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!

Cindy Grisdela - Improv Quilting

Recently, Sue attended a lecture/trunk show by Cindy Grisdela, author of Artful Improv.

Her lecture traced her transition from traditional quilter to improvisational quilting. This is the style that she works exclusively in now. 

Cindy is a quilter local to Northern Virginia and also serves as the editor of the QU Digest, the e-newsletter of the Quilters Unlimited guild, so Sue was already familiar with Cindy and her work.

Below is the quilt featured on the cover of her book.

Not only is her piecing and layout interesting, as in the quilt below,

her free motion quilting makes great use of and enhances the negative spaces.

Sue was particularly interested in the lecture because she has an improv quilt in process and was looking for some inspiration to figure out how to complete it.  It's always helpful to see and hear about other quilters' work and process to help refine your own. More on Sue's quilt in another post.

Strips and Squares with Rayna Gillman

One of the workshops Sue took at Celebration was on improvisational piecing with Rayna Gillman.  We learned her methods for creating strips and squares to create building blocks for a quilt based on her book, Create Your Own Free Form Quilts.

Strips of varying widths are cut free form (without a ruler) and stitched together. Then sometimes cut crosswise and inserted between other strips.  Or built out as a square in a square.  Solids and prints are needed.  Curvy and uneven are more interesting than straight.  Following your instincts is more important than planning. Repetition is important to unify the whole.

Above are examples of units made by Rayna - strips and squares - that can be the foundation of a quilt.

Below are some of Sue's building blocks.

 Here, everyone is hard at work playing with their fabrics.

Once you've got enough pieces, you can start working with them on your design wall to find a pleasing arrangement, and figure out what else you need to fill in.

Here are Sue's pieces stitched together.

Below are some of the other class participants with their creations.

 Sue says it was a fun, low-stress class and process and looks forward to more improvisational piecing.

Improvisational Design

How do you design your art quilts?  Do you draw or sketch first and make a pattern?  Do you have a mental image that you work toward creating, but not a specific plan?  Do you start with a basic idea and let it build from there?  Sue says she more or less falls into the last category and calls her method improvisational design.  Sometimes it involves sketching, other times just a mental vision.  She will start putting pieces together, and let it evolve from there.  Was there a plan for her recent "Falling Leaves" quilt?  Not at all!  In fact, after the background was created, she went through many options before deciding on the final arrangement.  Here's a look at how it evolved.

Two pieces of fabric formed the basis for this 8 x 10 piece - both were printing samples with fall leaves.  Time was short, so starting with already printed fabrics helped speed the process, and use up a small bit of the stash.

After layering with fusible fleece, the orange sections were quilted with matchstick quilting, a technique she had seen and wanted to try.  Then the leaf areas were free motion quilted.

Next came determining a focal point.  You might think that should come sooner, and perhaps it should, but it didn't in this case.  One choice considered was adding a bird, but the scale was off and it didn't really relate, so sticking with the fall leaf theme, Sue turned to leaf images she had for screen printing.  In order to add variety, she chose a pin oak leaf that was not in the background fabrics and decided to make it in 3 different sizes.

The leaves were printed on hand dyed fabrics in black, had fusible web applied to the back, and then were cut out to make appliques.

Then came the next challenge - how to arrange them on the background!  Who knew there were so many options?  Tomorrow, a look at the many choices.