IMPROVing an Old UFO

In 2011 I went to a class by Judy Laquidara.  She is a very traditional quilt designer who loves borders. She creates complicated blocks and then adds 12 borders, literally.

It was the only thing at the time, if I wanted to take a class, traditional was all there was.  If I wanted to buy fabric, traditional was all there was.  So I had a side gig, so to speak, of the modern stuff.  And they chuckled at me and pointed when I walked by.......maybe not that bad, but they all knew I didn’t fit that “traditional “ mould.

The box got put aside in 2011, somehow made it through the flood intact, and just taken out yesterday.  There was about 25 bags of precut pieces for future blocks.  No way, was I going to piece more of those blocks. So I took out some pieces and tried to figure out new things to do with the parts.

I put a border of the triangles around the 4 existing blocks, and decided it looked too traditional for me.

I ended up with 10 improv stars with some scattered triangles.  Not sure the triangles will actually stay, or be in that format. But that is how it evolved over the last two days.

More later.

Stay safe everyone!!!!

OMG and UFO Challenge Finishes for Feb 2018

I have two finishes for these two challenges.  And it feels good to get them both done. I am linking to both the UFO Challenge and the OMG (One Monthly Goal). Click on the projects to see what others are doing with their challenges.

I get to a certain point in the quilt piece construction and it becomes less than imperative (or  fun) to continue going.  I want to start the new stuff!  I love these incentive programs to spur me along to  a couple of finishes.

First finish for February - whew, say that five times fast

100 Meter Swim - Just in time for the Olympics.  This is from a book written in German by Bernadette Mahr.  I love her work, so improv wonderful.

It is basically a Chinese Coin construction with watery blues to look like the shimmering water in a crystal clear swimming pool.  The diving board and starter blocks stand out in stark contrast to the cool of the water.

I really love this piece.  I am thinking it will be an entry in the CFAL show later this year.

The second finish is Triangles.  This is a quilt that started from nothings.  What I mean by that is multiple years ago Connecting Threads was having a clearance sale and I bought several packs of solid pre-cuts.  There were half yards, fat quarters and 10 inch squares.  Most of them are still sitting on the shelves.

I wanted to make a big block triangle piece so  I grabbed one of the 10 inch groups and just cut and sewed.  No pattern.  I ended up with a bunch of triangles and put them in a box for a year.  When they didn't  magically sew themselves together, I guess the quilting fairies didn't see them in the box, I  had to do it.  Then it needed to be larger, so I had a sheet from my mother's stuff from assisted living.

So the blue in the borders and on the back is that sheet.

It is a bit different to work with a sheet than it is to work with fabric.  And if you are hand quilting it would be difficult due to a higher thread count in the sheets, but I was going to put it on the long arm.

I also wanted to use it as a practice quilt for different free motion techniques.  I got out my Natalia Bonner and Angela Walters books and tossed in every design I could muster.

I totally love the solid blue back and the individual triangles.  Some are more shaky than others.  I found I had straight lines and ruler work down, but needed serious work on the curved designs!

So finish number 2 this month is done.  I have a thousand million threads to bury.  the back is finished and about 1/3 of the front done.  But it is done in all other aspects.


 Now on to the March finishing challenges!

3D ---- 3D ----- 3D

These are just photos of the flowers Frank brought the other day.  They are so bright, just like the pieces of fabric I have been working with today.

I got a photo email birthday greeting from my dentist today.  Really?  As odd as that might seem, it was a picture of chocolate cupcakes, piled high with chocolate frosting that was piped in a big swirl, with a  white chocolate flourish.

I think they want me to get cavities.....

So I have been playing with more improv squares today. 

I have an idea how to put them together, but it won't be in a quilt.  I am hoping to have another piece for one of the shows.  I have two coming up.  

It hit me today that I can put them into a hanging rather than a quilt.  

Here is the progress so far.  I am going to stop making squares and work on the assembly.  And work out HOW the assembly will go.

It will be 3 dimensional.  

We shall see as it progresses.

Rayna Gillman Meets Sujata Shah Meets Patty the Quilt Lady

Let me give you a snow update first.  (oh lordy, I forgot to do a bird today......I will do two tomorrow, don't worry Lynne.)  We had snow hanging in until mid afternoon today.  As we drove to buy me some rain (or currently snow) boots, I snapped some of the SneauxMen still hanging around on street  corners.  This is the longest surviving snow I have ever

seen!       






Even Frozen got into the fun!  I thought this was hysterical.  A couple days ago this Frozen guy was on green grass!  LOL







So here is my sewing chronicle. 


I did those green blocks as an exercise from Rayna Gillman's book.


 I started at this point yesterday.  That is actually white at the top, it just blends with the design wall. 

Then I decided it needed large areas of just open space.  That is mostly because the green I needed was only fat eighths.  Really.  I actually got a lot of squares out of those 6 fat eighths.  I had 4 greens plus black and white.  I added the green trellis because it played well color wise and read as a solid.


I decided that the piece needed to be larger.  It was like a baby quilt at this point.

So......





LOL.....Ignore the diamond leftover from Diamond Dogs!

I have Sujata Shah's book on improv piecing and Patty the Quilt Lady's technique for making improv triangles.  Patty makes these long strings of triangles and Sujata pieces them one at a time.  I sort of combined the two.

And made Improv Triangles.  I tossed in some yellow, since I no longer had three greens. Yeah.

I made some.

then some more.

Then I moved them around.

You know, it is too busy now.  The integrity of the two unrelated sides is disturbed.

In the picture above you  look at one side, then the other.  Now it is too jumbled together and you don't know where to look.

Trouble.

So I moved them around a bit.

And filled in some blank spaces.

Remember that space at the top is white.

I really like the triangles on the side of the  green blocks.  Not sure what to call them so green blocks seems to be it.

Those blocks on the right side pull the idea of the left side into view.

I like it.

I can't even imagine how to quilt it!  LOL

Improv Support Group

Thanks to my Improv Support Group who answered my desperate pleas seeking approval in that last post.  You helped me tremendously.  

If you didn't see it at first, the pattern is called Winter from Sujata Shah's book called Cultural Fusion.  Hers are more controlled colors an textures and look beautiful.  She is a master of improv.  My computer keeps auto-correcting and telling me I need to improve my skills in improv. 

I was thinking I  could find a nice center medallion and use these as the border........I will look  into that possibility.  

Ohhhhh.....Secret Secrets......

I am seeking a few dog (or cat - you guys are wonderful too) lovers to help me with a project that I am not going to publicize on my blog.  I will contact a few of you I know who might want to do this tiny little project, but if you want to step up and help, let me know.  It will literally take you less than 15 or 20 minutes and cost under $1.  But the benefit will be incredible.

I won't ask publicly again, so email me at obed101 (at) cox.net if you want to help.

It is a good thing to do.  Contact me.