So.., big step for me with Improv. I actually cut into good pieces of fabric, not oldy moldies at the bottom of the stash totes! It seemed easier to go the 'baby quilt' route for my first time. Lesson the panic a bit and work on a smaller scale.
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| The initial stack of fabric. Later on I added more blue and some yellow |
I used
Sujata Shah's 'Cultural Fusion Quilts' to make wonky looking flying geese {she calls them tipsy triangles}. First I cut 6" squares with a ruler, then I started making my free form blocks, cutting and re-stacking as the directions state. Love that her book makes it easy to find directions for making units, learning the process, instead of having to wade through specific quilt directions for everything.
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| Getting started with the free form part.... |
Eventually I ended up with stacks of free looking hourglass units. I've been looking at these in her book
for months {for another project} and just couldn't quite bring myself to cut into the fabric. This little baby quilt was an excellent trial run. I love some of the hourglass units and others, not so much. It obviously depends on how gentle or steep a curve you cut. Something to think about!
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| Free looking hourglass units |
On to the trimming. How I do hate thee....! It's just so tedious. I wanted to run screaming from the room, really I did. But... lots of breaks over a period of a couple days and finally it was all done and out of the way. And though I'm not a big fan of waste, what was leftover seemed very reasonable.
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| Trimming, trimming, trimming, trimming, trimming..... |
Finally I ended up with my wonky geese units. Exactly what I was wanting! Sujata suggests mixing up the squares in order to end up with a more interesting blend of fabrics. I thought about it, but in the end played it very safe as I really wanted a calmer arrangement of geese {lots of repeats} for this particular quilt.
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| Wonky geese on the wall |
Eventually I found my way to this fun little arrangement on my wall! This is only the first layout audition, so it's not exactly set in stone yet. There are about 40 geese that still need to find their way into the quilt and of course those oddball geese with the wrong color backgrounds need to find a home as well. When it's actually sewn together, there will be many, many points disappearing, but I think that's one of the charming things about this style of quilt. Ahh... Sujata, you don't disappoint! The directions are very clear with lots of pictures, something that I for one, rather appreciate. My brain doesn't always compute well with the way people explain things!
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| The beginnings of a baby quilt |
Then I jumped over to these
little units made from my scrap bin. I'm starting to get an idea about how they need to be joined together.
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| Scrappy improv. units |
I cut some 1 1/4" strips in a light colored fabric that will hopefully help make these blocks 'glow' a bit. It's not something I focus on very often, but when I see it happening almost by accident, it's time to take advantage!
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| The new unit |
And last but not least, here's the last Adhoc Improv. arrangement all put together and ready for pinning. The vintage block has a little bit of rust staining and the basket wasn't hand stitched very well. Keeping it small means I can use it for a wall hanging--still enjoy my efforts without stressing over how well it will hold up to normal wear and tear.
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| Vintage Basket quilt |
Somewhere along the line I decided it was perfectly acceptable to have two different quilts being hand quilted at the same time {two different hoops of course}. I can still hardly fathom why and how this came to be, but apparently this is my new 'normal'. Check me for a fever....
Linking up with
Kaja and
Ann today for lots of Adhoc Improv. fun!
