You know how some quilts go together almost effortlessly and others make you really work for it? Before Christmas I had a quilt that fell into the struggle category. As a matter of fact, I put it away for a while.
Needing and “emotional cleanser” type of quilt, I decided to make an improvisationally pieced quilt. This is when no pattern in used. Fabrics are pieced together, shapes are altered, and then it all gets puzzled together at the end.
[Note: the auto correct is determined to call this IMPROVE quilting, rather than improv. Please translate where needed.]
These were my starting fabrics after pieces were cut and then joined together in pairs.
Next, I altered each pair in some fashion. Some were sliced and one piece was rotated before being sewn back on. Others were sliced and then rejoined with the alignment altered. And many had skinny lines inserted.
I continued making changes in this fashion and then began to think about how I might arrange the units. I knew I wanted a focal point and that the white fabrics would provide the highest contrast with the other colors. I tried gathering them into a shape, but I didn’t really like it.
What about blue as a focal point/shape? That seemed to have more merit so I experimented with it quite a bit.
I thought the blue might work. I continued to add skinny lines and make other changes.
I thought this was getting pretty close, (although some of this is just pinned.) I thought about that white fabric again. Knowing that it would call the viewer’s attention, I felt like I needed to sprinkle it around.
And maybe I’d need to sprinkle some blue around more, too.
Stay tuned to see where this goes.
Ellen Lindner
P.S. See other “improve” quilts and posts here, here, and here.
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