In the Moment

After weeks of sewing 6.5" improv blocks along with Shannon @shannonfraserdesigns and Amanda @broadclothstudio, hosts of the #30DaysOfImprovQAL, I finally have a finished quilt to share! If you want to be reminded and look back at all the different categories of blocks, there were Stripes, L shapes, Triangles, and Curves. Honestly, I could have gone on and continued with more themes, but other projects are waiting, so I stuck with the QAL schedule. Ta da!

So once my blocks were completed, I put them all up on the design wall to see what I had to work with. I also made a reel if you want to see each one up close.

Next, I rearranged the blocks so like fabrics or colors were touching.

And then I began pinning up possible filler fabrics. Some remained to be a part of the final quilt top, but I think through my process, I settled on 'less is more.' I was definitely using what scraps I could to fill in, but at this point also had to begin pulling larger pieces from my Carolyn Friedlander fabric stash.

Below is a progress shot, with the bottom right corner and right side yet to be finished.

And finally, we had a quilt top!

I moved right on to piece a quilt back, using pretty much all of my remaining CF scraps, as well as pulling a few pieces from stash.

For quilting, I chose a lovely Aurifil 50wt from my 2022 Aurifil Artisan welcome pack - 2612 [Arctic Sky]. I had originally thought to quilt with a light gray, but when I happened across this blue-gray, it felt perfect. I quilted vertical straight lines ranging from 1/16" to 1/2" apart, then went back and added in some slightly curvy organic straight lines as a nod to the handful of improv curve blocks in the quilt. Unfortunately, it's very hard to photograph!

And then came the question about binding. After a thorough search, I confirmed I had enough of absolutely zero of the CF fabrics used in the quilt left to bind with. So that meant a new print entirely. I thought I had settled on a gray and black print when at the bottom of my stack, I found a fat quarter of an old (no offense! It's a treasure.) print from Carolyn's very first line, Architextures. One of her ledger prints, it had just a touch of black, but also a red-orange and blue that my other choice did not have. It's a much lighter frame that I'd usually go with, but it felt like the best of the bunch to me. And as it ends up, I really like it!

This piece finished at 34.5" wide by 32.5" tall. I finally settled on the name "In the Moment," as such is the nature of improv. There were so many 'in the moment' choices during the making of each block, composing the top and back, and even the unique choice in binding. I think that's one thing I like about improv - that it's a very different style than much of my life, where I like to know what's next, and am always consulting lists and such. The freedom of improv is always such a breath of fresh air.

Linking up with Meadow Mist Designs' Favorite Finish Monthly Linky!