of imagination", and then she placed the world gently in the palm of my hand. ~Inspiration from Jo Packham, Creator & Editor-In-Chief of Where Women Create

Go after your dreams. Don't wait for things to come. Make them happen. ~Anonymous

We need time to dream, time to remember, time to reach for the infinite. Time to be. ~Gladys Taber

Quilters come with strings attached. ~Anonymous

There is a fountain of youth. It is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of the people you love. ~Sophia Loren

When our eyes see our hands doing the work of our hearts, the doors of our souls fly open and love steps forth to heal everything in sight. ~Anonymous

Methinks it is a token of healthy and gentle characteristics, when women of high thoughts and accomplishments love to sew; especially as they are never more at home with their own hearts than while so occupied . . . ~Nathaniel Hawthorne, "The Marble Faun", 1859

Do you have a favorite Creative Quote? Please add it as a "comment" below.

XOXOX

"Take your needle, my child, and work at your pattern; it will come out a rose by and by. Life is like that--one stitch at a time taken patiently and the pattern will come out all right like the embroidery." (Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., Poet - 1809-1894)

Seen in Grandma's Attic Sewing Emporium (seen in "Grandma's Attic" newsletter) 1.10.2017