Spotted Graffiti Improv - Part One

I bought 4 yards of the beautiful Spotted Graffiti fabric designed by Marcia Derse a little while ago.  I just loved the colors and texture of the browns and blues.  I was saving it for a background for one of my garden ladies, but didn't use it for that series.  So, I cut off 2 yards to save, and used the rest for an improv quilt.  Not having any idea where I was heading, I pulled fabrics that went with the colors of the fabric.

I recently made some improv quilts using solids and hand dyed fabric, and I wanted to see how the process would work with patterned fabric.  A Duckworth type of improv block seemed to be the best idea.  So, I cut strips out of the turquoise and light tans and light blues and sewed them together in log cabin style.  I made blocks that were about 9" (or so) square and sewed them together to end up with 15" square blocks of improv pieced fabric.

I layered those with the 15" squares of the background fabric and made initial curved improv cuts.  I knew that the improv pieced fabric needed to have a  strip of plain color between it and the patterned background, so I sewed either dark brown or medium blue to the inner piece.   Then, I made a second cut on the background and pieced it together. 

I ended up with 4 blocks that had predominately the pieced fabric on the larger outer section, and a few more of the ones with the pieced fabric on the inner, smaller section.  At some point, I needed to make more of the pieced fabric, and I knew that these didn't need to be too big, so I made four of those and just trimmed them off to make a corner area.  These were then pieced into the background fabric.  

I tried several layouts and ended up with the third one.  

The blocks are all different sizes, so I sewed them together into vertical rows and trimmed them to fit.  In the pictures below, you can see where I had to trim to get a nice vertical row.

It's definitely wonky!  I'm thinking about adding some of my signature applique circles.  We'll see!

I hope you like it so far!

Duckworth Charity quilt - Final

This is a continuation about the making of the Duckworth charity quilt as part of the Mod Squad challenge.  I kept making improv log cabins until I had about 60, then I tossed them up on the design wall.  It's bright!  

I thought that I would try to insert a solid (ish) block here and there to give some rest for the eyes.  I liked that idea, and ran with it.  Here's the completed top.  It's 48" x 60".  

I hope you like bright quilts!

Mod Squad Charity Challenge - Duckworth Quilt and CCQ Spring Retreat

The Mod Squad decided to do a charity challenge using scraps in our favorite color and using the "Duckworth" idea.  Basically, it is a scrappy log cabin block over and over and then sewn together into a top.  The top is supposed to be 46" W x 60" H.  Using 6" blocks, that means I need to make 80 of them!  I got a start at the spring quilt retreat with 30 of them.  Here's a few of them:

I walked around the lake a couple of times every day and enjoyed the spring green colors and all of the wildflower blossoms.  

I hope you enjoy seeing them too.