Modern Improv Quilt "Bjorn & Bjorn" 48 x 61 inches
My Modern Improv Viking Quilt is done! I love it! Both the piecing and the quilting are improvisational. This quilt is based on Score #10 in Sherri Lynn Wood's book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters. I made this quilt during a Quilt Along Event sponsored by JP Knit & Stitch in Jamaica Plain, MA earlier this month. A total of 7 of us quilters all had a great time at the shop learning to make improv quilts using the Scores in Sherri Lynn's book as guidelines.
I had so much fun doing the quilting on this piece. Most of the quilting is free-motion, but a little bit was quilted with a walking foot.
Here's the sun detail. I love this!
The waves in the ocean are totally unrealistic--they roll from right to left in some places and left to right in others. In the sky there is a eddy in the breeze that echoes the waves in the ocean.
The castle walls are primarily quilted with interlocking squares and rectangles. However there is wood grain over the castle gate and some timber in the castle wall.
If I had to do anything over, I would have marked the sky before I quilted it. I thought I was quilting in reasonably straight lines across the sky...but apparently not! Clearly with improv piecing, it would be prudent to assume that is a pieced seam is unlikely to be straight!
The breeze was so crooked that I did something I rarely do with my quilting...I ripped it out and redid some of it. Here's the before (left) and after (right). The re-do still has some elements of the original tilted sky, but it's no longer jarring.
The quilt's name is a bit of an insider joke. I've always liked the Scandinavian boy's name Bjorn (pronounced Bee-yorn). Bjorn is also the word for Bear. Both man and bear are rightfully Bjorn!
When I saw the fabric was printed with a Viking meeting the Bear, I knew "Bjorn & Bjorn" was a great name for my quilt! Don't you just wonder what they are talking about in those deep, dark woods??