Thursday 1 November 2018

Just Improv


Welcome to another Endeavourers Reveal Day. Can you believe we've been going for a year now?

Of the challenges we've had so far, I found this quarter's theme - Improv - the most alarming! It wasn't really the techniques I found daunting as I've made a fairly wide variety of improv bee blocks over the years but I struggled with having no concept to work with and, being given to illustration, I decided that, this time, I would make a quilt that was NOT pictorial and did not involve any kind of story. A quilt that was just improv and nothing else.

I thought it best just to plunge in so I selected some newspaper fabric scraps and a bunch of very small solid squares. This rather limited my options but it did make randomly selecting and sewing together pieces until I'd made a block less out-of-comfort-zone than it might have been because they were always going to look ok together. Nevertheless I found myself with an ugly block, which really didn't seem to me to compensate me for the time and fabric used making it. It was only when I realised it might make a nice horse blanket that I started enjoying this little quilt so I finished up my first practice piece, happy to have accomplished it but having failed to avoid sewing up another picture...


Next I thought I'd try some curves and, almost before I knew it, I had fish!


Or perhaps vases...I liked the fish/vase idea so much I embarked on a block with an improv background (hard to see in the photo but a variety of of tone on tone whites and creams).


And I made some improv-ish flowers made from slashing a pile of roughly 5" squares into to wedges and sewing them together.


And this was actually my favourite improv experiment but I found the fish too curvy for improv curves so I made a fish template and I drew round a circular coaster for the flower applique so I ruled it out for the challenge and continued with some blocks that were not at all improv...


For my third attempt, I selected a piece of background I've had for years and some solid scraps and decided just to go round and round with improv curves.


To start with, I envisaged a spiral but once I'd done the centre I couldn't see how to accomplish that and I didn't want a ring so I made nesting 'C' shapes instead...


 ...and just went round and round until I had too little background fabric for another round. To finish it off, I used leftovers to make a row of improv 'squares' and then squared up the whole thing. I bagged this quilt as I hadn't sufficient fabric for binding and I didn't want to introduce more of the colours.


Finally, I quilted by stitching in the ditch and adding lines of machine and hand stitching.



I finished this up early in the quarter and I planned to try out some more improv and, perhaps, make a better quilt but, sadly, I found myself without a sewing machine for a time so I am thinking of this as third time lucky!

I'm very much looking forward to seeing what everyone has made for this very tricky theme :)

14 comments:

  1. I always love reading about the process of your pieces for this group Janine, I am very impressed at your staying power with this one as I know for sure that I wouldn't have gone through so many iterations to get to the final piece :) All of your Improv quilts along the way are lovely, the bright colours against the low volume backgrounds really sing!

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    1. Thanks, Fiona. I should probably branch out into other colour schemes!

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  2. Every piece is beautiful. The quilting on your final one perfection. Great choice for this piece

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  3. Good for you making several projects. I think the concentric C shapes make a truly improv piece, and the flowers are just adorable.

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    1. Thanks, Paula. Despite my initial misgivings, I became quite enthused by improv once I got started :)

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  4. I have an especially soft spot for the horse but all your works for this challenge are great -I hope you had fun! I like your choice of fabrics for your concentric c's and the texture your quilting adds.

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    1. Thank you, Catherine. I did enjoy making these once I got started :)

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  5. You sure had fun playing around with your samples of Improv. I really like the bright colors you use on your backgrounds. Sometimes when I hear someone say they should shake up the colors they use, I wonder about it too. Choices and style can become a brand so to speak. But, I like it too that you used what you have and that's great for Improv as well. I love your work.
    xx, Carol

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    1. Thank you, Carol. These were leftover, misshapen scraps from old projects and I really hate wasting fabric so I didn't want to break into large pieces with something so experimental :D

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  6. Wow, a whole series!!

    I love the flowers! And I love how you combined them with other big blocks. That would count as improv for me -- even if the components were planned and measured out, you certainly combined them in an original way. If I saw that quilt on the wall at International Quilt Festival, I know I would spend a long time looking at it, trying to figure out if there was a story behind the grouping of elements.

    And your spiral/nesting C-shapes tie in with our previous theme! I love the blend of stitches on that piece. Something for me to remember and incorporate into a piece.

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    1. Thank you, Gwen. I think, perhaps, a little improv goes a long way :)

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  7. I love each of your pieces Janine, but especially the cute donkey!
    Such great ideas!
    Barbara x

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  8. Thank you, Barbara. Probably, you can't go wrong with a donkey!

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