Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters
Hi! And welcome to my stop on the blog hop for Sherri Lynn Wood’s book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously
If you’re new here, please take a moment to browse around. A few of my favorite improv quilts shared here are Arne and The Painted Pebbles Quilt.
I’ve been following Sherri’s work for a few years, enjoying both her quilts and the writing on her blog. Last year, when she put out a call for testers for the scores in her improv book, I was quick to throw my hat in the ring. I was assigned to test the “Rhythmic Grid” score, which can be found on pages 58 – 69 of the book.
Scores are what Sherri calls her improv patterns. The inclination to NOT call them patterns is one that I support, but since readers on this blog might not have the book in hand to understand the nuance of that term, I’ll explain—it’s basically a pattern, but with some fuzziness around it as far as what the final creation might really look like. The scores give you some limitations on what you’re doing and some goals for what you create, but you have to take it into your own hands as you make the final product.
Here is a photo of me and my quilt at QuiltCon 2015:
And here it is in the book:
I hadn’t seen this at the time I made mine, but here’s Sherri’s quilt from the same score:
I was actually a bit cheeky when I made this quilt because I had a goal to get it into Sherri’s book. Since Sherri and I have somewhat similar tastes in colors, I decided to borrow the aesthetic of my friend Emily (emmmylizzy) in selecting my color scheme. I figured that Sherri and her publisher might want some diversity in the look of the creations, so having a different color story and feel to the fabrics might be helpful.
If you don’t follow Emily on Instagram, you might not know: she’s all about happiness, rainbows, cats, flowers, vintage sheets, and all the good things in life. That might sound cheesy, but I promise you, it isn’t. It’s wonderful, as our friend Jenna wrote on her blog, “When you see Emily, you smile. She is a walking heart emoticon and an outstanding person.”
In addition to stepping out of my comfortable little box when it came to fabric selection, I decided to break a couple of the rules in the score. I flipped the placement of prints and solids by using a print for the background (cats!) and solids for the grid.
Additionally, those solids for the grid are supposed be fewer colors, but I mixed it up by pulling a rainbow and having the cools be “one color” and the warms be another.
Having broken the fabric rules, I resolved to stick to remaining limitations of the score. This quilt came together very quickly for me. It’s a no-ruler, jam-it-out, rollicking good time. I made a lot of patchwork and had it up on my design wall when I realized I had a problem: my rows went a bit akimbo. The score says NOT to square up rows, blocks, or anything and I had resolved to stick to that rule, so I needed to find another way to bridge the gap between my rows.
Taking a bit of inspiration from a striped vintage sheet, I used my scraps to piece together some stripes that I could insert between the cleaved rows. Those little stripey bits ended up being my favorite part of the design!
“A Dance for Emily” was quilted by professional long-armer Lynn Harris (hire her, she’s fabulous).
I really think my journey with this quilt is exactly what the book lays out for you…a pathway to making patchwork like Sherri’s but also a pathway to making your own discoveries and having a new experience in quilting.
The book is available now on Amazon.com and at book stores and quilt shops worldwide. It's a lovely book and I encourage you to check it out!
I do have a free copy to give away here! To win, please leave a comment on this blog post by midnight on Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Tell me anything.
If you’re new here, please take a moment to browse around. A few of my favorite improv quilts shared here are Arne and The Painted Pebbles Quilt.
I’ve been following Sherri’s work for a few years, enjoying both her quilts and the writing on her blog. Last year, when she put out a call for testers for the scores in her improv book, I was quick to throw my hat in the ring. I was assigned to test the “Rhythmic Grid” score, which can be found on pages 58 – 69 of the book.
Scores are what Sherri calls her improv patterns. The inclination to NOT call them patterns is one that I support, but since readers on this blog might not have the book in hand to understand the nuance of that term, I’ll explain—it’s basically a pattern, but with some fuzziness around it as far as what the final creation might really look like. The scores give you some limitations on what you’re doing and some goals for what you create, but you have to take it into your own hands as you make the final product.
Here is a photo of me and my quilt at QuiltCon 2015:
And here it is in the book:
I hadn’t seen this at the time I made mine, but here’s Sherri’s quilt from the same score:
I was actually a bit cheeky when I made this quilt because I had a goal to get it into Sherri’s book. Since Sherri and I have somewhat similar tastes in colors, I decided to borrow the aesthetic of my friend Emily (emmmylizzy) in selecting my color scheme. I figured that Sherri and her publisher might want some diversity in the look of the creations, so having a different color story and feel to the fabrics might be helpful.
If you don’t follow Emily on Instagram, you might not know: she’s all about happiness, rainbows, cats, flowers, vintage sheets, and all the good things in life. That might sound cheesy, but I promise you, it isn’t. It’s wonderful, as our friend Jenna wrote on her blog, “When you see Emily, you smile. She is a walking heart emoticon and an outstanding person.”
In addition to stepping out of my comfortable little box when it came to fabric selection, I decided to break a couple of the rules in the score. I flipped the placement of prints and solids by using a print for the background (cats!) and solids for the grid.
Additionally, those solids for the grid are supposed be fewer colors, but I mixed it up by pulling a rainbow and having the cools be “one color” and the warms be another.
Having broken the fabric rules, I resolved to stick to remaining limitations of the score. This quilt came together very quickly for me. It’s a no-ruler, jam-it-out, rollicking good time. I made a lot of patchwork and had it up on my design wall when I realized I had a problem: my rows went a bit akimbo. The score says NOT to square up rows, blocks, or anything and I had resolved to stick to that rule, so I needed to find another way to bridge the gap between my rows.
Taking a bit of inspiration from a striped vintage sheet, I used my scraps to piece together some stripes that I could insert between the cleaved rows. Those little stripey bits ended up being my favorite part of the design!
“A Dance for Emily” was quilted by professional long-armer Lynn Harris (hire her, she’s fabulous).
I really think my journey with this quilt is exactly what the book lays out for you…a pathway to making patchwork like Sherri’s but also a pathway to making your own discoveries and having a new experience in quilting.
The book is available now on Amazon.com and at book stores and quilt shops worldwide. It's a lovely book and I encourage you to check it out!
I do have a free copy to give away here! To win, please leave a comment on this blog post by midnight on Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Tell me anything.