Let's Talk Improvisational Piecing on Off the Wall Friday

 

Curves II,  Nina-Marie Sayre
Improved pieced to a planned pattern

Improv Surface Design with a little bit 
of Improv Piecing, 

Taking a class in improvisational piecing, got me thinking of how many uses there are for the technique.  For that matter, how much a non-technique, improvisational piecing actually is.  The reason I say that is improvisational piecing's only rule is that there are NO RULES.  So, it can basically do whatever you want, whenever you want, letting your fabric, your vision or even your intuition be in
the driver seat. 

That can be very freeing or a little scary for a quilter whose modus operandi is to plan out a quilt before making it.  It's even scarier if they are used to following patterns and the fabric choices.  I never thought of it that way until I watched my class of traditional quilters take the plunge.  By the end of the week though, they all definitely got the hang of it for sure.  

So, want to dip your toe into the pool of improvisational quilting?  Here are some suggestions...

Improv pieced background....Give the background of your applique a little extra interest with making an improv background.  It's also a great way to play with the value of the background to give emphasis on your subject.

Notice in Praise Ladies II, I used an improv background gradate diagonally across the piece to give emphasis and movement to the subjects.

Abstract Improv piecing...In this quilt by Janet Windsor, she uses improv piecing for the whole composition.  She plays with both value and hue to get her point across.  I love how she improvs the strips but then pieces them into columns to give it added structure. 

Unnamed, Janet Windsor

Improv Traditional Blocks....whose says traditional blocks need to be made with a pattern?  The one I tend to see the most is the log cabin block.  BUT I ran across this challenge by Sarah Goer and found it super interesting.  She asked her group to improv the Sawtooth Star and they came up with these.  Traditional + Improv = VERY Interesting!

Sawtooth Star Challenge on Sarah Goer Quilts

Improv to Abstract the Representational...and that was where I'm going with this piece.  Now don't ask me EXACTLY where I'm going but it's at least the beginning of an idea.  To take something everyone recognizes and then to use improv piecing to give it a little twist!

WIP, Houses

See what I mean?  You can take this simple idea of just piecing stuff willy-nilly (or not so willy-nilly) and come up with endless ideas.  Remember the only rule is that there is NO RULES. Remember you are the queen of your quilt.

Speaking of queens...

My classmate, Marsha G. sent me a project she did upon arriving home.  She took all her orphan blocks (left over blocks from other projects), improved them together and added a panel in the middle to get a totally new piece.  Didn't it turn out great?  I was so blessed to meet Marsha and her husband the first night we were there.  Plus, then we got to sit together all week in class.  Let me just tell ya, she literally sewed me under the table.  Nothing better than having a partner in class that will work as hard as you! 

Bring the Orphans Home, Marsha Gordon

So, I hope I gave you some ideas to start experimenting with piecing.  I mean we all have stashes to use right? 

And on that note...

What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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Hemming Pants on Off the Wall Friday

 Okay, I have some secrets and since we've gotten close lately, I thought I would share 'cause what's good having a secret unless you're going to share it, right?!?

Secret #1 - Although I love clothes shopping, I hate shopping for pants.  The reason being is that I'm so curvy....no I mean, really curvy!  Whether I'm a size 8 or 18, I'm still one big curve and it's pretty hard to find pants to fit those curves.  Over the years, I have found brands that seem to have the right waist to hip ratio to fit me, but even than it's pretty hit or miss.  Plus, stores have pants all over the place

- in the misses - in the petites - in the women's - it's crazy!  Oh and did I mention the price of pants these days?  So, to combat all these evil forces, I have returned to my first love that I learned when I was young and on a budget.  I stopped in  at our local Salvation Army.  Our Erie thrift stores (Sal-Val, Goodwill, City Mission and now  AmVets) are HUGE, well stocked and well organized.  What I do is grab a wobbly cart, pull about a dozen pair of pants in an assortment of sizes and then head to the fitting room.  In about 20 min I have found at least 5 pairs that are in excellent shape and fit nicely. Mission accomplished and it's Easy-Peasy!  Not to mention, they are all name brands, I'm supporting a good cause, I know the pants all wash well, plusssssssss I got 5 pairs for $28.  

Secret #2 - When I say they fit, I mean in the waist and hip which are the crucial parts.  However, some were too long. So even though I've owned a sewing machine for 30 years, I have no idea how to do garment alteration, even simple ones.  I mean, I imagine a multi-thousand-dollar machine should hem a simple pair of pants, right?  But honestly, in the past if I had to do it, I've done them by hand like my Gram. This week, I decided enough was enough and turned to source of all knowledge, YouTube.  There I discovered Dominica and her amazing channel for beginner sewers. 

 By following her tutorial, How to Hem Pants with a Sewing Machine using a straight stitch which probably is the MOST beginner of all ways to hem, I finally managed it.  With careful measuring and pinning, I did it right on the first try and found it all very approachable.  After doing three pairs, I think I got it down.  I know there are other ways to do it with a blind hem stitch but maybe I'll try that next time.  Not to mention, that when I was researching to do my pants, I found Patchwork & Poodles blog post on using a Visible Hand stitched hem which looks pretty darn cool!

The one thing that she didn't mention which made my life easier was I had my Gram's, sewing gauge ruler.  For 4 bucks it makes getting the measurements super easy.  Plus I used Wonderfil's DecoBob for both top and bottom stitching since the fine gauge disappeared into the fabric.

Okay, now I know a lot of you out there already are hemming your pants, but if, like me, you've been just rolling them up, I encourage you to give this a try.  It was much easier than doing them by hand and it gives a great look!

Ohhhhh and in case you're wondering.....Yes, I did have all the fabric I needed for my recent class on improvisational piecing and Yes, I did manage to get it all filed back into the proper bins upon return.  I also, used the excuse to give the bins a good once over.  That whole bin system is working out well and it's so easy to rearrange things here and there if you need to!

So, What Have You Been up to Creatively? 

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Improv Piecing on Off the Wall Friday

Hard at Work

You know sometimes all you want to do is sew and boy, have I done that.  Taking Improvisational

Piecing with Veronica Hofman-Ortega at John C. Campbell's Folk School was one of my better ideas.  I love a class that starts with design exercises that will lead into bigger and better ideas.  Not to mention the ladies in my class were great!  There was a full range of quilters in the class  - from the very experienced to the beginner.  All were traditional, so this was pushing pretty much everyone out of their comfort zone.  But let me tell ya, they were up to the challenge.  After the first day our design walls were already starting to fill up.  By the end, it was amazing what we all got done!

Sewing  + Challenges + Great Company = Perfect Class.

We learned all sorts of improvisational shapes - strips, triangles, curves.  All design exercises were pretty loose, and Veronica told us that we could play with them as much as we wanted.

The strips were to be made with black, white and a color.  This is where it took me...

It definitely needed some zing so I added lime green which I thought was much better.

The triangles gave me the most problem since the colors were #1 solids and #2 chosen from a limited palette.  I ended up with a design wall of pretty sad triangles.  We tried some improv curve piecing which I liked marginally better...but still sad.  

What's a girl to do?  Well, cut them up and try piecing them back together.  The most interesting idea was taking two triangles and curve piecing them together.  With a few of those units and more curves piecing, I ended up with this.  Interesting, but not completely finished.  

Finally, we could explore on our own, so I did some brainstorming which led me to these simple ideas (by this time, I was pretty tired)

This time I picked a palette I loved - orange, golden yellow, purple and blue.  By then end of the day I got what looks me to me like a Dr Suess house  - which makes me smile. All it needs is the roof!!  I'm kinda diggin' this idea.  I can see it leading to bigger and better things for sure!  It's fun to play something representational but still give it that improv twist.  

Improvisational quilting is really so freeing creatively.  It was extra fun watching the class see the joy of it.  So although tired ... I do have a full design wall!

So, What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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Mission: Pack 4 Class on Off the Wall Friday

Okay, show of hands, who out there gives a small groan when you get the supply list for a big quilting class?  25 years later and many, many 5-day quilting classes and I still get intiminadated when I first read the list.  You think to yourself, "Self!  Does she really want us to bring all this stuff?  Are we really going to use all of it? And how much fabric is actually enough?"  I mean nobody wants to get to class and think, "Gosh I wish I had  "insert the most perfect fabric here" with me."  But also you don't want to be THAT gal who brings her whole stash.

Now in all honesty, Veronica Hofman-Ortega, did a very good job with her supply list for my upcoming class in Improv Piecing.  Here is our mission ... if we chose to complete it...

Fabric

• Choose solids, textured and tonal blenders (fabrics that read as solid), hand-dyed fabrics (only if you have hand-dyed).

• Bring a good variety of fabrics in light, medium, and dark values. 

•  a minimum of a 1/2 yard piece of each fabric (cut selvedge to selvedge from the bolt).
• Try to have colors in values of at least a 5-step range from light to dark: lights, light mediums, mediums, dark mediums, darks.

• bring more yardage (2-4 yards) of fabrics you’ll use as a dominant color or background.

• 3-4 total yards of “zinger” fabrics: brights, saturated or neon-like colors (neon yellow, lime, turquoise, bright  red, bright orange, pink, etc.). Stripes, plaids, checks, and geometrics can be considered zingers and will add interest. Some of these zinger fabrics can be fat quarters or large scraps.

• 1-2 yards each of white, black, cool neutrals (greys) and warm neutrals (cream, beige, taupe)

• Optional, if time permits and you want to experiment: a larger scale print, orphan quilt blocks, or a UFO (unfinished project) you’re willing to cut up.

 Now when I first read the requirements, all I saw was the "a minimum of a 1/2 yard piece of each fabric (cut selvedge to selvedge from the bolt" part and thought  - Oh! Oh! - I mean I hardly EVER have half yard cuts.  I mean they might have been a half yard cut at one time but who knows if they are now.  Then I thought - well the class is Improv Piecing so if I really need a bigger cut I can always just sew a few quick seams and I'll have a bigger cut.  Right? 

Then after 2 weeks - yes 14 days  - hemmming and hawwwing  - I still couldn't make up my mind for a palette.  I originally was just going to pick an abstract quilt or painting I like and pull the colors from that or even go to my pinterest color board and pull from that.  But nope...couldn't make up mind.  The fabric supply list seems to imply that I will know what dominant color will be - sigh - it's like they haven't met me, ya know?  Sooooo I pulled all the colors!

Pulling from my stash by Hue and Value .... this is what I got

Let me just say that putting fabrics into 5 step value piles is harder than it looks when value is relative as well as color!  One thing I notices is that I own a LOT of Jennifer Sampou's gradated fabrics so I do have half yards that have like 3 values in them.  Anyways - I did my best!  Next was the neutrals so I added a full range of lights  - greys - blacks.  With that accomplished, I dove back into my stash and pulled any cool fabric I thought was interesting.  That way I won't get to class and regret leaving my most interesting fabrics home.

Now how to get it all to class.  I have two containers (I actually have 3 but that is truly an obnoxious amount of fabric!) I bought years ago just for that task...they fit nicely into the car and under your table.  And this is what I ended up with!

After getting it all done, ya know what I thought?  OMGoodness this is going to be a pain to get back into the right bins when I get home!  (PS...now that I'm looking at the picture - I have a lot of dark navy - that would make a nice dominant or background fabric! Gotta pull some more - 'cause ya know I got more)

I'll pack the rest of my supplies and I'll give my stash one good look through - that fabric goes into a smaller tub labeled .. "Just in Case".  Also, I like the idea of bringing UFO that I'm willing to cut up.  That sounds theraputic in the very least!

So How Do You Pack for Class?

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Learning to Fail on Off the Wall Friday

 

So last week, I was talking to a friend of mine and she said, "Ohhhh I don't have a creative bone in my body."  If I only I had a dime for every time I heard that.  I do believe people are born with strengths and weaknesses and there is no reason that you need to be strong in everything.  HOWEVER...I believe that everyone can enjoy the joy of "making" no matter what their talents.  I mean think about it.  How many kids don't like to color and draw?  Hardly any.  It's only when they hit about age 8 do they let the world's perception of their art affect them.  

It's all about silencing your inner critic and being willing to fail.  It's scary for sure but I feel like it's the secret to being a creative success.  

Since we're in the middle of spring rush at work, I'll leave it there - but you get what I mean....

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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Pegboards for Quilting on Off the Wall Friday

My Pegboard, white, cut to fit the space, painted stripes, electric orange tape.
Baskets, cups used for additional space, labeled

So today I read an interesting post on my Sewing/Quilting Organization list on Facebook.  A member was looking for ideas for the use of a pegboard in her sewing space and asked for pictures.  My first thought was lots of people must have pegboards and they all must use them the same way.  

Apparently, I was wrong.  As goes it with a list of 110K (yes you read that right 110,000!) quilters/sewers, you get many opinions and ideas on how a pegboard can be used.  With the permission of the owners, I thought I would share some and why I think they are great!

Barb P. hasn't taken up the full wall - cut at a rectangle it can easily be reached plus room for a great bridge painting.

Christina S uses her to store fat quarters of fabric in attached basics

Angie O. proves that bigger isn't always better

             Beth R decided to paint hers individually and place them near her work tables
                                           (notice - another  Janome 7700 owner - yay!)

Shere R. organizes her thread and lets the color inspire her.

                                          Diane P framed hers and added Criscut Lettering  

                                          Plus notice how the envelop baskets are so handy!

Raelynn W uses her corner brilliantly

Perri E. K. uses the pegboard traditionally but look how GREAT this looks

The Mugs are perfect!!

Patrizia S.  Shows how you can store just about anything on a pegboard.

Great Ideas Right?

Do you use a pegboard?  How?  

(Also, I am still looking for people who might want to share their sewing space here on the blog and answer questions on how it came about ... just use the "Contract Me" widget on the right!

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It's Been A Week on Off the Wall Friday

Dorothea Lange, Seeing People Exhibit

 Okay so here is this week's tip....don't think you can take a quick 2-day trip to Washington DC and not come home exhausted and your mind a big creative blur.  We only saw 2 museums, The National Gallery and the National Museum of American History and it still was stimuli overload. It wasn't just the museums which were amazing in themselves, but also the whole National Mall area.  We took the metro in from Arlington, VA, and popped up in the Federal Triangle station which is the middle of 10 neoclassial HUGE buildings.  I truly could have gone and toured the architecture of the buildings you hear every day - IRS, EPA, etc.  

The Dorothea Lange exhibit was just as amazing as advertised.  The thing about the National Gallery is that they own so much art, that you never quite know what they are going to have up on view.  Not to mention, I keep getting lost in their galleries!  One of these trips, I'm going to take the map and just mark galleries off as I go through them.  

The American History Museum added the Entertainment Nation exhibit on the 3rd floor.  It's a mass of pop media culture with lights and music to match.  It truly was crazy!

So I came home with my creative soul full and my Fitbit happy.  And it got me thinking....the National Gallery is a free-use museum with all of Lange's work stored at the Library Congress....and it so happens they have a very useable website.....andddddd

Down the rabbit hole, I went!

I am suggesting you take time to look at all the amazing stuff the Library of Congress has put online BUT don't blame me if you end up looking for three days straight.    

I do have a very cool idea for my next series...but I promised my husband I would not start another until I finished my Calendar Cows.  To that end, August Vacation Cow is officially sewn!

Seven down ....Five to go....On to finishing up June Bride Cow!

So What Have You Been Up to Creatively?

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