First Improv

There is a symmetrical quilt on my pin board in the making but I want to show you my very first improv quilt first. I always struggled with my sense of accuracy and the improv idea. For the first time I cutted without messuring and let the quilt develop on my pin board. It was fun, really. And my inner voice didn´t protest. That´s the best of it. I´m very pleased with the result. 

The backside is nice too, isn´t it? I discussed with Kaja how to find the perfekt quilting pattern and got a lot of ideas. But I´m not yet sure how I will do it.

Completed, nicely symmetrical, top

 I've posted a bit about this finished top on my blog, but thought I'd save my reflections on working symmetrically for here.  In a word, it was hard!  Much harder than I anticipated.  The difficulty lay not so much in the method; after all the rules of log cabins are quite simple and I'm not an idiot.  It was more that I never got over that desire to mess it up.  Not in a "oh no, this is a disaster way", rather that I was constantly battling my natural urge to disrupt the pattern.

The compromise I reached, which just about kept me on the straight and narrow, was that I started piecing strips from mismatched fabrics, or joining them with little insets of a different colour, or used a strip both horizontally and vertically.  I also threw in those little wedge bits and the more random flying geese as I headed out towards the edge.  To be fair they were a pragmatic as well as aesthetic decision, since I was running low on fabric by then.  

Am I glad I kept at it?  Well yes, I am rather, since in the end there's lots about this that I really like.  Will I be looking at more symmetrical work in the future?  Not any time soon.

Challenge Project Update

 

I have lost count of the changes through

editing, unstitching, and do-overs,

but here is where things stand now

with Pandemonium.

More photos and details on my blog HERE.

Quiltdivajulie