Improv Square in a Square Exploring Prints

You’ve probably heard me say to my students before that nothing you make in class has to be anything. You can just play for the sake of playing! Honestly, that was my intent for these blocks. Make a few to test then demo the technique and that’s it. But I’m in love, I’m in love and I don’t care who hears it!

After 5 blocks I was making eyes at them. After 10 blocks I believed that I was in like like with them. After 15 I was flirting. And by 20 I was ready to have their baby. Well, at least commit to making 80 more blocks to make a decent sized quilt.

These are the improv square in a square blocks I made during the last Quilters Playcation Playdate. Sure, I’ve already made a big quilt top with the same technique. This time I was exploring a different scale. And next time (there will probably be a next time) I will explore an even different scale.

The whole thing is a colour story I’ve not really played with before: Yellow/orange/coral with blue/turquoise. I really love the interplay of warm/cool as I make the blocks. Exploring value is also quite interesting in these blocks. I want to do that a little more as I make the last half of the blocks. It will make the final layout of the quilt top very dynamic.

My initial thought was to only use each fabric in one set of blocks but even my stash is not that deep. We’ll see how that plays out.

There is no rush with this quilt. I make a set of blocks in about an hour, puttering around my sewing room in the evenings. Eventually I will have 100 blocks. No matter what, it will be time well played.

Rediscovery Brings Joy: An Old Quilt Block Becomes a New Quilt

Periodically I will clean out the stash, the started projects, even the scraps. Like Marie Kondo, sometimes you have to let go of the things that are no longer bringing you joy. But then you have to actually move them out of the house, not just the laundry room. The laundry room where they sit, untouched, only to fall off the shelf when the Covid chaos spills into the space. Then, when you bend down to clean up the mess you realize that this block looks quite cool and very cheery and it might be exactly what you need to work on RIGHT NOW. So you pick through the scraps bins and hunt through the stash, you play around with sketches and do some math, you hunt down the right kind of freezer paper, and then boom! A new full size quilt starts taking shape.

Generally when I make a quilt I get an idea and start sewing. I make a pile of blocks or components, play around with options, then decide what else I might need to make or start layout at the design wall. This project is a bit different. To match the seeming randomness and play with contrast of the original block I felt the need to lay it out, to design it in advance. It doesn’t mean it won’t change, but I felt I needed the guide. The circles aren’t on each half square triangle so sketching it out to get the right balance in layout gave me the math for cutting and piecing.

This cutting everything at once is a very different way to work than my norm. I can see why people do it though, because then you get to just sew, sew, sew! In my improv work I often tell students to front load as much of the decision making as possible so they can embrace the process of sewing, this is the same idea.

So here I am: everything got cut, all my half square triangles are sewn, and I am about half way though the circle prep and appliqué. My sewing opportunities come in fits and starts over the week, usually in the evenings when everyone has retreated to their corners of the house. I have a few projects I am actively working on at the moment, this is one of them. The colour combination is full of energy and that springtime glow. The sewing is not hard but it has great impact. This project is giving me such joy.

A student recently described her own Quilts Under Construction as Somedays and I just loved that sentiment. I’m glad that this particular Someday returned to me, just when I needed her.

One Colour Challenge Blocks

More often than not I teach a class and the samples used for demo purposes build up. I don’t count them on my Quilts Under Construction list either. That is, I don’t count them until I am sure they are going to actually be turned into a quilt top and not remain as samples. Most things eventually get on the list. Then there are the times I go from class sample to desired quilt top just one block in.

That’s what happened with these blocks.

One Colour Challenge has been one of the classes I taught this past year for the online environment. It is a lesson in colour and value, as well as half square triangle construction and, if time allows, block assembly. In the very first class I taught I fell in love with the block I made. Each time I taught the class I had fun playing along with the students making more blocks. When I started making blocks on my own time I knew it was destined to be a quilt top.

Now my plan is to make 25 blocks. This will give me an 80” x 80” quilt top. We all know how I love bigger quilts, even when playing. I’ve even made a list of colours to explore to get me up to 25 unique blocks. It’s going to be bold and awesome! I would love to use each fabric only once, but I’m not sure even my stash is deep enough!

In the class we make 16 HSTs. There are a lot of different blocks you can make with 16 HSTs. In prepping for the class I went through a number of quilt block books looking for options. That’s how I found the one I went with but this option above was very tempting too. Either way, you get amazing secondary patterns between the light and dark sections. So many possibilities!

This, indeed, is the best part about playing. A few basic rules to the game but then infinite possibilities!

May Morning Make 2021

May is commonly known as Me Made May in sewing circles. The goal of which is for people to both showcase their hand made clothing and reflect on ready to wear/fast fashion clothing in their closets. Really, it is an opportunity to show off your sewing and styling.

While I am far away from a handmade wardrobe, I do have a few things that I wear consistently. It’s been years since I sewed any clothing of my own though. So instead of showcasing a handmade wardrobe for Me Made May I decided to work on building mine through my Morning Make Practice. Each day I woke up and spent a little time working on clothing items from start to finish. Some days I only cut fabric or sewed just a couple of seams, some days I spent an hour or more moving from step to step. On the weekends I often found myself spending the afternoon making a lot of progress. The pandemic is certainly good for this extra, quiet time at home.

In the end I made 6 garments. Three for me, one I will give away because it ended up being way too small, and one each for my girls.

The Gallery Tunic by Liesl and Co. I’ve made this a couple of times before and like the fit. It was a good one to start with for it’s familiarity. I was wearing it to work by May 4.

The Charlie Caftan was a pattern I’d admired for a while. I liked that I saw it on many different body types with a lot of different design and fabric options. This was my wearable muslin. I bought a gorgeous rayon to make another version with but I need to make some adjustments to the pattern. For now, the whole house agrees I made a very lovely hospital gown.

The Lark by Grainline Studio has been sitting in my sewing room for years. I made a few Linden sweatshirts years ago and liked the pattern. I loved the idea of making a basic tee. And I really wanted to sort out sewing with knits on my machine. Well, my fabric did not have enough stretch and this DOES NOT fit. Bummed because I really liked this fabric. It was a discouraging experience and stopped me from using knits for the rest of the month. But I forged ahead with the finish to learn more about my machine and sewing with knits. Then a friend claimed the shirt, no matter what.

Another Closet Core Pattern, like the Charlie Caftan, this is the Kalle Shirt Dress. I’ve had the pattern and this fabric for it since a visit to Patch Halifax in 2018. This shirt was a huge learning curve of techniques, but between the pattern and the sew along everything was well explained. Which is more than I can say for how to do buttonholes on my Bernina. This will definitely get worn out of the house.

The Ogden Cami by True Bias was the perfect match for this fabric my oldest, The Monster, has been hoarding. We picked it up in 2019 at the Contextural show in town and it is a hand painted fabric by Caroline Forde. Cropped, because she is 14, and with the lining made longer based on pattern reviews, it is perfect all around. Not a pattern for a large buster 46 year old, but perfect for her.

Finally, the Fiore Skirt, also by Closet Core patterns for my newly minted teen, The Evil Genius. She came with me at the beginning of the month to by thread at Rick Rack Textiles, spotted the pattern, and convinced me to make it for her. I’m not sure if it was bribery on her part to pick fabric of my own design. If so, well played. The pattern came together very well and I am tempted to make a linen version for myself.

Unlike quilts, I felt a very strong need to finish each of these garments before moving on to the next. So much so that I felt them as a bit of a weight at times. I’m not sure I will be as focused on one thing of this magnitude again for Morning Make again! It was a lot of thinking for first thing in the morning too. Quite often I found myself needing to come back in the afternoon or evening just so I could have my brain be really awake for the task at hand.

It was really good to get back to garment sewing again. With the new techniques I’ve picked up I am even more motivated to keep going. Just maybe not at quite the same pace. I have a few more things I would like to make for summer. And, of course, my son has requested I make him something now. As for Morning Make, I’ve moved on to something entirely different for June, something a lot less taxing first thing in the morning.