Artful Improv

Last weekend Sue enjoyed a class on improvisational quilting with local art quilter

Cindy Grisdela, author of Artful Improv.  The half day workshop was open to members of the SAQA Northern Virginia Pod, which is a local group consisting of members of the SAQA national organization.  SAQA stands for Studio Art Quilt Associates, a group that promotes art quilting and exhibits around the world.

Many of Cindy's quilts feature a single block (or 2 or 3) and lots of negative space that is heavily quilted.  She walked us through her process for creating blocks, and then we all worked on blocks with our own choice of fabrics. 

In the picture above you can see some of Cindy's quilts in the background.

We worked log cabin style, starting with a center square and adding logs around, with wonky piecing and mixing in smaller pieced units and sparks of color. 

This is Sue's block in progress.  The fabrics she is using are all hand dyes from Vicki Welsh. 

This is the finished block against the fabric she plans to use as the background.  The fabrics are not quite as light as they appear here - the colors are actually deeper and richer.

Cindy also showed us her free motion quilting process and some of her frequently used motifs are pictured above.  If you are a fan of improv quilting, her book is well worth owning.  Hopefully Sue's block will find it's way into a small quilt and not end up on the UFO pile!