In a recent post I suggested that, when making improvisational quilts, it’s a good idea to get the proportion of colors set before any construction begins. Yet, I ignored my own advice on my latest quilt, Melting Pot. It all began when I fell in love with a painting by Jane Davies. Great colors, right? It’s…
The style of improv (no pattern) piecing I do evolves greatly during the construction of the quilt. Which is one of the things I love about it. I do a lot of slicing, repiecing, slitting, and slanting, all without a construction plan. With such a loose technique the color and value selections become critical. These…
Whenever I show one of my improv quilts, people ask if I’m going to teach the technique. I don’t have any plans to teach it right now, so I thought I’d show a little about it here on my blog. There are LOTS of different ways to make improvisational quilts. You’ll find many tutorials on…
I did a second fun Zoom class with the Ann Arbor gals. This time it was Double Reverse Appliqué. They made great progress. Just look. Jennifer chose muted colors and they worked beautifully. (BTW, the focus on Zoom is great. It’s reduced here because the image has been copied and manipulated so many times.) Colleen finished…
It sure is great to be able to interact with students and teach, via Zoom, to people across the country. I recently taught “Floral Improv” to a group of students in the Ann Arbor, MI area. They all did an excellent job and these late-in-the-day screen shots are proof. Woah, Grace got a LOT of…
What to do when the call for art requests ocean animals smaller than 12″? This is my result: two fish for SAQA’s “Fresh Fish” project. These are made from scraps, most of them hand dyed. I had fun adding a little hand stitching. It turns out that this shape is VERY hard to turn right…
I’m really loving my latest quilt, Fruit Salad. When I was a kid, at least once per summer my parents would get a watermelon, chill it, and then make a big to-do about eating it outside as part of an evening picnic. We ate it outside because my 3 siblings and I made a MESS with…
I’ve been having so much fun working on this improvisational quilt. (See the previous two posts for more in-progress photos and explanations.) After LOTS of piecing, slicing, and repiecing, I finally thought the quilt sections had enough energy and excitement to start thinking about how to put them together. First, I looked for sections with…
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…
Are you familiar with Linda and Laura Kemshall? They’re a mother-daughter duo who make fabulous art – in fabric and paper, and who have a weekly newsletter. Recently, they featured this photo. Isn’t it lovely? I was enamored with the colors of the lilies and wrote to ask if I could use it for a…