Gemma used to read a lot of blogs but these days she struggles to find the time.  She does spend a lot of time on Instagram – it’s a great place to seek inspiration from other arty types. So here are five people (with their instagram names) who are inspiring Gemma right now!

Tall Grass Pairie Studio  @jacquietps

Firstly, I love a good name and she has a great one!  It makes me think of beautiful American fields, vast spaces and the wind.  Jacqui has a fantastic eye for colour and I love that she shares insights into her process on her blog.  I love the photos of her studio on her blog, but it’s her modern quilts that get me every time.  She is bold and brave and fabulous and I might just want to be her 😉

Kathleen Quilts  @kathleenriggins

I love Kathleen’s IG feed.  Serious quilt talent and inspiration!  Her quilting in negative space is just wonderful and I particularly loved her recent supernova quilt.  If you’re into quilting and you’re on IG then you need to follow Kathleen!  Check out this blogpost with lots of serious quilt candy.

Quilts of a Feather @quiltsnkids

I cannot do justice to Renee’s recent “The Pandorica Opens” quilt (above).  Full disclosure, I’m a serious Dr Who fan and have been since childhood.  But even if you’re not and even if you cannot appreciate just how freaking cool an exploading tardis quilt is, you can still appreciate the skill in this recent piece!  Go look now.  Now.  Just go do it and then follow her everywhere and have your mind blown.  Freaky, freaky, freaky fantastic Dr Who/Van Gogh quilting!  I think you get it.  She is truly inspirational!

The Quilt Engineer  @thequiltengineer

If I ever meet Latifah I’m going to struggle to string a sentence together.  When everyone else had been doing “low volume” forever and we’d all been amazed at how cool it was and we could even buy “low volume” bundles so there was no personal choice left, Latifah took it to another level.  AND she told us that it took her three years to finish that quilt!  I love a quilter who shares all, I love an honest quilter.  Latifah is a bit of a legend in my book, but I just find her crisp lines, bold colours and down-to-earth nature inspiring.  Oh, and she said I should buy a vintage Singer, so I did.

Elisabeth Woo @elisabew

This girl is a classic over sharer.  And I LOVE her for it!  Her life looks like so much fun!  Her cute haircut, her puppy, her hilarious expressions, oh and she works for Robert Kaufman, spends half her life at Disneyland and has an impeccable eye for colour.  Seriously though, I really do find Elisabeth’s work inspiration.  I love how she throws colour after colour at IG (be it macroons, minifigs, farmerswife blocks or her recent finish, night sky quilt.  She is also an awesome FMQer and a great source of inspiration.

So there you go, that’s who is inspiring me at the moment.  It was hard to single it down to five as I currently follow 685 people on Instagram and many of them inspire me.  Oh, I totally forgot, you have to check out @houseofalphonse on Instagram.  Her papercut artwork blows my mind!

Gemma @prettybobbins.