Tag Archives: improv blocks

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Last month, Chris gave us the open-ended invitation to play with line in our improv blocks for her. Straight lines and how they intersect, or how they don't. She asked for black background (I used Kona Black) and as many colors as we like (at least two) for our lines, preferably brights.

My lines all vary between 1/8" and 1/2" in width. I really enjoy the look and process of piecing a skinny 1/8" strip. So I started with that.

This first one is about 12" x 12" with 1/8" strips in three colors. Technically the lines intersect somewhere to the lower left outside of the block. This block accidentally has 90's neon laser photo backdrop vibes for me.

My second block is 8" x 8" and more precise with two 1/2" strips intersecting in the center of the block.

My last block is about 7" x 6" and I thought of the branches on a plant or the veins on a leaf.

Thanks for visiting!

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In September, Carole asked us to use time as our inspiration for her blocks. She asked us to use solids only with any shape or image that relates to time. And she chose the stunning tetrad palette of blue-green, red-violet, red-orange, and yellow-green (including recommended Kona suggestions to help us out).

My first thought that I couldn't shake was the idea of time passing as my children grow. I created a "watch me grow" block of sorts where I improv pieced the bodies of the three images and then added needle turn appliqué for the heads.

My second block was a simple timeline. It is meaningful to me because it represents the births (not to scale) of me and my siblings. I'm the oldest by 8 years.

My final block was a simple 4-patch block to represent the found seasons: winter, spring, summer, and fall.

These colors were a joy to work with and I really enjoyed the process of puzzling out my plan to construct the children. Other blocks created in the bee included inspiration from song lyrics,  hashmarks, and a clock.

This month we're sewing improv Christmas blocks, but I also need to show you the improv Line blocks I made last month.

Happy sewing!

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A few weeks ago I shared my new daily project, WIPs Be Gone with Leanne of Devoted Quilter. Here's a wrap up of all the works in progress I worked on during the first 25 days (of the last 100 days of 2021).

My commitment to myself is to spend at least 15 minutes (though often it's longer) making progress on a WIP. My goal is to finish 4 larger quilts before the end of the year as many of my finishes in the last year and a half have been mini quilts. You'll see that I'm still also working on mini quilt projects. In the next 25 days I'm gonna work to knock a couple larger projects into the finish column.

There's a bit of a theme in my projects so far: GREEN!

I spent the first week putting my Tac Tac Toe blocks into a finished quilt top. My WIPs Be Gone kickoff post lists all the Kona colors in this quilt and I absolutely love the palette. I'll be quilting it myself, but haven't yet basted it. This is atop my WIP priority list for the next few weeks.

I added hand stitching on my series of Personal Symbols mini art quilts from a summer class with Deborah Boschert. (hand stitching during Zoom meetings is great!) The next step on these is to add some free motion quilting before they are trimmed and mounted.

I finished the Positivity mini quilt that I shared recently. This was the project I spent the most time working on. I love the Kona Peapod background and always enjoy creating Scrappy Slabs.

I trimmed up my Waterfall quilt. It just needs binding, so I'll be finishing this in the next couple weeks, too.

And lastly, I worked on sewing together all my samples from the Improv Cutting Tips demo that I gave at the beginning of October. This blocks turned into a series of five mini quilts.

And I'm not just working on WIPs. I'm preparing for my first Improv Log Cabin guild class this weekend. And I'm also participating in Nicholas Ball's Improv Triangle Sew Along (in blue).

Oh and one more green thing I made recently. I'm taking a paper mixed media collage course and one thing we did this month was watercolor flowers and leaves with ink details. This is one of my favorites.

Thanks for visiting. I'd love to hear about what WIPs you're working on.