Just Playing

Sometimes you just need to play. Start with something, anything, and see what happens.

In this case. I started with a jelly roll and some charms, serious temptation from two lovely designers.  When I was head down on that king sized quilt and buried under slabs I caved at some point in August to play. I sliced the charms in half and cut pieces of the jelly roll down to match. Then it was a matter of sewing pairs together. A lot of chain piecing and pressing. Then rows, then chunks like this. There are more chunks to go as there is more fabric to be used, but I am liking this so far. I have yardage of a subtle text print that will serve as background. You can just see bits of it used on the edges of this chunk.

No, if only I could find more time to play again.

Snippets on Dates

For the last two or three years I've kept this bin of fabrics scraps by my side while I sew. It sits next to one of my big glass jars full of seemingly useless snippets of scraps. Tiny pieces, big pieces, odd pieces. They all live together in the hopes of becoming something more.

Slowly, slowly, they are indeed doing that.

As I sew, particularly improv sewing, I use these little bits as leaders and enders. That is, instead of having dangling threads on every single seam I often grab two snippets and sew them together. At the end of a moment of sewing I have a new collection of pairs.

Some pairs are small, some a bit larger, and some teeny tiny. Eventually, they will all get sewn together into some kind of crazy, hot, scrappy mess. And I will love it. For now, however, they are still sitting in pairs, like some sort of speed dating event.

On the weekend I wasn't in the mood to sit while we watched UFC and Le Tour at the end of the night. So I set up my iron and finally tackled the pressing of these lonely dates longing to be part of the crowd. And three hours later I wasn't quite done, but I made a good dent.

Now it is time to create a new set, by sewing these piles together. And so on, and so on... It really is going to be chaotic when done, but I'm pretty sure I'll love it. How can I not, when I have these little precious combos littered throughout?

Keep these leaders and enders in mind when you're making your slabs. Makes the process faster and neater.

Girlie Quilt

Girlie

38'' by 38''

Just a simple, pretty, girlie quilt.

It started as an improv block, waiting for a home and some inspiration. I sent it off to a guild member for the next go at a round robin. She asked if I wanted to keep it all black and white or if I wanted any specific colour. I gave her free reign, waiting for the surprise at the end. Once everyone else did their thing. Can't say I imagined baby pink!

When it came back to me I decided I couldn't let it linger  - I'm all about finishing these days! I went back and forth on some options and this is where I landed. I basted it and then it sat... One quiet Saturday with no kids in the house it got quilted. A basic stipple in Aurifil 50wt in white took me an hour. So, why did I wait so long?

But now it is done, bound in a sunny yellow for contrast and to coordinate with the backing. It sits packed by the door, ready to send off to a cousin and his adorable baby girl.

Not before my baby girl snuck in for a snuggle and photo op!

Improv and Intentions

One of the workshops at QuiltCon I was lucky to get into was Denyse Schmidt's Improv workshop. It was a hot commodity and I had just the right timing when doing my registration. To be honest, I took it out of curiosity more than anything. I'm quite comfortable with improv work, even teaching it myself! But I wanted to see how Denyse taught it and see how people responded.

Frankly, I really enjoyed the class. It may have been the opportunity of just free sewing/playtime after weeks of prep for my own classes at QuiltCon. But it was also a great environment. The other students ranged from improv virgins to the old hats at the technique like me. Denyse is a good teacher, clear on the approach, and extremely encouraging. For the students who'd never done improv it was a challenge at the beginning but they all seemed to really embrace things at the end.

Denyse's technique involves true randomness. Three bags of fabric bits in different sizes. Close your eyes and reach in! At home I do almost the same thing, but I keep my eyes open. Denyse's goal is to get the students to see the beauty in the randomness; beauty in seemingly clashing bits of fabric and blocks that don't lay flat. And it is most definitely there.

After each exercise we reviewed all the blocks and discussed our responses. I loved this part as too often in classes we don't get see what other people make or hear about what people experienced as they worked. The last part was a big eyeopener as a teacher. Well worth the class for me.

In the morning we worked solely with Denyse's scraps. In the afternoon we got to add our own fabric and a randomly chosen solid (Confession: my solid may have been placed in my hand by my very awesome Aussie volunteer and friend). Having seen reports of this class before I chose my fabric to bring with great intention. The blocks from one of these classes can start to all look the same so I chose my fabric to stand out a bit. Plus, it is one of my all-time favourite fabrics.

I didn't expect to care much for my blocks, I prefer a bit more control in my colour schemes. But I LOVE my blocks. So much so that I've got plans for a lot more and a finished quilt. I think I lucked out  with the fabric I picked out of the bags and the colours that came up.  Or it was just all serendipity... In the end I took a handful of orphan blocks from the morning exercises and I have another plan for them too.

Again, I was totally reminded that we need to remain open to experiences. I went into the class all cocky about my improv ability and thinking I wouldn't learn anything. And I came out with a bit of a gut check, new ideas, and an appreciation for the approach of others. Plus some rather cool quilt blocks.