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.