Modern Improv Quilting: Project 5, French Forest Tapestry

I fell in love with the hound in Lizzy House's "Tapestry in Green", part of her fabric line, The Lovely Hunt.  The dog looks so much like a dog on a French brooch that my mother had when I was a child. And the "Tapestry in Green" really is reminiscent of a northern European tapestry.

This is based on Score #5, "rhythmic grid" in Sherri Lynn Wood's book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, A guide for creating, quilting and living courageously. 

I really like the lighter blocks in the two lateral borders and the darker center blocks.  It was mid November when I was piecing this quilt.  I wanted to add an accent color to the dark blocks.  Yellow was perfect.  So it came in as a sunbeam filtering through the woods.  It wasn't until I had all the blocks up on the design wall that I noticed that the sun blocks started low on the quilt, almost an echo of the the sun here in New England at this time of year. 

The back of the quilt has a red strawberry flannel print.  It's an oddly shaped quilt, but perfect for sitting on the couch watching television.  It's warm, and cuddly--a great addition the collection of quilts which I rotate seasonally!

I'd really like to do the Round Robin in this book, but don't plan to make any of the other scores in this book.   I'll put a gallery of all the improv quilts based on Sherri's book in my next post. It's fun to see them altogether!

Modern Improv Quilting, Project 3 -- The Vikings

I've started to work on my third quilt using Sherri Lynn Wood's book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters--A Guide to Creating, Quilting and Living Courageously.  This quilt is based on Score # 10 from the book--"Showing Up".   It an amalgam of several of the Scores in the book--it's up to each quilter to choose which Scores to use together. 

With the crenelated turrets above and the blocks comprising the castle wall shown below, I've done a riff on Score #5 "Rhythmic Grid."

The pennant flags are an element found in Score #4, "Patchwork Doodle." 

The patchwork sky blocks are based on Score #1 "Floating Squares".

And finally the Viking Ships at Sea are based on Score #7 "Layered Curve."

I found the great Viking fabric at JP Knit & Stitch. It's a Alexander Henry Fabric from the De Leon Design Group and is called The Vikings.  It's so much fun to work with!

I still don't know what the final quilt will look like, but I have some ideas!  I'll keep you posted on my progress!

Modern Improv Quilting, "Spinning J"

Here's my Modern Improv Quilt, "Spinning J" based on "Score #9" in Sherri Lynn Wood's book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters.

It was a real challenge to get it from pieced arcs to a rectangular quilt!  But the puzzle pieces did all fall into place one by one! It's now actually a fairly true rectangle but it sure doesn't look like it!  

I used DMC Perle Cotton embroidery thread for the Big Stitch Quilting.  It has a wool batt so the quilt is light and lofty.  I picked the wool batt because I thought it would best accommodate the irregular piecing in the quilt.  And that's why I did the hand quilting too. 

I had completed the quilting before I knew the technique had a name!  I just heard Carolyn Friedlander use the term on her recent Modern Quilt Guild member's webinar,  "Handwork is Fun." 

Here's more information about Big Stitch Quilting on a Craftsy.com blog post written by Diane Knott last year.  I really like the look of the Big Stitch Quilting with the wool batt. 

Even the label for this quilt has improv piecing!  

This quilt is totally fun!  I really learned a lot in the process of making it.

If you're interested in making an improv quilt, I recommend that you pick up a copy of Sherri Lynn Wood's book. I will really help you with the various improv piecing processes. 

Modern Improv Quilting , project #1

The past couple weeks I have been having fun making quilts based on the "Scores" in Sherri Lynn Wood's new book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters--A Guide to Creating, Quilting & Living Courageously.

This quilt is based on "Score #1" in the book.  It's one of several quilts in the book that any confident beginner could make. I'd had my eye on the animal fabric for a while, but hadn't decided how to use it.  This "Score" is perfect for fussy cutting a fabric. In fact, the fussy cutting probably helped simplify the construction of this quilt. 

I used my 12.5" square ruler to give me an idea about the size of the fussy cut blocks.  But then I put my ruler away and did all the cutting "freehand" using my rotary cutter.  That worked really well for me.  All the other blocks in the quilt were cut free hand as well.  My fabric cutting with scissors tends to be ragged, so I used my rotary cutter. 

It's a lot of fun cutting all the pieces for the quilt and then fitting them together. It did take a bit of juggling.  I moved the pieces around on the design wall lots of time!  Here's a photo of them ready for assembly.

On the design wall, ready to be sewn together

I did the free motion quilting on my domestic sewing machine.  Daisies and loops!  Spring is in the air so quilting flowers on a woodland quilt felt just right!  

JP Knit & Stitch is having a free Modern Improv Quilt Along on two Saturdays, June 20 and 27, using Sherri Lynn Wood's book as a guide.    I'm the host for the event, but it is really a Quilt Along, not a formal class or workshop. I think it will be lots of fun with everyone helping each other creating fun quilts!  There is still room for a couple more quilters. If you want to sign up, click the link above!  I can't wait to see everyone's projects!!