Hi, this is Janine, posting on behalf of Paula for technical reasons. Please visit Paula B Quilts to see more of this lovely quilt and to read Paula's Endeavourers reveal post for this quarter :)
Thursday, 1 November 2018
Improv Challenge
Hi, this is Janine, posting on behalf of Paula for technical reasons. Please visit Paula B Quilts to see more of this lovely quilt and to read Paula's Endeavourers reveal post for this quarter :)
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.
...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 :)
I'm very much looking forward to seeing what everyone has made for this very tricky theme :)
Improv - how hard can it be?
Improv is a challenge I was looking forward to and expecting to be difficult at the same time. When it comes to quilting, I like to design. I love brainstorming, gathering inspiration, seeing what catches my eye, questioning what bits I like, what I don't and developing a design I'd like to make. Curiosity tends to be my driver. I wonder what that would look like in low volumes, or how would that work if I made it really big? Or both.
I tend to gather like a magpie on the computer, words in a notebook and have some ideas in the back of my mind, not yet made, that pop up when I'm not looking, like a comfortable habit that plays out subconsciously. Improv on the other hand could be considered the opposite of all that. Oxford English Dictionary has two things to define Improvise; the first being: "creating spontaneously without preparation".
Is there really such a thing as without preparation though? Could it mean the absence of a pattern? Definitely. Absence of a sketch? Not sure. Absence of an idea? Don't think so. When does an idea cross over from inspiration to preparation? No clue!
My first thought that popped into my brain was a peacock with an improv made tail. Wonky freeform curves that would be glorious in their vibrancy of colours - teal, gold, green and blues. My minds image had it looking like this:
Large and fabulous in a bed sized quilt. (Bigger curves are easier after all!) The tail being the improv part and the birds head not so much so it's at least recognisable as a peacock! As in the last few challenges, I've discovered my first idea is grand, big and involved and time-consuming and something I really want to make. With 3 months to complete though completely unachievable. There is the day job, committee work and family to look after too!
So onto plan B. Oxford English second thing about improvising is: "Produce or make (something) from whatever is available", McGyver style. Now I have a large stash so limiting myself from diving in could be a challenge. Luckily enough, our branch of the Irish Patchwork Society, had booked Catherine Lawes (a UK based Textile artist) to give a workshop, on layered landscapes, using any fabric but quilting cottons. That I thought could be fun and not bringing any non-cotton fabric with me at all, I had to use what was available in the shared pile.
I was inspired by Kaja@ Sew Slowly who is an improv quilter I admire. She had made a lighthouse quilt and it was really cool so I thought a lighthouse like the Fastnet Rock would be something I'd like to hang on the wall. It is a lonely lighthouse built on a rock off the coast of Cork that people like to race around in sailboats and it can be really dangerous especially in our wild, windy, winter weather. So I made a dark themed lighthouse out of all sorts of materials, it is handstitched and glued through three layers so still a quilt.
The thing with an improv piece is how to know when it's finished? I've added machine quilting in the waves and the outline of the lighthouse. I'm thinking about adding in some bit of a sunset with thread. The nice thing about a piece like this is if I want to do a bit more I can just take it out of the frame, remove the mat and take it back to the machine.
So have I come to a conclusion on improv, not really but I have discovered these challenges are stretching my brain and giving me plenty of ideas for quilts to come!
I tend to gather like a magpie on the computer, words in a notebook and have some ideas in the back of my mind, not yet made, that pop up when I'm not looking, like a comfortable habit that plays out subconsciously. Improv on the other hand could be considered the opposite of all that. Oxford English Dictionary has two things to define Improvise; the first being: "creating spontaneously without preparation".
Is there really such a thing as without preparation though? Could it mean the absence of a pattern? Definitely. Absence of a sketch? Not sure. Absence of an idea? Don't think so. When does an idea cross over from inspiration to preparation? No clue!
My first thought that popped into my brain was a peacock with an improv made tail. Wonky freeform curves that would be glorious in their vibrancy of colours - teal, gold, green and blues. My minds image had it looking like this:
Large and fabulous in a bed sized quilt. (Bigger curves are easier after all!) The tail being the improv part and the birds head not so much so it's at least recognisable as a peacock! As in the last few challenges, I've discovered my first idea is grand, big and involved and time-consuming and something I really want to make. With 3 months to complete though completely unachievable. There is the day job, committee work and family to look after too!
So onto plan B. Oxford English second thing about improvising is: "Produce or make (something) from whatever is available", McGyver style. Now I have a large stash so limiting myself from diving in could be a challenge. Luckily enough, our branch of the Irish Patchwork Society, had booked Catherine Lawes (a UK based Textile artist) to give a workshop, on layered landscapes, using any fabric but quilting cottons. That I thought could be fun and not bringing any non-cotton fabric with me at all, I had to use what was available in the shared pile.
I was inspired by Kaja@ Sew Slowly who is an improv quilter I admire. She had made a lighthouse quilt and it was really cool so I thought a lighthouse like the Fastnet Rock would be something I'd like to hang on the wall. It is a lonely lighthouse built on a rock off the coast of Cork that people like to race around in sailboats and it can be really dangerous especially in our wild, windy, winter weather. So I made a dark themed lighthouse out of all sorts of materials, it is handstitched and glued through three layers so still a quilt.
The thing with an improv piece is how to know when it's finished? I've added machine quilting in the waves and the outline of the lighthouse. I'm thinking about adding in some bit of a sunset with thread. The nice thing about a piece like this is if I want to do a bit more I can just take it out of the frame, remove the mat and take it back to the machine.
So have I come to a conclusion on improv, not really but I have discovered these challenges are stretching my brain and giving me plenty of ideas for quilts to come!
Tucked Away
I must confess that my heart sank when I read that Improv was this quarter's theme for the Group, I have struggled with Improv blocks in the past so knew that it wasn't going to be a straightforward process to create a piece for the theme.
This piece, which I have called Tucked Away, is my response to the theme.
I chose to take a technique, Chenille quilting, and use random stitching to reflect the Improv theme. I have detailed the differences between the blocks in my post here as I wanted to mention other aspects of the hanging in this post for the Endeavourers.
Whenever I need to come up with a project to fit a theme I always turn to photographs for my inspiration and this challenge was no exception. The photograph above was taken on our visit to the Benmore Botanic Garden a few months ago when I was on the lookout for interesting textures for an upcoming competition in the Camera club. The fungi are fabulous but the fairy door beneath was the icing on the cake :)
I toyed with all sorts of ideas - trapunto and matchstick quilting to name but two to emulate the tree bark for my blocks, but wasn't really convinced until I reread Layered Cloth: the art of fabric manipulation by Ann Small and realised that Chenille was the technique that I needed.
Using different widths of random stitching and different directions for the stitching I was able to produce a credible tree background.
I wanted to use Suffolk Puffs (yo-yo's) for the Fungi but realised that the traditional round shape wouldn't work for the frilly half-moon shapes that I needed, so I cast around in my sewing room for inspiration.
The oval lid from a long ago eaten box of truffles proved the ideal template!
Stitched with a running stitch around and padded with toy stuffing when the running stitch was gathered up they made ideal fungi for my tree house tree.
As you can see :)
Two pieces of pink wool fabric stitched together with a small piece of thick wadding in between and a button for the door knob made the perfect Fairy Door.
To complete the embellishment I added lengths of machine wrapped cord for tree tendrils and a few beads nestled in amongst the frayed edges.
As you can probably tell I had great fun with this project and I am loving the amazing directions that this group is pushing me into :)
Looking forward to seeing how everyone else has met this challenge.
I chose to take a technique, Chenille quilting, and use random stitching to reflect the Improv theme. I have detailed the differences between the blocks in my post here as I wanted to mention other aspects of the hanging in this post for the Endeavourers.
I toyed with all sorts of ideas - trapunto and matchstick quilting to name but two to emulate the tree bark for my blocks, but wasn't really convinced until I reread Layered Cloth: the art of fabric manipulation by Ann Small and realised that Chenille was the technique that I needed.
I wanted to use Suffolk Puffs (yo-yo's) for the Fungi but realised that the traditional round shape wouldn't work for the frilly half-moon shapes that I needed, so I cast around in my sewing room for inspiration.
The oval lid from a long ago eaten box of truffles proved the ideal template!
To complete the embellishment I added lengths of machine wrapped cord for tree tendrils and a few beads nestled in amongst the frayed edges.
Looking forward to seeing how everyone else has met this challenge.
Improv Patchwork
I love the look of large patchwork quilts. I find them very cozy and homey. However, this is only my second one. I made my first one a long time ago when I first stated quilting. And never tried again. Coloring outside the lines sort of speak can be challenging. When'd I had trained my brain to work with a pattern or template; conceptualizing a quilt without a pattern to start with feels a bit daunting. But this challenge was the perfect opportunity to give it another try. I had some scraps I wanted to use up and seed where it would lead me. The process was so liberating. I loved letting fabric dictate where this design was going to take me. And the best part I ended up with a large quilt perfect for this chilly autumn weather. You can see more pics on my blog (sorry I got ahead o myself and blog about it about two weeks ago, I was too excited about my new finish).
XO
Martha
Improvisational Doesn't Necessarily Mean Quick
I love to work improvisationally, so I thought this theme would be easy for me.
 |
| One of my favorite quilts, from 2011. |
I was determined to do something that would stretch my abilities. And I even had a great idea as soon as the theme was announced! But life intervened and I couldn't get to it. That one is still in my mind to be completed some other time. But to make this deadline, I was going to have to do a smaller project, and I felt like doing something floral.
My initial idea was to have a focal point
of densely stitched flowers in the center, fading out to a suggestion of flowers
and leaves in the middle background, fading out even more to flowers
and leaves stitched white-on-white in the distant background, framed by cutwork spirals. (Wow, words make it sound really complicated.)
An influence for this idea was Ana Buzzalino's work, especially the pieces where she does one small area in color, and then quilts in white all around it. Another influence was a
quilt I saw in a book somewhere of a tree with huge cutout
areas, and beaded leaves hanging in the negative spaces. (I could not find that image anywhere; if you know the one I am talking about, please let me know!)
And as often happens, once this idea occurred to me, I started seeing versions of it everywhere. I especially liked this one from House Beautiful magazine, showing paper placemats you can doodle on, from Mulberry Paper and More.
My materials were a vintage linen napkin, wool
batting, a few old satin scraps, and backing.
Starting with a picture of a Dutch still life of
flowers as a reference, I made a quick sketch, planning where I would place emphasis in the composition.
 |
| By Jean-Pierre-Xavier Bidauld (1745−1813) (Web Gallery of Art: Image Info about artwork) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons |
 |
| Just the basic lines of the bouquet. |
I copied that sketch with thread onto the quilt sandwich.
I wanted to be sure I liked the cutwork background before I went to the effort of painting and stitching the flowers, so I started with that. I satin
stitched lightly around fabric areas to remove, cut them out, and then satin
stitched again with the wider stitch.
 |
| Some of the cutwork done, after thread sketching. |
On the back of the quilt sandwich, I practiced with Derwent Inktense pencils and Jacquard textile paints. I have used both of those products before, but I wasn't getting the pale pastels I had envisioned. The colors seemed too childish and raw.
Then I
remembered that I had some acrylic inks. This article by Judy Coates Perez gave tips about the ink use. I made a little sampler, using dip pens, brushes, and sponges, and then I used it to paint in the flowers on the mini-quilt. Coates Perez says that the ink does not stiffen fabric, and leaves a nice hand, but I found that it was almost as stiff as textile paint. I did dilute it with water as she does, but it still left the fabric stiff enough that I was worried I would break a needle stitching through it.
I painted ink left over in my palette onto more
vintage napkins, and those came in handy later.
At this point I experienced “Halfway Unhappiness,” that stage where it all looks terrible. I was not
getting the faded edges I had hoped for, and I didn’t really like the colors of
the ink. The pink was too salmon-colored and the forest green was too blue. It looked like a coloring book page.
 |
| The "Yuck!" stage. The "How on Earth am I Ever Going to Save This??!!" stage. |
I really enjoyed the time I spent adding hand stitching and beads, but it didn't add the depth and subtlety I was hoping for, and with the ink-coated fabric, it was hard going. If I had months to work on it, maybe I could get the stitching to show up the way I wanted, but the deadline was approaching.
Finally I went back with extra colored pencil and textile
paint, to bring more unity to the piece.
 |
Dutch Bouquet. |
 |
| Another detail. |
This piece did not meet my vision for it, and is not one of my favorites, but I do feel that I stretched my skills. I might have been better off to limit my palette and techniques, but that is exactly why I am in in this group -- to try new things and learn what works best for me. This was a great challenge and so much fun to work on!
Wednesday, 31 October 2018
Log Cabin Improv
I made a log cabin table topper (or it could be a wallhanging) for this quarter's challenge.
I am left-brained in construction, so I did have to have some boundaries.
I chose the block and colors through random selection. You can read more about that on my BLOG.
This is my finished project. It measures 17.5" x 18.5". On my blog, I mentioned how this was a learning experience for me. It could have been truly MORE improv if I had made the outer border randome blue and orange, or if the log cabin strips had been placed without consideration of the rule: 2 sides dark, 2 sides light.
I am left-brained in construction, so I did have to have some boundaries.
I chose the block and colors through random selection. You can read more about that on my BLOG.
This is my finished project. It measures 17.5" x 18.5". On my blog, I mentioned how this was a learning experience for me. It could have been truly MORE improv if I had made the outer border randome blue and orange, or if the log cabin strips had been placed without consideration of the rule: 2 sides dark, 2 sides light.
I will try something like this again. Perhaps I will use some other block choice from my list.
Tuesday, 16 October 2018
Improv Here I Come!
Improv!
Wow, it is a tough quilting theme.
The only thing I could compare this to is the television show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
I enjoyed watching it off and on during its run from 1998 to 2007.
But, quilting?
I decided to write down on slips of paper some things to work with. I wrote 3 of my favorite blocks and 5 colors based on which drawers of scraps held the most. I selected one slip of paper from the blocks category and 2 from the colors category. I chose log cabin blocks and the colors blue and orange.
I decided improv would mean I couldn't use any particular measurements (until I was ready to finish it up). I could use the rotary cutter and/or scissors. I couldn't baulk on the fabric scraps I picked or how the seams got sewn.
I am ready to add the quilting and all should be ready for the reveal on November 1!
Wow, it is a tough quilting theme.
The only thing I could compare this to is the television show, "Whose Line Is It Anyway?"
I enjoyed watching it off and on during its run from 1998 to 2007.
But, quilting?
I decided to write down on slips of paper some things to work with. I wrote 3 of my favorite blocks and 5 colors based on which drawers of scraps held the most. I selected one slip of paper from the blocks category and 2 from the colors category. I chose log cabin blocks and the colors blue and orange.
 |
| (And, yes, the oranges are bright orange but the lighting didn't help!) |
I am ready to add the quilting and all should be ready for the reveal on November 1!
Monday, 15 October 2018
Just a Peek
An OCD with a left side thinking brain has a hard time even THINKING improv. So I stitch on using these fabrics and do my thing and ...what the heck.
How bout you guys? Do you think you nailed the theme?
Wednesday, 5 September 2018
New Member
The Endeavourers welcome a new member, Paula, who joins us in time to take part in our latest challenge with the theme of 'Improv'.
The great thing about being part of a group is to see the way we all take inspiration from the theme and run with it in different ways - it's very exciting when we post our quilts on 'reveal' day. The looming deadline puts a bit of pressure on, but that's (hopefully!) balanced by the fact that this is a very friendly and supportive group.
We have a 'mission statement' here but what's most important is:
The great thing about being part of a group is to see the way we all take inspiration from the theme and run with it in different ways - it's very exciting when we post our quilts on 'reveal' day. The looming deadline puts a bit of pressure on, but that's (hopefully!) balanced by the fact that this is a very friendly and supportive group.
We have a 'mission statement' here but what's most important is:
get inspired,
have fun doing what you feel inspired to do,
and don't compare yourself to anyone else!
Saturday, 4 August 2018
New Theme Announcement
Congratulations to everybody for creating such a spectacular collection of Spiral Quilts!
Our list of theme choices now looks like this:
- the sea
- a walk in the park
- texture
- memories
- improv
- a quilt inspired by a newspaper headline
- emotions feelings
- opposites attract
- colour theory
- dreams
- wishes
- a scene from a book
- raindrops keep falling on my head
And for the next quarterly challenge Mr Random has chosen # 5 - Improv.
So please have your Improv Art Quilt ready to publish for the deadline. And, just as a caution, please remember that this is a group for smallish Art Quilts - I think with this theme it would be easy to get carried away end up with bed quilts before we know it!
The deadline for this quarter will be November 1st 2018 at 10.00am GMT.
If you have any questions or problems arise, please feel free to email me (Janine) or Catherine at any time.
In the meantime, please post here, on The Endeavourers Blog, with any thoughts, ideas or techniques you'd like to share. I can't wait to see what you all will create for this theme.
Happy Sewing!
Wednesday, 1 August 2018
“What goes around, comes around”
Hi everyone,
Apologies for being late ...... I was going to say, because I was finishing off late into the night last night, which I was, but as you will know by now my naughty computer has let me down today, and I found that, although I am able to edit from my iPad, I wasn’t able to add a photo. Luckily for me Janine was kind enough to offer to add my photo for me. Thank you again, Janine.
Apologies for being late ...... I was going to say, because I was finishing off late into the night last night, which I was, but as you will know by now my naughty computer has let me down today, and I found that, although I am able to edit from my iPad, I wasn’t able to add a photo. Luckily for me Janine was kind enough to offer to add my photo for me. Thank you again, Janine.
~~~~~~~~~~
My piece is called “What goes around, comes around” because as I was stitching around the triangles, heading for the spiral, I couldn’t stop this line from an old proverb entering my head.
The reason I’ve entitled it so is because all the triangles are from previous projects I’ve worked on, and as such they were “What goes around” with their scraps being used again and again in future ideas. As I stitched the spiral into the centre and then back on itself, and around the triangles again I couldn’t help thinking “comes around”, which although it isn’t the original meaning of the saying seemed so apt for this piece.
I wanted to show a few more photos of the backing, the heading, and how I worked this, but it will have to wait until either we buy a new laptop or the sick one is repaired.
I hope everyone has had a fun day unveiling their quilts and I will be round to visit shortly. I can’t wait to see how everyone else interpreted their “Spiral”.
Barbara x
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