Day: April 13, 2017

Turkey Tracks: My Improv Paper Piecing Designs

Turkey Tracks:  April 13, 2017

My Improv Paper Piecing Designs

I can’t quite believe it, but I designed some quilt blocks–thanks to Amy Friend, author of IMPROV PAPER PIECING.  AND, it seems two quilts.

(See the post before this one.)

I drew and colored on EQ7–which is both fun and frustrating as I have a LONG way to go before getting some proficiency with this program.

Here’s one design–which I learned to “export” to my photos, but from which I forgot to remove the blank border feature.

Oh well…

“Dawn Winter Trees”

There are TWO blocks here, because if I set them without a sashing strip, the tree trunks would make one long line down the quilt.  So the second block’s trunks are off-set from the first.  And the stained glass background has all mixed up color–no set pattern there.

I have shot cottons for the pieces–all in soft “dawn” colors.

The first block I made is beautiful.

AFTER the workshop, I started thinking about a more modern setting.

I like both settings.  Which one will I make?  I will play around with the stained glass blocks before deciding.   But I am drawn to this second quilt.

It will be a wall hanging.

I can also see hand quilting with pearl cotton in curving lines across the horizontal–but NOT across the lavender trees.

I drew this star point block in the drawing part of our workshop.  When I got home, I drew it on EQ7 and learned how to rotate it to make all four pieces of the big FUNKY star.

I always saw it with a solid charcoal background and the low-volume Cotton+Steel fabrics.  I love the big dark whirl-a-gig that has formed.  And the partial diamonds of its fans.  And the suggestion of an octagon come undone around each star.  I love it so much I think I will keep the traditional grid setting.  It’s something like 60 by 72–so a nice lap size.  There will be no borders–and probably just a charcoal binding.  I’ll decide that later.  I don’t want anything to distract from how the quilt is just as it is now.

Here’s my block done at 6 inches–to make a 12-inch block.  I can see right away that the center whirling star needs to be more defined.  Imagine it in one of the darker low volumes.

AND, I’m now wondering about making it at 8 inches…  It would be bigger, more dramatic, and could show off more of the low-volume fabrics.

Big blocks have never drawn me much, but I seem to be changing a little…

There are a lot of cat fabrics in the Cotton+Steel fabrics have.  Hmmmm.  That could be dangerous.  A friend of mine here drew a black dog and one came into her life about a year later.  Cats are a whole different ball of wax from dogs though.  And I do not have a logical space for kitty litter in this house.  And they can scratch furniture…

 

As I said, my brain is spinning…

Turkey Tracks: Amy Friend Workshop

Turkey Tracks:  April 13, 2017

Amy Friend Workshop

You probably think I have deserted you since I have not posted recently.

But, I have been having Quilty Fun.

Amy Friend was just here for a workshop on Improv Paper Piecing.

Our brains are still spinning.  Mine is, anyway.

Here is Amy’s exciting new book.  She is such a good teacher.

We learned all about how to create our own improv blocks and all of us walked away with fresh design ideas that we are now making into quilts.  Our monthly all-day Sit and Sew at the Camden Lion’s Club was buzzing with Amy Friend projects in process.

First, Amy did a trunk show of quilts from the book–and some extras as well.  She used these quilts to illustrate the ideas in the book AND to show us what makes an improv, modern quilt.

So, I’m going to share those quilts with you.

The quilts are being held up by President Lynn Vermeulen and VP/Program Organizer Becca Babb Brott.  (Remember Becca has an Etsy store, Sew Me A Song, where you can find some really interesting modern fabrics, including the harder-to-find Japanese fabrics by Japanese designers.)

Note the jagged triangles–very modern.  This is an early Amy Friend quilt that is NOT in the book.  Amy used it to talk about destabilizing a traditional block, among other ideas.

I love this one–of course I do.  I’m a scrappy quilter.  These fabrics are all Cotton+Steel.  This one is a great scrap buster.

Funky stars done in a very modern black/white/green combo.

Simple is sometimes best.  That’s Amy on the left.  Here she talked about the use of negative space, an “open” block, and her color combos.

A modern hour glass.

Note that the dark blue does NOT evenly meet up with the light blue.

I LOVE this one:

Stained glass and the use of negative space with interesting quilting.

Architecture…

Modern objects–a road sign repeated.

Love this one too.

Mirror images.

These next quilts are not in the book, but were made along the way as Amy refined/defined what she wanted to share in the book.

My goodness!  I love this quilt.

And this one, seen some time ago now, probably from Amy’s blog, likely sparked my own design for the workshop.  It seemed like stained glass.

This one, “Twinkle,” is in a book named SCRAPS, INC. Vol. 1, compiled by Susanne Woods.  It generated one of my designs from the workshop (a separate blog post on those).  This quilt is probably my all-time Amy Friend favorites.  I think because it is scrappy.  I think I will make it one of these days.

Amy has her FIRST fabric line coming out any minute now.  She has designed “blenders” as she really likes to work with solid fabrics in her quilts.

Amy’s blog is http://www.duringquiettime.com.

So, more on my designs and plans next post.