SLEEPING DOG QUILTS
Here are the 5 quilts I've made using Sherri Lynn Wood's Book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters, a guide for creating, quilting and living courageously.
From left to right, the quilts are based on Score #1, Score #5, Score #8, Score #9 and Score #10.
They range in size from the mini, "Lemonaide", to the large lap quilt "Vikings". 3 of them are definitely on the fanciful side, not something modern improv is known for, but so much fun to make!!
"French Forest Tapestry" Modern Improv Quilt 46 inches wide, 43 inches high
"French Forest Tapestry" Modern Improv Quilt 46 inches wide, 43 inches high
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!
"Lemonaide" Mini Quilt
"Lemonaide" Mini Quilt
It's been a few months since I worked on one of the Scores in Sherri Lynn Wood's book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters--A Guide to Creating, Quilting & Living Courageously.
I decided to tackle the one Score in the book that I was dreading: Score #8 Bias Strip Petals. "Seeing with Fresh Eyes". I have a confession. I despise bias strips! Even using a bias strip cutting fabric saving "tube" I feel like I'm "wasting" fabric. I have no problems sewing on the bias. I do that all the time. But skinny little strips cut on the bias make me growl!
Starting to work on this challenging pattern, the one Sherri said was the most difficult quilt in the book for her to piece, the day after my last cat died, probably wasn't the best idea. But I figured I that since I can easily piece Drunkard's Path patches that I'd be all right working with this biased peicing.
I should have taken photos as I started making the petals. The first strips on on each side of the oval petal went were nice and flat. It was all downhill from there. I tried pinning the bias strip, then not pinning an letting it float pulling on the pieces more and then less as Sherri recommended. The strips just didn't lie flat for me. Below is a photo of one petal I made just to show here. In this one, only the first strip worked out.
Petal with warping bias strip
I tried cutting down the bias strips so that they were narrow. I folded the piecing to see if darting would help. It didn't. But I realized that HALF of each pieced petal was just fine.
So I got out my rotary blade and cut all the petals in half. And they were suddenly FLAT! I added a couple more strips to some of the units and then thought about how to piece them all together. I realized I didn't have the patience to do any complex piecing, so I opted to cut the half petals units into as many squares as possible and then piece those.
"Big Sigh!" I let go of all the stress of what hadn't worked out. And suddenly I loved what I was working on!
The colors in this mini quilt delight me as does all the movement from the curved piecing. This little quilt makes SO happy! It's even the wallpaper on my phone now. Makes me smile every time I pick up the phone. That adds up to lots of smiles a day!! : )
Sherri has asked folks posting about quilts made the Scores from her book to share any insights they have about the improv piecing process and/or outcome. This quilt is named "Lemonaide". The spelling is non-traditional but the "aide" is spot on for me! Here are my Insights about working on Score #8.
CALENDAR NOTE:
The Proper Bostonian Quilters Guild has a Quilt Show starting TOMORROW-- Friday, November 6 and continuing Saturday and Sunday. It's in the Monsignor Donahue Hall, St Theresa School, 40 Saint Theresa Ave, West Roxbury MA 02132. There will be lots of great quilts, vendors, a Boutique table and a Cafe and a fabulous Raffle Quilt (click the link above to see it!). 2 of my quilts are in the show. Hope to see you there!
Modern Improv Quilt "Bjorn & Bjorn" 48 x 61 inches
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??
Completed Quilt top 48 x 63 inches
Completed Quilt top 48 x 63 inches
Here's my completed Vikings Modern Improv Pieced Quilt top. It is based on Score #10 in Sherri Lynn Wood's book, The Handbook for Modern Improv Quilters.
I decided to trim it down to get it a bit more symmetrical since it was obviously wider at the top than the bottom-- a 1.5 inch difference. It's still not exactly true, but at least no longer obviously asymmetric!
Creative cutting mess on my dining room table. It looks like a mess but the fabrics are organized by color and/or location in a section in the quilt. The fussy cut pieces are in a separate stack.
Creative cutting mess on my dining room table. It looks like a mess but the fabrics are organized by color and/or location in a section in the quilt. The fussy cut pieces are in a separate stack.
Some of you must wonder about how a collection of fabrics become a finished quilt, especially if the quilt is improvisational and no pattern is used. Here are a progression of photos of my design wall (the fuzzy back of a picnic table cloth hanging over 2 closet doors). Most of the pictures were taken indoors without a flash. I took the last photo outside, flat on the front walk, so you could see the real colors in the quilt.
My post a week ago show the beginnings of this Viking quilt, based on Score #10 in Sherri Lynn Wood's Book, The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters.
While the construction of this quilt is done using Modern Improv guidelines, the fact that the Viking fabric was fussy cut and the quilt is going together like a storybook, makes it unusual in the Modern quilt genre.
Here's what has happened with the quilt so far this week.
The windsock on the left is new, and the pennant flags have been attached to the right upper part of the castle. Work begins on the top story of the castle. Also thinking about how to build out the meadow/wood section. The boats await the rest of the fleet.
Sections of sky, some of the castle turrets, a bit of castle wall have been sewn together. No changes in meadow/wood or ocean yet.
The sun and more sky has been added. The top story of the castle is complete. Work begins on the ground level of the castle. the castle lawn and walkway. The meadow, woods section is complete. The ships are at a stand still!
The castle is completely done the 3 sections of sky and castle have been sewn together. The lawn and walk are finished and have been attached to the meadow/woods. The meadow and woods are the widest section in the quilt. I need to add more sky to the right side of the quilt to make it the same width.
Still nothing happening at sea!
And finally, a rocky Scandinavian beach has been added and the Viking Fleet is about set sail!
What's left? Adding sky to the top section so it's the same width as the rest of the quilt.
This is really akin to a assembling a jig saw puzzle. Except the pieces are cut to order!
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!
Spinning J 34 x37.5"
Spinning J 34 x37.5"
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.
"Woodland Friends" 25x33"
"Woodland Friends" 25x33"
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!!
