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!

30 Days of Improv :: Curves

We've explored improv stripes, l-shapes, triangles, and now in the final week of 30 Days of Improv, curves. Gentle curves was the prompt for our first day of circle week, and I very much enjoyed making this one up as I went along. I think it's up there as one of my favorites of the sewalong.

The focus for Day 2 was piecing small curves. Though I may have gotten carried away with the multitude of different fabrics, it was fun to make a bunch of small curve blocks and then see how they could fit together.

I knew I had less than an hour to tackle Day 3's challenge, which was to break out of the standard curve and add a bigger ‘hump’ to our curves. Not sure I did that, and the result is buusssyyyy, but considering it's made out of some favorite Carolyn Friedlander prints, I'm more than happy with it.

Below is the block I started with for slice & dice day.

 

And below is the final block, after I basically cut the top and bottom off and swapped them. I kinda wish I still had the original block, but oh well.

And here's my final curves block for the week. Again, I just made a bunch of small curve blocks, then figured out how they could all live together.

TADA..... here are all 20 blocks up on the design wall in the order they were created. (L to R, then down) I'm really looking forward to next week when we start puzzling them into a quilt top. 

30 Days of Improv :: Triangles

After a week of improv stripes, and then l-shapes, this week with 30 Days of Improv, it was all about triangles. 

For my first block, I made four triangle quadrants, each log-cabin style, but then I had to somehow piece those all together. What I ended up with was definitely not what I initially had in my mind's eye, but such is the nature of improv.

For the next day, we were challenged to try working on a smaller scale. I did that with scrappy improv spikes. And as I was making them, I remembered I had a tutorial for them, so shared that, which several folks appreciated.

The next day was slice & dice day with #30daysofimprovqal, and I can't say things went well. Below is my initial block.... 

Which I sliced into and re-pieced.

But I wasn't really happy with it, so.... I sliced and re-pieced once again. Not my favorite block of the bunch, but there's got to be one, right?

On Day 4 of triangle week, we were challenged to explore scalene and obtuse triangles. Yep, I got out a protractor to draw my initial triangles. And I confess I took inspiration from Linda @sewzinger for my block, and thoroughly enjoyed making this one. A funny postscript to this block was that Linda then went to make her block inspired by mine!

And finally, I combined a bunch of pieces scattered around my cutting board for the last block in #30daysofimprovqal triangle week. I was making an attempt at tumbling triangles, and it was close. At the very least, it contains some favorite Carolyn Friedlander fabric.

Personally, I found triangle week a little more challenging than the previous two, but definitely worth doing. Next up is curves!

Linking up with Patchwork & Quilts!

30 Days of Improv :: L Shapes

After a fun first week of 30 Days of Improv focusing on stripes, I was eager to start in on week two's challenge - L shapes. I had played with creating improv letters before with good results, and there are so many possibilities with the L.

The first prompt was to start with a basic L shape and whatever comes to mind, do that! So I did.

Next was to create Ls on a smaller scale, so I used little bits found on my cutting table to start that day's block.

On Wednesday, the challenge was to embrace the wonk. Though my choice of fabrics may have decreased the visibility of the L shapes (there are five), it was a fun block to make, and I still really like this one a lot.

The next challenge was to slice and insert again. I didn't really want to slice up a previous block, so I made a new one to slice up. Here it is before I sliced into it.

And below is my final block. It's always interesting to see the shapes that are created when you sew the pieces back together.

And finally, a bit of a mishmash for Day 5 of L-shapes. At first I didn't like how this block was developing, but in the end, I see even more Ls than I planned, and like it quite a lot.

So that was really fun. I liked playing with the versatile L-shape this week. It was great to see what other folks came up with too!

30 Days of Improv :: Stripes

It’s Week 1 of the 30 Days of Improv QAL hosted by Shannon @shannonfraserdesigns and Amanda @broadclothstudio, and what fun it's been. Yeah, I had plenty to work on without adding daily improv play into the mix, but it just felt like something fun to do during this last month of summer. Once it crossed my mind to use my bag of Carolyn Friedlander fabric scraps for the QAL, I was all in. 

So Week 1 has been all about stripes, one of my favorite improv shapes to work with. The first block was made ruler-free until trim-time and basically I was just having fun with a favorite print - that purple/pink one. I decided to go ahead and trim all my blocks during the QAL to 6.5" square.

Day 2's challenge was to play with scale.

Wonky stripes for Day 3.

Normally a fan of the slice and insert method, I struggled with it on Day 4's block. So it's not my favorite of the week, but still fun.

And my block on Day 5 was created with all sorts of bits and bobs from the week. Though stripes are less pronounced in this block, they are there, and this turned out to be one of my favorites.

I thoroughly enjoyed making these throughout the week, and look forward to seeing what the next week of improv holds.