A Long Ramble About My Comfort Quilts and Also Some Improv.

I cut out these flannel strips about the middle of December and have been slowly sewing them together ever since. It's been good mindless sewing for those crazy times when thinking is an impossibility. Sadly, they get quite tedious to work on at times.

A vastly reduced pile of flannel strips

Eventually I'll have enough sets sewn together to make two comfort quilts. Nothing exciting, just very cozy, comfort quilts for two guys {one young, one old} who will very much appreciate a simple lap quilt. After I started in sewing, I had to cut out some extra {more interesting} fabric strips so the blend of prints/colors wouldn't keep putting me to sleep. You know how that is when everything blends a little too well.

Sewing the units into sets of four

And what's the deal with flannel? So much lint. Wowsers! I started having problems with the tension on my regular machine and after three or four go 'rounds with trying to get it back to normal, finally resorted to using my backup machine. She's a sweet, little {used} Bernina and so far is doing an excellent job for me. Yay for having a backup machine {Christmas present last year} as I cannot imagine being without at this particular time of the year!

My backup Bernina

So..., wanting to play, stretch my improv. abilities and well, just work on something a little more interesting, I turned to my Ugly Quilt. I think I threw up a quick picture of this quilt awhile back and was almost embarrassed to even admit to making it. It was one of those 'I'm bored, maybe I'll cut into some fabric I like and do something really off the wall' sort of endeavors. And I promptly decided it would end up on the back of a quilt because, hello? It was a nothing.

Ahem. Maybe I better tell you the back story before we get to the improv. part?

Since the inglorious start of this quilt, I have started playing with it again. Such as adding a small, fussy cut border that mostly blends in with the rest of the quilt. Meh. What did I do that for?

The Ugly Quilt with one border

And then, eyes popping wide open just before going asleep one night 'What if I added an old fashioned oak leaf type applique?' How nice to find exactly what I wanted on the second page of one of my inspiration binders the very next day. So providential. It's from a 2008 Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting magazine--a pattern that I've many times considered making, although never just the one as a centerpiece!

And now some applique

Then, as these things often happen around here, my Ugly Quilt had more to say. Perhaps a scrappy blue sawtooth border? And I've been completely won over ever since. This ugly little quilt has been slowly winning me over and now it positively melts my heart like a squishy, toasted marshmallow. Which I know doesn't happen for everyone because my oldest daughter thinks it looks 'weird mom, just weird, especially the colors.' There's really no accounting for taste is there?

The sawtooth border

So back to the improv. part. Today I decided to attack the next border. It's been awhile coming because I had a dilemma or two to sort out. Sherri Lynn Wood tells us in 'The Improv. Handbook' to cut from the complete width of a piece of fabric {42 inches}, make sets and then cut and sew the new improv. strip lengths. The problem is, I don't have many full widths of fabric pieces. What I have is a whole bunch of fat quarters and most of them have chunks cut out of them! I finally decided to cut out some random strips of pinks, browns and red fabric, all about 8 1/2" long, but varying in widths. We do what we have to do, with what we have. and that's okay. Just had to get things settled in my mind first. Why are simple things so often the hardest to figure out?

Starting with some random cut strips

And another thing--it always worries me to just start cutting pieces of fabric without knowing the ultimate number I might need. I've finally recognized this as part of the very real 'fear' I feel in starting in with an improv. project. I can get so much anxiety going about this {because I do so hate wasting fabric} that it can literally paralyze me and cause me to never even start. It's not the uncertainty about the finished outcome of the quilt, that part I'm perfectly okay with. It's figuring out how much fabric to cut so that I can freely play, without cutting so much that I end up with a mountain of extra. Regardless, I am determined to conquer this fear and forge ahead, one little improv. quilt idea at a time.

So this is what I ended up with. I varied a brown strip with a pink strip and started making sets of six strings. Because I free-cut the strips {no ruler}, there is a slight wonk to them that very much makes me smile. Plus I think the fact that I'm only making a border makes this much more fun. If it were an entire quilt, I'd be stressed, fretting about value changes etc. and leaping ahead to possible design problems. Worrying about things getting boring.

Sewing them into units

I love the idea of making this border a little more complex color-wise, so am also considering adding in a red strip periodically--maybe even every six strips. Would that be too calculated? Is everyone cringing at the idea of mixing red and pink? This has been an odd quilt so I think it calls for something a little offbeat. For now I am just auditioning though, nothing is sewn together or set in stone.

Thinking about adding in some red

And I'm also being run out of my quilting room by a passive aggressive 15 yr. old boy who was very annoyed to be told the Christmas tree needs de-ornamented. What? Be asked to do something on a school vacation? The outrage! Everybody in this family knows that AC/DC and me do not get along, so even though no words were ever spoken, the message has been {literally} very loud and clear.

Trying to see it on the design wall....

So I'll work on my scrappy, improv. border later on when things settle down and the kids have this grave injustice worked out of their system. I might need to cut more strips and maybe I won't, but I am refusing to let that stop me from this particular method of playing. Time to link up to Ann and Kaja for their AHIQ linky party of the month! It's such a great motivator to me, their quiet encouragement to spread our wings, try new things and maybe step outside of our narrow little box once in awhile. Do at least go check out Ann's wonderful new quilt top! Very inspiring!