Using scale in a quilt is a fun way to create interest. Learn tricks for combining blocks of different sizes to make a great quilt.
Make bright, stunning quilts and quilted home decor and accessory projects with modern improvisational techniques. In celebration of freeform creativity, the covered methods focus on choosing colour, shape, and function. Improvisational piecing lets you be the boss! Embrace the joy of improvisation as you create quilts and quilted projects, including duffel and crossbody bags, that are truly one-of-a-kind! This book is an introduction, guide, and step-by-step manual for giving you the skills to create modern improvisational quilts and projects that range in difficulty from easy-peasy to fiddly-and-still-fun. You'll learn three improvisational techniques that take you from start to finish as you complete your first modern improv project. Choose which technique is right for you based on scale, colour, and shape. Then, put those techniques to work and create a quilt, a bag, or a set of holiday stockings! Learn three powerful beginner-friendly techniques for improvisational piecing to create various projects that play with shape, scale, and colour that will make every project unique Includes ten unique quilt projects, from classic bed and baby quilts to holiday stockings and functional crossbody and duffel bags Includes guidance on building perfect and unique colour palettes that complement the modern improv process 288 Illustrations, color
Get ready to stitch your way into the chicest quilting trends with Zen Chic! From bold colors to minimalist designs, our guide to 10 modern quilting trends will have you quilting like a pro. Don't blend in, stand out with Zen Chic!
Improvisational piecing is putting together a quilt top without a preconceived plan for exactly how it will look. It's a way of working from intuition, with a sense of adventure and a willingness to explore unknown territory. It's probably the most fun you will ever have. Yesterday, on the morning of my website launch, I
Artist Irene Roderick is one of those people whose kindness and warmth is unmistakable. And when I see Roderick’s work, I don’t think of quilts. Through blocks of color and lines, she does with fabric that which I can only imagine paint or pencil being able to do. Her improvisational methodology reminds me to remember […]
The joys of scrap quilting are many. There's a steady supply of materials. Plus happy memories abound as you create beautiful quilts.
Improv quilting. The modern scrap quilt?
From my No Sneaky-Peeky class I partnered with Windham Fabrics a few years ago to "pattern" 8 of the Gee's Bend quilts (wi...
Cristina Arcenegui Bono discovered that she preferred the machine quilting to piecing quilts that opened a world of art to her.
52 of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2024.
Here is the tutorial I've promised on how to cut curved blocks free hand. Because the background fabric needed to make my "Falling Leaves" pattern requires you to find the feature fabric that will only be available for as long as you can purchase my fabric line, I'm offering this tutorial for those who would like to try piecing blocks for the background. In these two samples of my pattern, the background uses the feature fabric from my "Falling Leaves" line by Northcott. This is a beginner design because you only need to purchase a piece of the background fabric and use my pattern to make the applique leaves. In my original quilt (below) that inspired the fabric line, I pieced every single block by cutting free-hand. Let's use the word "improvisational" to describe this method. My original quilt measures 39" x 58-59". Each block is 7" square unfinished, and 6-1/2" square finished (once sewn together). Because each block is cut free-hand, and the fabrics each person chooses will be different (either by type or quantity), each person's quilt will be different. I urge you to read this post all the way to the end before you begin. WARNING: This method might be challenging for perfectionists. I also strongly recommend that you not pre-wash your fabric as it will have more substance and body and piece together better. One pre-washed fabric is limper and harder to piece. I begin by choosing the fabrics I want to use in my quilt and cut enough squares for my quilt. For a beginner, I recommend cutting squares 3 inches larger than the finished block size you want. So for a 6-1/2" finished block, cut squares 9-1/2". Note, the "cheater" panel in my fabric line has 4 inch squares. If you are making your blocks this small you will need to cut your fabric squares 7" in this case, but piecing such tiny blocks will be more challenging than piecing larger ones. I generally like to use at least two squares of each colour. You will need as many squares as the number of finished blocks in the quilt. Both my original quilt, and my Northcott pattern, use 45 squares and blocks. But as you will soon see, you are always cutting squares by two's, so you will need 46 squares of fabric. By looking at the colour composition in each quilt you can determine an approximate proportion of each colour. I would say the piece is at least 2/3 to 3/4 greens and 1/4 to 1/3 golds. I've also decided to use greens from both the "Spring Rain" collection as well as the "Autumn Harvest" collection. To cut blocks, I work in pairs. I pull two squares randomly (that look good to me at the moment), LAYERING THEM BOTH WITH THE RIGHT SIDE FACING UP. I take my rotary cutter and cut a gentle curve across the squares, slightly diagonal. Then I pull out the bottom (green) fabric and match it up with the two pieces of gold fabric. Perfect fit! I usually do many of these in succession and then take them to my sewing machine to chain piece. Before I feed them in my sewing machine I always lay the pieces out on my table to the left of my sewing machine to make sure those are the curves that fit together (easy to mix them up or flip them). I use a 1/8" seam to sew the curves together. You will notice that once I flip half of the pair over to allow me to sew my seam on the wrong side of the fabric, the fit on the curve isn't perfect anymore and I have to do a little manipulating. I find it easiest if I hold the top fabric with my fingers on top and thumb on bottom and keep making it meet the edge of the bottom fabric. I press each block after each seam. I simply lay the block face up on the ironing board, feel with my hand to check that the entire seam is pressing in the same direction and gently steam press. I strongly recommend you do not pull and tug from the back side because you will stretch the seam. It doesn't matter which direction you press the seam. You can see I've cut and sewn the first seam in an entire series of blocks here. Now you are going to begin randomly choosing two blocks, layering them, and cutting your second seam. This means that all the blocks you match should have all had one seam already cut and stitched. Again, I LAYER BOTH BLOCKS with RIGHT SIDE OF FABRIC FACING UP. The more seams you cut and sew, the wonkier your blocks are going to grow. So I also recommend that you line up your blocks so they meet up on the side where you are going to begin sewing. I am right-handed so I will cut from the upper right side to the upper left side, and will begin sewing on the upper left side, so I want my blocks to line up on the upper left and top side. Taking my next cut. I now have a block with two cuts. I'm laying it out before putting it through my sewing machine. Second seam sewn. Now I'm going to randomly match up blocks again that have been pieced up to this point (two seams each, 3 fabrics in blocks) and cut a third curve, which brings me to the stage below. Each block now has 3 seams and four different fabrics. One more cut to go. Here are my blocks all sewn (5 fabrics in each block, four seams). No it doesn't matter if a fabric gets used more than once in a block. This is a pretty serendipitous looking quilt. I'm going to use my square ruler to square them up. Some blocks are going to be larger or smaller than others. I want all the blocks in my quilt to be the same size, so I'll square up all blocks to the size of the smallest one, or to the size I originally intended, The block on the right has been squared to 6-1/2 inches. Once I complete all blocks I start playing with them on a design wall. For this design, I place them all in the same orientation with the look of a downward flow from upper left to lower right. WARNING: playing with blocks on a design wall is highly addictive and you might not be able to get to bed before 3 a.m. If you think you like your layout, take a picture, just in case you change your mind and then decide you liked the previous layout better. After you sew the blocks together, you can add your appliqued leaves. The pattern is available from the Shopping Cart on my website. Or you could design your own leaves. I hope this tutorial makes sense. I am going to consider it a work in progress. I will be happy to entertain questions and make clarifications as needed. If you have taken my "Reflections" class, we are using a similar piecing method, except we are keeping a gentle diagonal cut to this block. In the "Reflections" class we are making our first cut from corner to corner, which has a different result.
Cristina Arcenegui Bono discovered that she preferred the machine quilting to piecing quilts that opened a world of art to her.
January 2018: Racetrack quilt Racetrack quiltand Fifth Chinese Coins quilt Fifth Chinese Coins quilt and Housetop quilt Housetops quiltand Chinese Coins II Chinese Coins II quilt February 2018: Chinese Coins VI Chinese Coins VI quilt in yellow and white and Chinese Coins VII Chinese Coins VII quiltand Ohio Star quilt (finished long ago but blogged about this month) Ohio Star quilt with single star border plays with transparency March 2018: Bar 2 quilt Bars 2 baby quilt and Spiderweb 3 Spiderweb 3 quilt and Bars 3 Bars 3 quilt April 2018: Medallion Chinese Coins IV quilt Medallion Chinese Coins IV quilt June 2018: Scientific Pinwheels baby quilt Scientific Pinwheels baby quilt July 2018: Bars quilt Bars quilts September 2018: Bars 4 quilt Bars 4 quilt October 2018: Color Study Chinese Coins Color Study Chinese Coins quilt December 2018: Chinese Coins IX baby quilt Chinese Coins IX quiltand Chinese Coins X baby quilt Chinese Coins X quilt and Chinese Coins XII baby quilt Chinese Coins with Tulips XII baby quilt and a Christmas stocking Velveteen Christmas stocking xx
Maria Shell uses unique color combinations and traditional quilt blocks to create eye popping modern quilts that make a statement.
What is improv quilting and how can you get started? Read all about why I love improv quilting, get some ideas and check out the best books and bloggers for learning improvisational quilting, even if you’re a beginner! || Pin Cut Sew Studio
CREATE THE ILLUSION OF COMPLEX QUILT PIECING IN THIS COLOR PACKED IMPROVISATIONAL QUILT! The Give and Take pattern teaches you how to create the illusion of complex improvisational piecing using an approachable block-based technique. The on-demand video course builds on the pattern and takes you along step-by-step as Tara sews up a complete mini quilt. Sew along as she takes you on an exploration into color and value interactions, block construction & designing your own improvisational layout. Quilt Size: Variable ON-DEMAND VIDEO COURSE You can't put everything in a written pattern! Choose the Pattern with Video Course option to get access to 9 in-depth video lessons where Tara sews through each step of the pattern and includes all the tips & tricks you get in an in-person class. Video courses are on-demand lessons hosted on Thinkific and content never expires. Watch the videos as often as you like or whenever you need a refresher. Leave comments in the platform to get help if you get stuck on a step in the pattern. Video courses are only available when purchased with the pattern. ABOUT THIS PATTERN Skill Level: Confident beginners and above Technique: Improvisational Piecing Collection: Color Collective Season 2 includes original color palette Instant Download: After you purchase you will receive an email with a link to download your files. If you do not see this email, please check your spam folder. Closed Captions: On-demand video lessons contain closed captions.
I've been on a piecing jag for the last five months, finishing one major quilt and working on three others. For the last month it's been stripes, cut into tiny bits and assembled, like courses of brickwork, with a "grout" of very fine lines. As with every quilt I make out of a myriad of little bits, the easy part comes at the front end, when the task is simply to sew up large expanses of piecing. The hard part comes at the end, when all the expanses have to be fit together. Sunday night On June 24, a Sunday, I confidently announced that the top would be finished before the end of the week. Maybe by Wednesday, I thought. All I had to do was fill in that hole on the top, then add a few inches on the right edge. Piece of cake. Tuesday morning One day of work didn't seem to accomplish much, to look at the quilt on the wall. But the separate panels had been sewed together and the top center had been resolved. I added new rows of "bricks" at the top. Wednesday afternoon Getting there -- by Wednesday afternoon all I needed was to expand the last panel a bit and sew it to the rest of the quilt. But wait. Look at that little patch of pink in the top right corner. Kind of like a bloodstain on a wedding gown. When I constructed that segment in the first place, I thought it would go farther to the left and the pink would be just an extension of the medium tones at the center of the quilt. But it got pushed toward the right, and the pink was stranded. It took me an entire episode of Law & Order to take out the two pink patches and replace them with something pale. And look at that patch of white at the center of the top row -- equally out of place, in the opposite way. Since it was at the edge of the quilt it only took me 20 minutes to get that replaced. With interruptions for dinner guests, a critique visit, and Zoe's summer drama performance of Macbeth, I lost some of the end of the week. But at 10 pm Saturday I got the quilt in one piece, fulfilling my vow. Or at least pretty much fulfilling it -- the top and bottom are still raggedy and may require some additional piecing before I can slice off straight edges all the way across. But I'm the one making the rules, and I declare that the piecing was done in June. Not going to ruin this quilt's technical virginity by showing you a picture of its latest incarnation, but imagine another eight inches or so of pale at the right. Now no excuses -- I have to get on with the quilting.
Rebeka Lambert discovered modern improv quilting and hasn't stopped. She uses repurposed fabrics in most of her art.
I feel so happy to have come across the work of Susana Allen Hunter thanks to the lovely site of Rosa Pomar . When I saw these quilts I just...
Cristina Arcenegui Bono discovered that she preferred the machine quilting to piecing quilts that opened a world of art to her.
Cristina Arcenegui Bono discovered that she preferred the machine quilting to piecing quilts that opened a world of art to her.
Being a vendor/exhibitor at QuiltCon 2024 (more above that here), I didn't have a lot of time to check out this year's juried quilt show. This was probably the only disappointing thing for me about the entire experience. I did have about an hour to get view the show on Day 4 before the floor opened
We've been noticing a new trend simmering in the modern quilting movement, and we think it's about to reach a boil. Maybe you've been noticing it too; improvisation certainly seems to be everywhere these days. Improvisation has always been a part of quilting, so it's no surprise that modern quilters searching for inspiration would turn to this age-old technique. But, as always, they're putting their own spin on it, and the results are dynamic, delightful, and oh-so-modern. In Artful Improv, Cindy Grisdela shares her process for creating improvisationally, from beginning to end: organizing fabric, deciding on a color recipe, using elements of design, auditioning the piece, and finally piecing and quilting it! She focuses on color theory and the uses of negative space, such as in the dynamic design below. She gives you plenty of ways to take your skills to the next level too, with in-depth tutorials on piecing angled stripes, improv circles, improv blocks, curved strips, and inset strips. In the updated second edition of Intuitive Color & Design, Jean Wells shows you how to take inspiration from anything—light, the natural landscape, vegetables at the grocery store—and how to document it through photos and journals. Then she walks you through a veritable bootcamp on the nuts and bolts of quilt design, the quilt design process, and everything you could want to know about tools and techniques. After all, throwing away the ruler doesn't mean sloppy quilts! Jean's years of experience show through in quilts like the one below, with a strong mood and use of color, daring fabric combinations, and an asymmetrical finish. Then there's Maria Shell and her upcoming book, Improv Patchwork. Maria focuses on piecing solid fabrics to your own "prints": stripes, polka dots, chevrons, and plaids. Maria works with color, pattern, repetition to create quilts that are busy and beautiful without using any patterned fabric! Rayna Gillman takes another approach entirely in Create Your Own Improv Quilts. In her latest book, Rayna starts with strips and geometric shapes, then leads you through asking "what if?" questions to guide your improv design. Play with scale, color, value, and placement to create quilts that draw the eye and keep a viewer's attention. Of course, the best part of improv quilting is that every quilter brings their unique style to their quilts! What will your improv quilts look like? Follow my blog with Bloglovin
We Love Color: 16 Iconic Quilt Designers Create with Kona Solids Compiled by Susanne Woods A fresh selection of bold and beautiful quilts in both modern and traditional styles. Experiment with precision piecing, improvisational quilting, or applique Includes an index to Kaufman colors so you can match the exact fabric for each pattern
Rebeka Lambert discovered modern improv quilting and hasn't stopped. She uses repurposed fabrics in most of her art.
Enter the colourful world of contemporary patchwork Dive into contemporary patchwork with fresh surface design techniques and beautiful projects from Arounna Khounnoraj, co-owner of Bookhou and well-known textile artist. Arounna's approach to patchwork, quilting, and applique stands out from traditional methods, making this book an incredible resource for building a foundation in textile design and expanding into unique improvisational patchwork. Get inspired by your environment and learn elements of colour theory before jumping into several fabric surface design techniques. Then, master the art of decorating with stitches as you explore various sewing and applique techniques to make your patchwork projects pop.
Learn how Melissa Averinos uses these appliqué techniques and design wall tips in making her quilts.
Today, I'm very excited to announce the launch of my new e-course, Improvisational Quilting for Garment Sewists . When sewing clothing, it's nearly impossible to not have fabric scraps leftover and as someone who cares about living sustainably and tries to reduce my waste as much as possible, it wa
I finished the top for this green quilt today. It’s sat on my pile waiting for the ‘right’ moment for a few too many weeks, and then in a burst of enthusiasm I jumped up and got the last bits all joined together. Now it’s ready for the backing and to make a quilt sandwich, then hand stitch the quilt
Zak Foster creates unique quilts from upcycled fabrics and textiles working intuitively and improvisationally.
Zak Foster creates unique quilts from upcycled fabrics and textiles working intuitively and improvisationally.
There were several different quilt projects waiting to be worked on last week, but one of them took over and wouldn't let me stop until it was complete. This is my Blooming Onion quilt top. Blooming Onion, 60.5" x 80.5" The name of the pattern I used is actually Blue Onion by Karla Alexander of Saginaw Street Quilts. Since my version isn't blue, Blooming Onion seemed like a better choice to me. Unfortunately, the colors in the above photo are a little bit off, making the purples look much more blue than they really are. The next photo was taken about 10 minutes later, and the sun was starting to hit the quilt top. The colors in this photo are closer than the previous one. My quilt top was made entirely from batik fabrics, all pulled from my stash, except for one non-batik that I snuck into the mix. Can you tell which one it is? Here are a few closer shots for you. I've been trying to think of a better name for this quilt, but haven't come up with anything clever. Let me know if you have any suggestions. I was able to get a great stained-glass looking shot of the top half from behind as it was hanging over the deck railing. I love the way the colors glow! Still wondering about the non-batik fabric? It's the purple in the block below. Linking up with: Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts Monday Making at Love Laugh Quilt Midweek Makers at Quilt Fabrication Needle & Thread Thursday at My Quilt Infatuation Finished or Not Friday at Alycia Quilts Whoop Whoop Friday at Confessions of a Fabric Addict Favorite Finish at Meadow Mist Designs Happy quilting everyone! Julie in GA
I just discovered an awesome web site with some great background and bio info on these amazing quilters from Gee's Bend. I've share...
Charles Cameron in an engineer and award-winning modern quilter who uses his rulers to create wonkiness in his quilts.
Leslie Tucker Jenison is a contemporary quilt maker and fabric design artist who is inspired by her world and experiences.
Improv quilting is a fun and often overwhelming method to piece a quilt. I spent 100 days exploring improv quilting and want to encourage you to explore too! My History Looking around at my quilts and projects I’ve designed and made, I tend to be a very orderly quilter. I love the sequence and symmetry […]
Rebeka Lambert discovered modern improv quilting and hasn't stopped. She uses repurposed fabrics in most of her art.
Irene Roderick was an oil painter from a young child and has discovered the joy and creativity of creating improvisational quilts.
In Week 5 and 6 of the Shine quilt sew along we are finishing our improv quilt blocks. Join this online quilting community anytime!
[caption id="attachment_78478" align="aligncenter" width="555"] Ollie Johnston's Kem Weber Compact Animator's Desk. Courtesy of Mark Kirkland; photo © Da...
52 of my favorite modern quilts from QuiltCon 2024.
Rebeka Lambert discovered modern improv quilting and hasn't stopped. She uses repurposed fabrics in most of her art.
Embrace Double Gauze Improvisational Quilt
Learn everything you'd like to know about getting started with improv quilting with our comprehensive guide.
Creating a quilt without a pattern can be hard - here's a few ideas on how to start with your own improvisational quilt-making process, including how to choose quilt colours. Using hand slow stitching, applique, embroidery & instinct you can create your own Fear-Less quilt. Make your own textile
Hilde Morin, a fiber artist, looks for drama in the creation of her art quilts. Drama in the form of color, texture and pattern. Hilde fi...
