Summer Improv Challenge, Rail Fence Medallion Quilt

Original rail fence blocks made for 2017 summer improv challenge.

Rail Fence Medallion quilt, 30" x 36" machine quilting finished.

Detail of back quilting.

And front.

I wanted to post my progress on my rail fence medallion quilt.

I have company so I can't spend a long time writing. I did a write up in my current post on my blog so you can go there for more info, crazyvictoriana.blogspot.com.

Great projects here, thanks for sharing everyone!

Have a great day!

Improv and metacognition -- 2

Well, that first article got mixed reviews. I love that. It means that we're thinking, and you are willing to offer your truths. That's a sure sign that you're interested, and even if you aren't participating, your interest in what the rest of us do may encourage you to revisit these thoughts. Maybe you'll learn something about your quilting vicariously through us.

Before we begin, I want to encourage you to analyze your work without commitment. In other words, you are looking at what, why, how you quilt. But you are not committed to making changes. It's possible that you are exactly where you need to be in your quilting journey and this is just part of the journey. Feel free to use (or not) the information you glean in whatever way you choose.

Let's analyze a little more, shall we? Go back to your notes from the earlier article. Remember that we were naming the parts--determining which ones were intentional and which were happenstance. 

Go back to those parts of the quilt that you identified as intentional. Try to answer these questions: 

   1. Why did you use these particular colors? What does each color represent? A person, feeling, place? What do the colors remind you of? Any question or thought that you have about color should be recorded. 

    2. Take a look at the shapes and blocks. Again, why these shapes? Do they represent anything? Did you use traditional blocks? Why? If you used the idea of traditional blocks but made them your own, how and why did you do so? 

Now think about those other parts--those that were fortuitous. These questions will be different: 
   3. How did you come to this part? Jot list the process. Do you just let things happen? How long does it take or how many times (estimate) do you change your mind. How do you feel as you work this way--happy, frustrated, inhibited, encouraged?

   4. How do you know when you have these parts right? Again, jot list the thoughts or ideas that you think answer the questions.

As I did before, I'll answer these questions here so that you can see my thinking. (I actually did this in my classroom on occasion--I did my thinking out loud so that students could see my brain at work. It's especially helpful when students need to practice a skill that is difficult to name and define.)

   1. Why did you use these particular colors? What does each color represent? A person, feeling, place? What do the colors remind you of? Any question or thought that you have about color should be recorded. 

grayish black--depression and psychological pain

white--a life with hope or at least a life when depression is not the only thing

the green may be happiness and the red joy but I'm not certain

    2. Take a look at the shapes and blocks. Again, why these shapes? Do they represent anything? Did you use traditional blocks? Why? If you used the idea of traditional blocks but made them your own, how and why did you do so? 

the small shapes represent attempts at being creative even when depression strikes

the small black dot on the lower left is the darkest part of depression--a deep, dark place to avoid; thank God that for me it is small

some of the same shapes on both sides to show that in bipolar disorder opposing feelings may occur at the same time 

nothing in this art piece is traditional

   3. How did you come to this part? Jot list the process. Do you just let things happen? How long does it take or how many times (estimate) do you change your mind. How do you feel as you work this way--happy, frustrated, inhibited, encouraged?

• the process--begin with an idea and color
• refine that idea through brainstorming and mind-mapping (which can take days)
• pull fabrics to work on the background
• begin adding color and shapes that reflect ideas in my mind map
• keep going (it gets difficult at this point)
• keep going by editing and refining even more
• leave the piece alone for a while
• push back(question, analyze, define what I have)
• decide how I will finish the piece

I make art quilts using my writing process. Being an English teacher/student is helpful--I've practiced with words. 

I let things happen when I work on an art quilt. I prefer to try out different ideas, though I don't know where they come from.

As things happen, I rework, revise, rewrite my thoughts and my attempts at depicting the big idea in my mind. 

   4. How do you know when you have these parts right? Again, jot list the thoughts or ideas that you think answer the questions.

The quilt and I talk as we go along. I know what the quilt should say. It's done when the quilt says something  true, important, helpful. 

Again, please leave comments telling me what you think. This process can be difficult, but it can also teach you about your work. It may even help you to find your voice. Also it takes time, so don't expect answers to come together and make sense right away. If you are working along with us, feel free to tell us what you discover, especially the insights and surprises. 

Mary Marcotte

AHIQ makes - finished and unfinished from Maureen aka Mystic Quilter

One finish only and that was with
the Chinese Coins Challenge

A Taste of the Orient

You can read the story behind  this piece

HERE

This one below is most definitely unfinished, doesn't even have a name and
in fact I've removed the border to have re-think.

The quilt in progress below is an out and out

utility quilt

Mardi Gras

There were other challenges of course from Kaja and Ann

but I wasn't able to participate, however I'm looking forward to

the post from Ann with a new challenge to begin this dedicated

blog for AHIQ. Thanks to both Kaja and Ann.

Maureen

The Patriotic Storm #1, comes to Charlotte

 Celebrating chaos with order...if improv can be orderly.

 Maybe orderly chaos...not that I am ever orderly.

I should send you a picture of my sewing rooms if you really want

to see improv...although you can check all that out on my blog.
Did I mention how much I love fabric??

 

 Will post my other patriotic quilt later as...the real storms of summer are here now with a natural firework...boom!!

xo from Diane

ps...my pictures are not as good as all of yours...help needed so....
I want to post my pictures so you can zoom in and see the fabrics.

The Spotted Winkel - A Finished Quilt

The Spotted Winkel is finished!

This is my "Playing With Scale" challenge quilt

made during the first six months of 2018.

Come on over to my blog to read the story

behind this quilt and enjoy LOTS more photos.

Thanks to Kaja for this super fun challenge!

I'm looking forward to what Ann suggests next.

Quiltdivajulie

Progress Update

Happy happy to my AHIQ friends! More progress was made on my Score #5 attempt. This picture basically represents the middle portion of the quilt. As I was pondering the overall look, it occurred to me that this may be too short to gracefully accommodate the remaining two vertical rows that need to be added.*grr  How tricky will that be to add on one extra block onto the ends of the four rows already sewn together?

Score #5

I had a crazy amount of fun working on this project {can read more about that over on my blog}, but it still had lots of tough moments working with flow and respect to the original quilt formula. Somehow my quilt has more of a rail fence feel than the enclosed square look that caught my eye in the original {pictured in The Improv. Handbook for Modern Quilters by Sherri Lynn Wood}. By now I've worked with enough improv. to know not to fight authentic flow, no matter where or how it might deviate from our original thought or intent.

What I'm looking forward to most with this Score #5, is the idea of learning more about 'permeable borders'. I think that's something that happened in my latest quilt finish, but it should be helpful to experiment with this idea in a whole new setting. As a dedicated border enthusiast, I have a habit of locking down and closing in my quilts with strong, obvious boundaries and borders. Just the nature of this particular score eliminates that as an option which will help force me to work through my natural design inclinations....*fingers crossed!

Playing With Scale #2

Then there's this second improv. quilt that sprung up almost out of nowhere. Months ago I had gathered a stack of fabrics together with the vague idea of making a quilt for the wedding of a relative. After much thought, I decided it was too much effort to expend on a couple that might not recognize me if I met up with them unexpectedly in a store! Hmm... Is that mean? But That Fabric....

And so I pretty much dove head first into making the initial units. Just enough to get a good feel for moving forward before I wrenched myself back and grimly focused on more important projects. lol Isn't it fun to have these open ended improv. quilts in the queue? This will probably be Playing With Scale #2 if I give in to the urge to include larger triangles. {And I know that's where I'm headed so why fight it?} I'm beginning to think my mind won't even function anymore without dreaming up more improv. ideas. One idea gets finished up and another pops up right behind it. For now I'm busy making lots and lots of freehand hst blocks before I will attempt to make more strippy units. There is a very, very loose plan in the works, but we'll see how that pans out before committing to anything too structured. Happy stitching, Audrey

p.s. Not to be repetitive in any way, but moving forward my intention is to try to balance both this and my regular quilting blog. I really like the quilting journal aspect of my original blog and want to keep it current as well.

Improv and metacognition

I am teacher by trade. I studied not only English but also how people learn language, how we teach others to use language, and other deeply thought-out pedagogy about language, education and learning. 

As a rhetorician, my focus was on writing and metacognition. Since I was a quilter before becoming an educator, it makes sense that I've applied what I know as an educator to what I understand about quilting. 

Are you still following? Read a little more. The thinking part gets more interesting from here on. That's because I'd like to help you think metacognitively about your improv quilting. That is to help you analyze what you do as a quilter so that you can understand your process, figure out what you need, and build on what you already know.

Let's begin with a simple exercise. Take a small quilt from those you've completed using improvisational methods. If you have a name or theory for the quilt, begin with that. Then look at the quilt piecing and blocks/background and write notes answering the following questions:
   1. What did you do intentionally on this quilt? Name those parts by color, block, section, category or in any language that works for you.
   2. What parts of the quilt were in your mind but you didn't have specific ideas of how to achieve them? Again, name these parts using the same method you did in #1. 
    3. What did you happen upon? Which parts of the quilt were not thought out or were not already in your mind when you began? Using the method you did in #1 and 2 above, name these parts. 
   4. Look closely at the quilt. What have you left out? Do those parts of the quilt fit into any of the answers? If not, how will you categorize them?

Note: in this exercise we are only trying to identify and name what is/was improvisational. We are not analyzing deeply--we've only just begun studying. 

As an example, I will "think out" the quilt I am working on. While it's not finished, I am far enough along to begin this exercise. 

The title of this little art piece is "Bipolar." I suffer from bipolar depression and want to express the difficulties of the disease in art. Looking at the entire quilt (above) and at this closeup, you can see that I have two distinct sections--a light and a dark.

  1. What did you do intentionally on this quilt? Name those parts by color, block, section, category or in any language that works for you.
I intentionally used two contrasting colors separated by a wavy line. The dark on the left represents depression; the light side (on the right) is larger representing that good days outweigh the bad ones. The wavy line represents the idea that there's no easy way to figure out where the line is.

  2. What parts of the quilt were in your mind but you didn't have specific ideas of how to achieve them? Again, name these parts using the same method you did in #1. 
I definitely wanted to include pieces of color that could represent creativity and positive ideals. These needed to be in both sections of the quilt, but imbalanced. How that would look was only vaguely in my mind. I found small pieces of solid fabrics in my scraps that I cut into imperfect circles. 

    3. What did you happen upon? Which parts of the quilt were not thought out or were not already in your mind when you began? Using the method you did in #1 and 2 above, name these parts.
The squiggly red lines took a life of their own and I still haven't a clue how they came about. In the upper right corner is a reverse applique that I love but cannot define quite yet. I only know that it needs to be there.

   4. Look closely at the quilt. What have you left out? Do those parts of the quilt fit into any of the answers? If not, how will you categorize them?
I left out other small bits on both sides of the quilt. I'm not sure what they mean or represent, but I have a veiled idea that they are meant to be there and I have to work them out. Right now I'm not able to categorize them all. 

Let me know in the comments if you are willing to participate. If we have an interest, I'll write future columns that will help you to analyze your work and learn from it.

Mary Marcotte

Playing with Scale

Since this is the 4th Tuesday of the month and would previously have been link up day I thought I'd do a quick round up of my Playing with Scale challenge stuff.

My first go was based around wanting to use a large scale green and black print that I'd had for ages, with the additional challenge of using much bigger individual blocks than I would tend to.  I have started quilts before intending to keep things large, but my natural inclination seems more to be for working smaller and smaller and smaller.

This went okay for me. It turns out I didn't mind the bigger blocks, I liked how the green and black fabric worked and I learned a bit about balance: when there are fewer components you have to make sure each one is in the right place and pulling its weight; when there are loads of much smaller pieces I think it's easier to have one or two less than perfect bits and still get a satisfactory overall look.

Since the challenges this year are running for 6 months instead of 3, and I find that they provided a focus and  impetus that is really fruitful for me, I thought I'd try to keep elements of the playing with scale theme in the next quilts I made. So, with Findhorn I deliberately played around a bit with the scale of my flying geese...

and in the current project I am using two different sizes of block. 

Overall, I think that I have learned a lot about placement during this challenge and have articulated some things that I probably knew on some level already, specifically about movement and rhythm in my quilting, about how using similar units in different sizes helps to create that rhythm and about the impact you can get from working with larger units (yes, I know this last one should have been pretty obvious, but sometimes it just takes me a while).  

I'm looking forward now to finishing the latest quilt off and being ready for Ann's challenge next month.

On a practical note, I am assuming most people will just put up posts when they want to, but if you have a post on your blog already, you can just post the link here and ask us to visit.  If you can't currently post on this blog and would like to, get in touch and I'll send you an invitation.

Kaja

I was wondering if you could put your name at the end of your post so I can figure out who's who.
Thanks,
Robin

Showing Crazy to the Whole Wide World

Out of my groove, I did the unnatural color scheme, for me..

I usually like darks and brights...but tried out lights here.

The goal was to do random and low volume.

Picking out lights with a few sparkles..grab as you go, no direction or plan.

Just cutting and sewing and quilting and relaxing.

 My quilting group hated it.  They did not even want to help me baste it.

They said:

1.  It was not low volume.....

2.  It was not pretty....

3.  They did not like random....

4.  It was not improv....

The dog likes the quilt....but a treat was involved!!!

They did like the backing.

Food trucks make anything better.

 I experimented with the quilting too.  Using my walking foot, 

I just zig-zagged around the quilt.

Unfortunately I used variegated thread,

 so I never could tell where I had quilted before., 

Ok...nothing is a mistake and it will warm someone, someday.

I learned not to do that kind of quilting again, not to use that kind of thread again

on this type of quilt, I learned that I like more quilting on my quilts....
 and I learned that I could just forget...

the quilt police and do my own thing..

Diane from O'Quilts

Mrs. O'Quilts Joins a new fun group!!!

"Scraps from my Stash"

Isn't it funny how improv quilts are so often the very favorite.

I am thrilled to be part of this blog.
Diane

My AHIQ quilts from 2017

Here goes - this is my run through the quilts I made for the AHIQ challenges in 2017.  It's been a fruitful way of working for me that has combined well with a move towards using more recycled fabrics in my work.  

Chinese Coins

Two Blocks

This next quilt wasn't for a challenge, but was the next one I made and was directly influenced by these first two.  This time I played around with hourglass blocks and HSTs.

Last but not least, The Shipping Forecast, made for the Words on Quilts challenge. 

Kaja

My Name is Julie and I am a Maker

I made this quilt - Words to Live By -

during the AHIQ challenge for "words on quilts"

You can read more about it by clicking HERE

and scrolling back through the posts.

I made this quilt - Metamorphosis -

during the AHIQ challenge for coins quilts.

You can read more about this one by

 clicking HERE and scrolling back through the posts.

This is a photo of another AHIQ quilt -

Dumpster Diving 2.0 aka Good Morning Sunshine -

that happened as a result of the "two block quilt" challenge.

This one has been quilted just this week

and its finished reveal post is still pending.

You can click HERE and scroll back through the posts

to learn more about how this one came to be.

This is my current AHIQ project 

for the "Playing With Scale" challenge.

The Spotted Winkel is currently pin basted

and due to be quilted later this week -

if life cooperates.

You can read about its genesis and evolution

by clicking HERE and scrolling back through the posts.

* * *

I am very happy to be part of the AHIQ

and I love my quilts that have grown 

out of the AHIQ challenges.

I'm delighted with this new format

and look forward to seeing what others share here.

Quiltdivajulie

Welcome Improvisational and Utility Quilters!

After hosting linky parties for a while, Kaja and I are choosing a different way for improvisational and utility quilters to share information, projects, and inspiration. Inspired by group blogs like Sujata's Cultural Fusion Quilts and Brenda's String Thing Along, we are launching our own take.

AdHocImprovQuilts will be a location for utility and improvisational quilts. We plan to post our invitations/challenges here, share our ideas, sketches, fabric pulls, sewing {and unsewing}, changes to the plan, quilting, thread choices, progress, and finished projects. We hope you will join in the fun, too.

Having a group blog allows everyone to post at our own pace and as we reach important milestones although Kaja and I plan to share posts here on the Fourth Tuesday, too.

See you soon!

Ann