I have been doing a bit of improvisational piecing to improve my skills. Improv usually means that there is no pattern and no ruler to cut the seams. The look is supposed to have more character and not look so perfect that it could have been made by a computer.
I decided to use black and white plain fabric only. I have also started off with simple seams and will gradually work up to more complicated piecing. I am making the blocks 6 1/2", because I don't want to go through metres of fabric and I don't want them to take a long time to make. I haven't done much piecing since my early patchwork days when I made traditional quilts and loved star patterns.
Here are the first ones that I made.
I was admiring them on my design wall one day, when I remembered Nancy Crow's critique of my work. She said that all my lines were the same width! Here I am 3 years later still making the same mistakes.
I tried a couple more blocks and tried the vary the size of the lines.
These blocks are only 6" square but I do think that they look more interesting.
I saw an article in a magazine about improv piecing and tried one of the suggestions. I place an 8" square of black and white fabric on top of each other and sliced them up.
After flipping every second colour I sewed them together. I cut a curve into them and re-pieced them. Here are the results.
Isn't it amazing how 2 blocks that started off the same can look so different? No doubt I could come up with many more configurations.
I am enjoying my little practices or experiments, particularly as they do not take very long to make. I'll try and make one a week and see how I end up.
In the spirit of learning more about improv piecing I have signed up to an on-line Zoom class with Carole Lyles Shaw on Saturday. I have never heard of her before but the class was offered by Quilt NSW and I thought I'd take advantage of the opportunity.
There will be no actual pattern but she will be concentrating on teaching us improv curved piecing, how lucky that it came at the right time for me.
I decided to keep it simple and have chosen black and white fabrics with some red.
Stay tuned to find out how I go. I did that live one hour class with Claire Benn last month but this a full day live class! It could be interesting? The teacher Carole lives in the USA, it probably means that she will be up all night! I hope that she is a night owl.
Bye for now,
Linda
4 comments:
Zoom has certainly given us lots of opportunities in this time when we can't attend classes. Your samples look great
That's true Jude, I wonder if we will continue to use Zoom after this is all over.
I'm like you in that I have to resist making things all the same size - part of perfectionist tendencies perhaps? Fun to see your experiments. Perhaps they could be put together into a little quilt?
Thanks Magpie Mumblings, I suppose I do have perfectionist tendencies, although I can see plenty of mistakes in my work that I manage to live with! It does seem a shame to make these little blocks and not use them for something. We'll see!
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