When fabric designer Lisa Dolson gifted me some of her Ocean Adventures fabric for Paintbrush Studio Fabrics, I immediately knew that I wanted to have a play with improv patchwork. With so many lovely prints to incorporate, I wanted to be free to experiment and see how the creative flow took me.
So what is Improv?
Improv is when you design a quilt without specific design rules. There are no set measurements or layout that you need to follow, no boundaries or specific intentions; it’s an organic process that’s very free and spontaneous. It’s freeing and liberating too!
My Idea
I came up with the concept of ‘Structure and Improv.’ The idea being that I make a series of ‘traditional’ quilt blocks, that provide the ‘structure’ within the quilt, and then I use improv quilt blocks to join all the blocks together. In this blog post I shall be sharing a bit about the ‘Structure’ and in part 2 I’ll be sharing more about the ‘Improv’.
Structure
I do love a traditional quilt block and so I decided to go with a couple of my favourites. First of all I created three Flying Geese blocks and stitched them all together.
A few months ago I had fun with curves making some drunkards path quilt blocks and so I thought I’d make some more.
I also made a ‘porthole’ block to give the effect of looking through a window, perhaps from a submarine, or at an aquarium. (I love this method! I use it in my Dresden Porthole Pillow Pattern.)
Finally, I made a couple of square in a square blocks, with fussy cut centres, again to show off the fish and the jellyfish prints.
Improv
This weekend I’m going to be making some improv quilt blocks and joining them all together with the ‘structured’ blocks to make it into a mini quilt. I can’t wait to tell you all about it and I look forward to sharing progress in Part 2 with you soon. (**EDITED – Part 2 Available here!)
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