dude, that bag is the cutest! don't worry the bug will come back around.....read some of your old posts....sometime that helps me. plus i'll change my screensaver to a folder I have marked inspiration...to uh...inspire me..

SMILE! At least your not a whale!!

hello! found you via Whip Up.

I'm like that too--especially when I overdose on inspiration (print or internet). For me, the best medicine is just starting something small--cutting out pieces, or making something for a friend. Reminding myself I don't have to take everything seriously--even making things that are tiny and just for fun, just to mess around--helps me loosen up and puts me back into the frame of mind where I'm excited to work again.

Good luck to you! I'll be reading. Cheers!

Hi,

make more of the bags, in spring colors, it will be lovely.

Karin

we all go through slumps.. I think we have to have cycles of productivity and lots of ideas, then days or weeks when we just can't get motivated. we're women... we're cyclical... what need I say more?

don't fall into the self comparison trap!! I find every once in a while I have to go on a "blog fast" for a week or two so I can get back into myself and what I love, and not obsees about that great idea that so-and-so had that I wish I had done first. :)

This always happens to me in January. Make something comfortable and predictable in the meantime. You'll get your mojo back.

This bag is sweet. I've come to your blog just to look at it again.
love it!
When you don't feel inspired for a spell, please remember, there are others who are inspire by you! See? It's all good.

Do you think it has anything to do with our Michigan winters? I am really dragging, too. Very cute bag! It is no surprise it went fast on etsy!

I am constantly humbled by the creativity of this blogging set (including you!.) I definitely have the same feeling of not being on the same level and am also guilty of looking for inspiration in other's work instead of in the world around me. When I am feeling like this, a hike in the woods is the cure. Too cold in Michigan?

I get that way, too...I just leave it alone until one day I sit down and start again. Then I'll go for weeks. I just walk away until I'm inspired again.

This bag is way cute. But more than this, I'm drooling over your clutch bag you made a while ago and sold through your shop. Would you mind sharing instructions? I have a piece of lovingly embroidered silk fabric that would be perfect for this.

I've been feeling that way a lot lately -- that I should be doing more than just following other people's patterns. Especially down to the letter, with the same colors or quilting patterns or whatever, like I tend to do. Some I guess would define following patterns vs. improvisation/"coloring outside the lines"/making something original as the line between craft and art. If so, it's OK to "just" be a crafter, right? I'm telling myself that, anyway. I figure that it's still valuable for learning, and when I've gained enough of experience, my own ideas will come naturally I'll have the skills to make them reality.

I don't know. That's no help, but I just wanted to tell you that I hear ya, sister. (P.S. I never wrote to thank you for all your kitchen advice. So here, I do it publicly. Thank you! I still haven't done a thing, but you helped me a lot!)

ditto what k*m said. for short term blocks i can usually put down what i'm working on and go read a book or see a movie or just vegg out for a week (including not reading any craft blogs ;)... for longer blocks i try and put down *everything* (i tend to have 5 projects going at at time) take a vacation (even if it's just to my parents house 20 miles away)...

btw. i think you're brilliant! as soon as i get over my block (2 months and counting so far..) i'm going to crack open denise schmidts quilting book and try and make that awesome muff.

I'm like that too, I go through phases. I also never ever make more than one item the same - I get bored! I mean, why make 2 of the same thing when there's so many other things I want to do?!

I also made a tree bag in the autumn, and I use it every day! http://canny-cat.com/?p=74
(I'm also very craft-greedy, meaning I dont give or sell my creations often! lol)

I'm in a slump too. Mostly because I have so much school work to do but that doesn't make me feel any better. Sometimes I find I get so much inspiration from everywhere that I can't cope and then I create nothing.

However, I think that bag is super cute and I love your quilt pictures.

i did not even know that quilters blogged. i suggest rest and meditation and then just throw some scraps in the air, pick them up, and let the project complete itself

Boy, you are way unmotivated, aren't you? I'm with you, the weather and the cold, it's getting me down as well.

Did you know that Denyse Schmidt kept a creative journal? I came across it in a book on journals, every interesting. I'm also contemplating doing that zig zag quilt. This may be my first entirely machiend piece once I get a sewing table set up. I think I'll have to go back to your posts on ideal sewing table set-up, won't I?