Building an Improv Toolbox

Last Saturday, I spent the day on Zoom in a workshop with Seattle MQG @seattlemqg and Sarah Goer @sarahgoerquilts, who led her Building an Improv Toolbox workshop with us. Yes, I know I've taught my own class on improv techniques in days gone by, but I'm always open to learning more, and thought it would be fun to approach it from another teacher's point of view. And it definitely was!

It was suggested we begin class with six fat-quarters, but wanting to use scraps if I possibly could, I pulled a handful of pieces from stash that were all less than a quarter-yard. Some were indeed leftover from other projects, while some were just small pieces. It ended up being a very fun mix to play with.

By lunchtime, I had a nice little collection of blocks up on the design wall. Most of the techniques I'd tried before, but not those radiating strip blocks, shown below just above the stripes. Those were created in a pair, and I enjoyed trying them. I can definitely imagine making groups of blocks of them.

There were two techniques in the afternoon session that I particularly enjoyed and look forward to playing with more - compound shapes....

And slice & shift. With the example below, I also included a pieced slice & insert strip, which basically created another type of compound block.

Below are all the blocks I was able to create during the afternoon.

So by the end of the workshop, I had 29(!) improv blocks to show for myself. That was a lot of different techniques Sarah was able to share with us, wasn't it? She's a terrific teacher, and I'd highly recommend the workshop, especially for those wanting to explore beginning improv piecing.

Meanwhile, I'm planning on somehow puzzling all these blocks together into a small quilt. And even though I don't have a clear plan forward, I haven't been able to resist sewing some like blocks together. So stay tuned. Once I've made some real progress, I'll share this project again.