In Praise of Improv

It began with a book.  Okay, it really began decades ago when a girl at school turned up with a bag of patchwork pieces, and I was envious and thought ‘I want to try that.’  Which led on to years of me patiently sewing together hexagons.  You see, it was English Paper Piecing that grabbed me, and hour after hour of slow stitching followed.   

I’ve always liked making things, but was hopeless at dressmaking, and failed miserably to impress during school needlework lessons, not helped by my inability to use a sewing machine.  Later, I did try buying a machine of my own, but couldn’t master it, or even become vaguely competent.  I kept trying and failing to get the tension right and my clumsy fingers struggled with bobbins and threading it.  This meant I never strayed far from hand piecing and hand quilting, and the machine was relegated to a dusty corner, and never used.   

But it always niggled me that I couldn’t machine sew.  That’d be quicker and there were so many block patterns I saw in quilt books that looked fun to make.  Anyway, a couple of years ago I bought myself another sewing machine.  Perhaps things might be different?  It was worth a try.  An impulse online buy from John Lewis, I immediately took to my smart new Brother.  Technology had moved on since I was a girl, and it was a doddle to use.   

I even got to grips with rotary cutters.  I’d failed with those in the past, but persisted until I found an Olfa cutter and a Quilted Bear cutter that felt good to cut with, and – importantly – were suitable for a left-handed grip.  Armed with a sharp blade and an extra-large sized cutting mat I started assembling machine sewn blocks.   

Then I stumbled on to YouTube videos.  A fantastic source of info about techniques.  I learnt about leaders and enders, about chain sewing, and the wonderful quilts of Gee’s Bend.   

But the real change in my craftiness came with a book I treated myself to.  Having seen videos about something called improv quilting I browsed Amazon and stumbled on Sherri Lynn Wood’s ‘The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters’.  Subtitled ‘A guide to creating, quilting and living courageously.’  That seemed a big claim for a craft book.   

At first the author’s language put me off.  It was all rather New Age, airy fairy, taking itself too seriously.  You didn’t choose your fabrics.  You curated them.  You didn’t have a think about the colours and patterns you wanted to use.  You meditated on your choices.   

But pushing that aside, I began to really pay attention to what the author was saying. It was all about being spontaneous, putting aside the ruler and cutting freehand, coming up with designs that were truly individual.  

I dived in. The author sets several exercises that she calls scores. The concept is that they’re like jazz scores, where there’s a basic structure to a piece of music but room for the musician to improvise within those parameters. The first exercise – or score - I tackled was to do with squares and rectangles. You choose a restricted palette for your fabrics, with two main colours and a filler. You cut different sized squares/rectangles and arrange them in a pleasing pattern, using the filler to plug any gaps.  

I differed slightly in choosing two main colours, two additional colours and a filler, mainly because I was using fat quarters and didn’t have enough to make a decent sized quilt without adding the red and pink.  

If I was making this quilt again, I'd use a light grey for my filler, instead of the white with little stars. A filler needs to recede into the background, whereas the white’s too stark, and the tiny gold stars are too fussy.  

The second exercise I tried was about varied shapes. You assemble a quilt row by row, each of the rows being based on something different, eg: squares, curves, triangles, log cabin, strips. The first quilt I’d made had been a lengthy process. I’d spent too much time pondering over each decision, concentrating too much on getting everything ‘right’.  

But this second quilt was much speedier, and consequently more enjoyable. I did a row of triangles, then a row of squares/rectangles, followed by a row of curves, then wonky log cabin blocks, strip piecing, another row of triangles, then a row of long strips down one side to make the patchwork top more of a useful size.  

The result is lots of colour and pattern, and something I’m really happy with. I should’ve been bolder with the curves I cut, making them stand out more, but on the plus side I love the pops of bright red and also the use of denim which I reckon is an undervalued fabric. We’re so used to seeing it as just ‘jeans’ that we forget what a handsome material it is.  

My third quilt wasn’t so successful. It’s still unfinished.

I assembled the patchwork top, but it’s not been fully backed and quilted as I’m not sure I like it. Too jumbled. Too brash. Too yellow. I don’t want to bin it, but I resent spending any more time on it. So its banished to a corner of the spare room. I might retrieve it at some point and decide it’s worth working on again. Not sure yet.

 

Which leads me on to the fourth exercise from the book. This is about using a grid pattern. Again, working with a limited fabric palette, repeating a grid pattern but maybe making it smaller in places or perhaps supersizing it. I improvised by adding small amounts of extra colour here and there, to break things up a bit. Around the grid pattern you’d to add a border. I practised sewing big, bold curves, using a vibrant polka dot material, along with plain blue and purple.  

Then decided those curves were too overwhelming, so sliced ‘em in half, which made a border I’m much happier with.  

And that’s as far as I’ve got. Though I haven't a photo of it here to show you, I’ve nearly finished the grid pattern quilt, the binding being the main thing left to do, then I’ll have another delve into the improv book and see what exercise I’ll tackle next.  

It’s a book I’d recommend if you want to re-energise your quilt making. It gives you permission to play, and helps you learn, so why not give it a go?