Tag Archives: Quilts Unscripted Bee

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In January, Elizabeth asked us to make improv plus sign blocks.

Elizabeth provided this graphic with color recommendations (Red, Red-Orange, Pink, Violet, Lavender, White, Dark Green, Green, Yellow) and asked for 9 1/2" plus sign blocks that feel graphic and improvisational.

These felt like potato chips to me. So easy to not just make one.

I let the process of each block inform my decisions for the next block.

In my first block I created a green and yellow strip set to use for one stroke of my block. Before I trimmed it down, I really liked the shape of the yellow sticking out farther than the green.

So for the second block I pieced red and pink strips before making this strip sets. Red was my background for this block so this achieved the feature of the yellow pieces being taller than the pink in the finished strip. (It's a different proportion than the strip set for the first block.)

Following the same process I created a second strip set, leaving a larger center section. I pieced this strip into my red background before making a vertical slice to insert my first strip.

Blocks 1 and 2.

Blocks 3 and 4. In block three, I used a scrap of dark purple leftover from creating block one. And my dark green fabric was a small scrap, so I chose to use that with the dark purple to create the plus. Since these were both darks, I chose a lighter color that I hadn't used yet for the background. The plus is intentionally off center. In block four, I had cut a piece of white fabric as the background for a previous block before changing my mind. So I used that for my background. And my scrap of pink fabric was side enough to cut strips to insert across the entire width of the block. I hadn't used improv curves yet, so I went for a simple two-color block with improv curves.

Overall, I was happy with the variety of my blocks and I enjoyed working in the happy colors that Elizabeth chose for us. And now that I think about it, Elizabeth uses stripes in her work a lot. Maybe there was some subliminal inspiration for my first block. I look forward to see what everyone else creates for the prompt.

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In August, Emily pointed us to Bow Bridge in Central Park at spring sunny day by Helen Denisevich for our color inspiration. She asked us to choose two color groupings inspired by the vibrant colors in the watercolor and ink painting. She wanted a 12" x 12" block with a small section of one color group surrounded by the second color group. Any improv we'd like!

I loved the greens in the painting, ranging from yellow-greens into blue-greens, so I pulled fabric for that to be one of my groupings. Then I focused on the pinks in the tree and chose a variety of pinks, light to dark.

My finished block is approximately 12" x 12". The pink section in the center was informed by the shape of my scraps, starting with the largest triangle in the center.

The green section to the left of my center section was informed by scraps that were wedge shaped.

I pieced green strips for the top section, but when that was too boring for me I made a couple vertical slices to insert additional pieced sections.

I love having beautiful, saturated bold colors in a prompt. And the freedom to do any improv pieced we'd like meant that I could just play with the fabric. It was such a joy to create.

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I love an opportunity to play and my monthly improv bee blocks always offer me that chance.

In May, Ellyn selected a happy palette of colors for us to play with. Her theme was Shine. She shared this quote along with her prompt:

"In order for the light to shine so brightly, the darkness must be present."

--Frances Bacon

Together with the theme of Shine, Ellyn asked us to use a variety of saturated sunshiny colors (inspiration list below) with a little Kona Lagoon (a turquoise which she provided) in each block.

Oranges: Tangerine, Kumquat, Orange, Orangeade
Cool Pinks: Bright pink, Candy pink, Sassy Pink, Bubblegum, Carnation, Peony,
Pink
Warm Yellows: Papaya, Sunny, Duckling, Corn Yellow, Canary

Pretty early on I knew I wanted to do something with radiating lines. Then I decided on a ring made of radiating lines. Here's the process on my first block:

My first step was to sew together wedges to make an approximate circle of fabric. I wasn't planning to use the center so I didn't concern myself with everything coming together neatly in the middle. I pressed my seams open (my general preference).

Using templates (not shown) I cut a hole out of the center of my pieced wedges and a coordinating piece of yellow to fill in the hole. Due to the bulk of the pieced seems I pressed this seam to the center. (You'll see that below.)

My next step was to use my template to cut the outer edge of my ring. I drew my templates on the dull side of freezer paper so I could iron the shiny side in place in order to cut my fabric.

You can see above that I cut with 1/4" seam allowance around that template piece. The marks you see were registration marks I transferred to my fabric on both pieces to use for lining things up and pinning in place.

Here's a quick peek of the back at this point. One thing you might notice here is that there are two lines on stitching on that first seam around the center yellow piece. This is because I did a stay stitch on the inner edge of the ring, 1/8" from the edge, before attaching it onto the yellow. I was worried since the ring was the concave edge for the next seam. When sewing curves together the concave piece gets stretched a bit. This stay stitch meant I didn't pop the seams in the ring. The important part of the stay stitch was across the seams, so on the wider strips of fabric I broke the thread so I could do the necessary stretch while sewing that seam.

My final step was to attach the background yellow and trim the block to about a 12 1/2" square.

The second block that I made for Ellyn is composed of improv quarter circle blocks with filler pieces to bring the block up to 12 1/2" square.

I hope you have a sunshiny day!