Improvisational piecing is really a lot of fun. You sew and slice and reassemble and trim. As you go, the pieces get smaller and things get much more energetic. See where I left off last time.
It was time to downsize some of the colors. This one below, for instance. It had a really large section of green. So, I just sliced it, joined new fabrics in and turned it into two blocks.
Can you find the new blocks in this collection?
It was time to add in some narrow strips. I really love these! They add a lot of interest, but because this is improv, nothing has to match up. This photo shows that I’ve sliced through this block and sewn on the first side of a narrow fabric strip. (3/4 -1″ wide)
There’s no need to match seams when sewing the second side of the strip. Leave a big seam allowance and just lay things in place, (parallel) so you’ll catch both pieces when sewing.
Then, flip it over and sew the second seam referencing the first one. Use whatever distance you like to determine the finished width of the strip. Press seams out and trim off the excess seam allowance.
Ta-da! Pretty neat, huh? You can do the same thing with a gentle curve.
See how much energy they add?
At this point, I began to study what was happening on the design wall and making more purposeful changes. I realized I had missed the mark with my color selection. That’s because I used too much of the darkest red. Not only that, but since it provided some of the highest contrast, it was taking over a little bit. I knew I’d need to reduce the size of the red pieces. And, since they were inspired by flowers, I thought I wanted to make them more triangular, so they wouldn’t be so chunky. On with the plan.
After a bit more work, these blocks had been altered. Much better, don’t you think?
See the three little dark brown dots? They were inspired by the dark stamens in the flowers. They started as a rectangle. Which I then turned into a narrow strip. Which I eventually sliced and repieced off-kilter. I liked them.
I should have this mostly finished by my next post.
Ellen Lindner
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