Improvizational quilts
04-24-2017, 11:57 AM
#14
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OK-love your examples/pics.
I think crazy quilting is improvizational. As is crumb quilts. And your strippy quilt. I think of improv as starting with what is available, adding to it until it's big enough. Anybody have a definition?
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I think crazy quilting is improvizational. As is crumb quilts. And your strippy quilt. I think of improv as starting with what is available, adding to it until it's big enough. Anybody have a definition?
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04-24-2017, 12:38 PM
#16
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Thanks, Petthefabric- For the first one, I had a bunch of fabrics that were gifted to me. They were not fabrics I would have bought, so I decided to experiment with dyeing them using alcohol inks, then I tore them into pieces and layered them. There was not really any idea or parameters beyond experimenting with materials that were out of my comfort zone. Once I had a composition I liked, I tacked the pieces down, added some batting and backing and figured out the quilting as I went. It's going into a show at a local gallery this week. I've decided to call it "there might be a rip in the space/time continuum..."
The 2nd quilt started out as an improve piece based on a Joe Cunningham series of rules: take a square of fabric, cut off a corner, add a "stick" (thin piece) put the corner back on the first piece, or add a corner from another piece. Do that as often as you like and square up the pieces. I made an entire quilt top using four fabrics and while it was interesting, I wasn't happy with it. So, I cut it diagonally into a variety of different width strips, then cut some squares of batting and backing and laid a strip of the cut up quilt top diagonally across each square as the starting point. Then went to my scrap basket and started pulling scraps that I pieced onto that in a quilt as you go method. Once the squares were made, they sat for several years while I decided what to do with them. The design wall helped me get the layout and the size I needed of the black fabric and batting in between the squares. I named the quilt Koyaanisqatsi (which is Navaho for "life out of balance") because it reminded me of the movie Koyaanisqatsi.
The third quilt initially started out as mindless sewing of crumbs. When I had some pieces I liked, I squared them up and set them aside for a couple of years. When I came back to it I decided that it would be fun to put them into a modern layout-- my inspiration was mid-century modern design. It was a bit of a daunting task, since they were many different sizes, which meant that once I liked how they were laid out in relation to each other I had to figure out the size of the white polka-dot and off white solid filler pieces that went in between them. I ended up laying them out, taking measurements of each and drawing it on graph paper to get a cutting diagram for the filler pieces--so a little more planned than some of my improv. pieces. The quilting was dictated by the fabric so the crumb pieces are ditched around every crumb. The white polka dot is quilted in zig zags from dot to dot and then part way around a dot, and the off white is quilted in diamonds just because. LOL...It's called "Slice 'N Dice: A Handful of Parameters".
Rob
The 2nd quilt started out as an improve piece based on a Joe Cunningham series of rules: take a square of fabric, cut off a corner, add a "stick" (thin piece) put the corner back on the first piece, or add a corner from another piece. Do that as often as you like and square up the pieces. I made an entire quilt top using four fabrics and while it was interesting, I wasn't happy with it. So, I cut it diagonally into a variety of different width strips, then cut some squares of batting and backing and laid a strip of the cut up quilt top diagonally across each square as the starting point. Then went to my scrap basket and started pulling scraps that I pieced onto that in a quilt as you go method. Once the squares were made, they sat for several years while I decided what to do with them. The design wall helped me get the layout and the size I needed of the black fabric and batting in between the squares. I named the quilt Koyaanisqatsi (which is Navaho for "life out of balance") because it reminded me of the movie Koyaanisqatsi.
The third quilt initially started out as mindless sewing of crumbs. When I had some pieces I liked, I squared them up and set them aside for a couple of years. When I came back to it I decided that it would be fun to put them into a modern layout-- my inspiration was mid-century modern design. It was a bit of a daunting task, since they were many different sizes, which meant that once I liked how they were laid out in relation to each other I had to figure out the size of the white polka-dot and off white solid filler pieces that went in between them. I ended up laying them out, taking measurements of each and drawing it on graph paper to get a cutting diagram for the filler pieces--so a little more planned than some of my improv. pieces. The quilting was dictated by the fabric so the crumb pieces are ditched around every crumb. The white polka dot is quilted in zig zags from dot to dot and then part way around a dot, and the off white is quilted in diamonds just because. LOL...It's called "Slice 'N Dice: A Handful of Parameters".
Rob
Last edited by rryder; 04-24-2017 at 12:43 PM.
04-24-2017, 03:13 PM
#18
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Join Date: Apr 2017
Posts: 14
I'm just starting to piece a hex quilt using 2" hexies. Yesterday I whipped out a bunch of stash bits, and did a first "flower." (It's not going to be floral, but that's the easiest configuration to put hexies together.) Today I whacked up the stash bits, and basted some hexies during a meeting. I haven't a clue what this is going to end up - whether it will be a full top, or a bunch of hex-amoeba-appliques, or what. The fun is in the journey, and it's a Ziploc baggie project, so it's HIGHLY portable. And no precision cutting.
04-24-2017, 05:50 PM
#20
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I'm so enjoying this thread...SillyBear, this is a hexie quilt I put together a while back...when I got tired of making these I called it quits
...I have a question/comment...if these are improv, why do we "square" them up and neatly encase them in some even geometric form?
...I have a question/comment...if these are improv, why do we "square" them up and neatly encase them in some even geometric form?
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