I generally need a day or two to get all the parts and pieces of my improv quilts assembled and ready for the longarm sewing. Yesterday was that day.
A few years ago I walked into a neighborhood Goodwill store & spotted about 10 cotton size 3XL men's tropical shirts for sale. They were mostly Pierre Cardin shirts so the cotton is very nice. They probably were all donated by the same man. There's a lot of fabric in a size 3XL and I pulled the last of the bunch to use for the pieced backing on this new improv quilt, no. 4. I'll be adding a piece of yardage and a pillowcase to round out what I need.
The front of the quilt has its roots in the early 1990s. I was enrolled in a community program through the University of Houston for interior design. It was quite serious & the expectation is that we would be able to sit for the state boards when we finished. As it turned out, there was a regulation the program had overlooked and we did not get to sit for any boards. I learned a lot but I was never able to be licensed. Anyway, we had a resource room we could use for our projects. Various interior design firms dumped (and I mean that literally) sample books and yardage into this little cubbyhole of a room for us. I spent a good amount of time getting it organized and culling through the fabrics. At one time I heard that a firm was getting ready to unload some fabrics & I met them with my SUV. It came home with me. Alot of fabric.
I carted that fabric around with me for a long time until about 2013 when I decided to cut it into rectangles. By then, some 20 years later, it had lost its luster for me. Recently when I was looking through my cabinet, I noticed the pieces bundled together. When most of the work has already been done, I am much more inclined to pick up a supply and give it attention. All that cutting fit the requirement.
The prints in this group are mainly dark. I added some quilting cottons into the mix of drapery cottons which are more abstract. A good afternoon of sewing yielded 25 strips of 14 pieces end to end. It's a motley crew but I hope the overall blending will be good.
I plan to have some plain or low contrast strips between each of the pieced strips. I pulled a variety of colors and almost settled on a beige stripe until I listened to the thud in my stomach. I knew I would not enjoy quilting a large quilt with beige fabric. It's enough that I am working out of my comfort zone with the prints in the strips.
I have quite a few boxes of blue green fabrics and some of them are also from the design room days. A few of the pieces are chintz which is not even available any more. Once I pulled the blue greens and blue fabrics I knew I would enjoy this quilt much more. I'm keeping the values dark on the front and light on the back.
I'm always amazed at the amount of effort that goes into improv quilts! In reality these are not truly improvisational but more coin or brick quilts. I like them because each quilt gives me a chance to try out a color scheme idea & they use an eclectic variety of fabrics well. And we all know, I have eclectic fabric that spans a few years!
A few years ago I walked into a neighborhood Goodwill store & spotted about 10 cotton size 3XL men's tropical shirts for sale. They were mostly Pierre Cardin shirts so the cotton is very nice. They probably were all donated by the same man. There's a lot of fabric in a size 3XL and I pulled the last of the bunch to use for the pieced backing on this new improv quilt, no. 4. I'll be adding a piece of yardage and a pillowcase to round out what I need.
The front of the quilt has its roots in the early 1990s. I was enrolled in a community program through the University of Houston for interior design. It was quite serious & the expectation is that we would be able to sit for the state boards when we finished. As it turned out, there was a regulation the program had overlooked and we did not get to sit for any boards. I learned a lot but I was never able to be licensed. Anyway, we had a resource room we could use for our projects. Various interior design firms dumped (and I mean that literally) sample books and yardage into this little cubbyhole of a room for us. I spent a good amount of time getting it organized and culling through the fabrics. At one time I heard that a firm was getting ready to unload some fabrics & I met them with my SUV. It came home with me. Alot of fabric.
I carted that fabric around with me for a long time until about 2013 when I decided to cut it into rectangles. By then, some 20 years later, it had lost its luster for me. Recently when I was looking through my cabinet, I noticed the pieces bundled together. When most of the work has already been done, I am much more inclined to pick up a supply and give it attention. All that cutting fit the requirement.
The prints in this group are mainly dark. I added some quilting cottons into the mix of drapery cottons which are more abstract. A good afternoon of sewing yielded 25 strips of 14 pieces end to end. It's a motley crew but I hope the overall blending will be good.
I plan to have some plain or low contrast strips between each of the pieced strips. I pulled a variety of colors and almost settled on a beige stripe until I listened to the thud in my stomach. I knew I would not enjoy quilting a large quilt with beige fabric. It's enough that I am working out of my comfort zone with the prints in the strips.
I have quite a few boxes of blue green fabrics and some of them are also from the design room days. A few of the pieces are chintz which is not even available any more. Once I pulled the blue greens and blue fabrics I knew I would enjoy this quilt much more. I'm keeping the values dark on the front and light on the back.
I'm always amazed at the amount of effort that goes into improv quilts! In reality these are not truly improvisational but more coin or brick quilts. I like them because each quilt gives me a chance to try out a color scheme idea & they use an eclectic variety of fabrics well. And we all know, I have eclectic fabric that spans a few years!
Keep this up and, eventually, you'll have less to find hidey holes to store it in! I think I'm going to like this one a lot, too.
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