A spot of Improv

I'd like to say a spot of improv piecing came upon me in the middle of the night and wouldn't let go of me but that would be rather untrue..... I have made one wall hanging in the spirit of Gee's Bend quilts last year and very much liked the process. There is something reckless about it because you have to let go of everything that you have leaned before; to hell with the ruler and rotary cutter, no exact 1/4 inch and seam allowances are ironed just where they want to lay themselves.

Liberating, yes but also a bit unnerving and with a lot of potential for frustration. When I went to Quilt Con I was particularly interested in the Gee's Bend quilts and their improv style. It just appeals to me and whenever I google Gee's Bend quilts I never tier of looking at them. Yet I find it strange that this burning desire doesn't lead me to obsessive improv piecing.

So when I attended the workshop with the lovely Gee's Bend Ladies I knew I was forced for 3 hours to improv piece. It was a strange 3 hours to say the least. All they said was "Sew!" and that was it. I was fine with that given that I have a little bit of experience with it but it lead to some frantic piecing by all participants. Hardly anybody looked right of left and I had the impression that everybody put their head down to produce as much as possible. In a way that was also creative as we worked against the clock.

I took some old denim, cotton from my father's work trousers (he is a baker and still baking at 73 in our bakery) and a whole bunch of Oakshott I had lying around plus some old linen and some text fabric. The outcome was this:

Please excuse the bad image quality as it was taken with my phone. I was ok with it but not thrilled. I liked the yellow small squares intersected with my checkered work trousers fabric best but the rest was just...well....

After that I went home and put it all away for a few weeks. I took it out the other day and started looking at it and then decided to undo most of it and cut some of the larger pieces up again only to sew them back together in a different way. If you don't like it, just cut it up ! That is the beauty of improv.

The outcome is this:

And this I like very much now. I love the dark petrol strips in between as I feel they combine the individual parts. It needs more denim for sure and I have other pieces that I created since and those that are left from the cutting up that should go into it.

It's a piece in progress that I will put away again for a few weeks and see then where it leads me to. 

QuiltCon 2015

I am coming !!!!!!!

Yes, I managed to register and although I am on the waiting list for a few workshops I have booked in for the Keynote speach with the Quilters of Gee's Bend and am sure that I will get a place for the last session on the Sunday for an improv class with them as I assume a lot of people have to catch planes (that is my hope anyway).

I also can't wait to see the exhibition of Gee's Bend quilts and the 20 quilts from Yoshiko Jinzenji’s Quilt Group.

Who else is going ?

Hurray a finished quilt

I got my beloved beast back and it runs again smoothly. My suspicion was correct and they had to re-set the casing where the bobbin holder rests in. I suspect that the problems were caused when I was sewing a zipper back with leather (can't show I'm afraid as it is for LP&Q issue 8) the other day which resulted in some jamming of the needle.

And although the weather was absolutely gorgeous over the weekend I managed to finished my first wall hanging 'Dreams of Summer' and it is already hanging on the wall in my front room.

As already mentioned in my earlier post about it, this piece is most definitely inspired by the Gee's Bend quilts. It is cut and pieced without the use of rulers or rotary cutters expect when it came to squaring up the quilt. The solids are an assortment of Kona and Freespirit Designer solids and some remnants whose origin I can't really place.

After much deliberation and a failed attempt at half circular quilting I decided on random fairly narrow straight lines and I believe this was the right decision in the end as the circular quilting may have been distracting from the actual colours.

One of the things I particularly love about the quilt is that it has no visible binding. The binding is folded and hand stitched to the back for which I used Victoria Gertenbach's excellent tutorial.

To hang the quilt I made a sleeve as it is about 32 inches long. For smaller pieces I would have used triangles in the corner.

And it is hung with a dowel and some eye screws pretty much in the same way as explained by simplyrobin.

You know for somebody who has never been fond of quilt wall hangings, I am actually really pleased with this. It turned out really lovely and makes for a great piece of decorative "art".

A broken beast

My lovely Horizon is at the doctors and that makes me very sad. The casing where the bobbin holder sits in, seems to be worn out resulting in tension issues (both with the machine and me !). At first I thought I just need a new bobbin holder but unfortunately that didn't solve the problem so I took the beast to my trusted repair man Chris who I'm sure will sort her out.
 
I guess after some years of heavy usage a repair was on the cards at some point and hopefully I'll have the beast back by the end of the week.

I am halfway through quilting 'Snowy Days' and half way through quilting' Dreams of Summer'.
This picture here is just before I basted it.  It was a real joy of piecing this quilt and I only used a ruler to square up right at the very end.

Dreams of Summer

Lately the colour yellow has been very much on my mind. Although I am not sure why I suspect it is the result of longing for better weather and a lot of frustration at work that I am trying to overcome with something nice and positive.

I love yellow in all its shades and when it morphs into orange even more. For a while I was thinking about a series of tall triangles in yellow surrounded by a lot of solid but that wasn't really motivating me to move to the cutting table.

Then over the weekend I looked at a few Gee's bend quilts on the internet which always jolts my imagination. So I pulled out my yellow/orange stash and started cutting strips with my scissors, no rotary cutter or ruler in side. It is a great liberating feeling and I was rather surprised how straight the cuts were which meant that I had to deliberately cut a little wonkier to achieve a bit of an improv look.

I am not sure where this is leading yet and even less sure how I will be able to assemble the different sized log cabins....but for now this feels and looks good and that is the mosts important aspect here.