Improv Spotted Graffiti - part Four

This is a continuation 3 previous posts about the of the making of Spotted Graffiti.

I did go ahead and remake two of the squares before I added the outside borders.  Here is what it looked like with the fixes.  It is SO much better.

I needed to add some length to the borders so that they would fit after sewn into place.  I also had to be a lot more diligent about the shape and width of the borders.  Since they were pieced, I starched them and sewed around all of the outside edges to keep from popping seams and ending up with floppy edges.  I also had to take a few tucks here and there.  I have to say that it is not my favorite improv quilt, but at least I stuck with it to get it done.  For sure, working with solids is a whole lot easier than with pieced fabric.  It was donated to our charity group and measured 56" x 58".

Improv Spotted Graffiti - Part Three

This is a continuation of 2 previous posts about the making of Improv Spotted Graffiti.  I continued to make pieced blocks for the wonky border.  Some were made as triangles; some were made as squares.  They were fitted onto the sides as I went to make sure I was filling the space.  

When I needed to join the pieces, I lined then up on one of the lines on my cutting mat.  After overlapping the ends, I trimmed one of the sides so that the angle was the same.  These were then sewn together and the other side was trimmed to be somewhat even, but still sloped.  

One thing that bothered me (besides the unbalanced center) was that the piece might need to have a small dividing dark border between the busy background and the wonky border.  (That was a decision that I made when I made the improv blocks.)  It seemed like that reasoning needed to be carried through to the edge.  Well, here is the top with the improv border pinned in place.  I decided not to add that first interior border.  But I thought that I wanted to applique some of the darker curved pieces out into the border after it gets sewn.  However, the interior pieces still bothered me a lot.  I seriously considered tearing it apart and trying to remake one of the interior squares and one of the exterior squares.  I wasn't that sure how much matching material I had left after making all of the outside borders.  (Sigh).

I let it sit for a couple of weeks, while I pondered my next step.

Improv Spotted Graffiti - part Two

This is a continuation of the previous post about the making of  Improv Spotted Graffiti.  One thing about improv quilts is that they can turn our pretty wonky and that does affect how the viewer interprets balance.  I just kept playing with dots to try to get some balance on this piece and made several changes along the way.  Here's where I ended up.  I still felt that it was unbalanced.

Somewhere in the middle of the night, I thought that making it even more wonky might be the ticket.  It seemed like it was calling out for a border of some type with the improv pieced material.  So, I placed the piece wonky on my design wall and added black strips to show where I needed to add pieces.

I didn't know if this would make it OK or not.  Stay tuned to see what happens!

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!

Crisscross quilt

I watched an episode on The Quilt Show that introduced me to an improv way to make a crisscross quilt.  I think the quilter used smaller blocks than I did.  I made it with some of my hand dyed and ice-dyed fabrics and a wonderful Marcia Derse fabric called "Spotted Graffiti". Anyway, here's the quilt and the instructions.

CRISSCROSS QUILT

51” w X 59.5” h

Made in improv style, this quilt uses large and small scraps to make a striking colorful quilt.

Materials
10 to 12 different fabrics, at least large enough to cut several 10” squares

Instructions
Cut 4 different fabrics @ 10” square
Lay them right sides up and cut a diagonal line free hand starting and stopping at 1” from the corner
Cut a second diagonal line parallel to the first one and starting and stopping at 1” from the corners.  Make it slightly curved, but not super curvy.

Take one of the center pieces and rotate it from the top to the bottom of the stack
Sew the triangular pieces to the center pieces, making sure that the triangular pieces are the same fabric
Press away from the center strip

Trim to 9” square

This stack yields 4 blocks
Continue stacking 4 fabrics at a time, making sure they are mixed up and different than the first pile
Make a total of 36 blocks (9 stacks of 4 fabrics)

Cut 4 different fabrics @ 5-3/4” square
Lay them right sides up and cut a diagonal line free hand starting and stopping ¾” from the corner
Cut a second diagonal line parallel to the first one and starting and stopping at ¾” from the corner
Take one of the center pieces and rotate it from the top to the bottom of the stack
Sew the triangular pieces to the center pieces, making sure that the triangular pieces are the same fabric
Press away from the center strip
Trim to 4-3/4” square
This stack yields 4 blocks
Continue stacking 4 fabrics at a time, making sure they are mixed up and different that the first pile.
Make a total of 24 blocks (6 stacks of 4 fabrics)

Sew the top together
Lay out the squares to your liking, leaving 6 spots for the smaller squares
Use 4 of the smaller blocks to fill in the 6 empty spots
Arrange the stripes all in one direction, or in a crisscross way.
Sew the horizontal rows together and press alternating rows in alternating directions
Sew the vertical rows together and press the seams all in one direction
Baste around all of the outside edges to stabilize the seams

I found a picture on Instagram that I thought would be a fun way to use this pattern, with smaller blocks and different fabrics on each side of the center cut.  It's 9 blocks x 11 blocks.

Anyway, have fun using up your larger scraps!