Last week I had the pleasure of teaching Improvisational Quilting at the John C. Campbell Folk School with 10 talented, inquisitive, and adventurous students, and my friend, Susan, as our studio assistant. It was a prolific week of color, pattern, and innovative piecing and patchwork, at a picturesque, nature-filled setting in western North Carolina.
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| Improv Quilting class display at the Closing Ceremony, John C. Campbell Folk School. |
Ruler-free cutting: abandoning the rulers
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| Mari cutting one of her strip sets. |
The first order of business in improvisational quiltmaking is learning to cut fabric freehand with a rotary cutter and NO RULER. We started learning this the morning of the first day.
For today’s quilters who are accustomed to using acrylic rulers and acrylic templates with gridlines and measurements to make patchwork, it may take a little time to get comfortable with this skill.
By the afternoon of our first day, however, these fearless students were masters of the technique! Several commented how liberating it was and they “may never go back to a ruler…”
We worked on cutting strips, making custom stripes, inserting strips into wider rectangles, and combining strips to make other patchwork units.
At the end of the first day, the design walls began to fill with color and patterns.
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| Strips and stripes. |
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| Strips, inserts and reassembling. |
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| Strip sets and strips inserted into rectangles. |
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| Strip exercises. |
And if you can’t decide what fabrics to choose for various exercises… just take a look at what you’re wearing. The subconscious at work? Seredipity?
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| June and her coordinating strip set. |
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| Mary Anne brought her hand-dyed fabrics to class. |
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| Sue’s top matches her strip set. |
Geometry and improv patchwork
As the week progressed, students learned various cutting and piecing techniques to make patchwork units—curves, quarter circles, and several triangle units. Do you remember your high school geometry???
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| Improv curves and triangles. |
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| Improv curves, triangles, and wedges. |
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| Improv triangles at play. |
The improv patchwork compositions evolved on the design walls. With each new lesson, it was interesting to watch compositions change, grow, and develop from morning through the afternoon and into the evening. Each day brought a new path to explore.
The Improv Game
One of my favorite exercises in this week-long workshop is a game of improv. This time, a neutral color palette was the result of the roll of a die. We pushed the neutral color palette just a bit to include a light salmon, green tea, and fog (a dusky violet) solids [colors of Painter’s Palette by Paintbrush Studio]. Students chose 5 or 6 fabrics to use for their quilt blocks.
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| Making fabric choices… don’t over-think it! |
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| Pushed neutral color palette. |
Fabric bundles were cut and distributed…
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| Pushed neutral fabric bundles ready for cutting and piecing. |
… and the freehand cutting and piecing processes began.
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| Freehand cutting. |
Classic quilt blocks were created using improvisational methods. Block names included Eight-pointed Star, Hour Glass (two versions), Log Cabin, Sawtooth Star, Propeller (Rail Fence), Shoo Fly, Quarter Log Cabin, and a Star Block.
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| Improv versions of classic quilt blocks. |
Tips, demonstrations, and resolving construction dilemmas
Many of the students commented that basic sewing/piecing/quilting tips that were mentioned and demonstrated in the workshop were so helpful. Whether you’re new to patchwork or a long-time quilter, it’s good to be reminded and refreshed about basic techniques—pressing to set the seam, spinning the seams, pressing vs. ironing, etc.
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| Demonstrations. |
And I try not to let students go “out on a limb” in their patchwork without a safety net or a way to resolve construction conundrums. We talk as a group and I meet with students one-on-one to discuss ways to get around any construction challenges they are having with their pieces.
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| Discussing piecing challenges. |
Figuring out “patchwork construction” is a fun part for me as it’s like putting a puzzle together—without having the puzzle box cover that shows the end result.
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| Discussing the composition. Audition. Stand back. Edit. |
Presenting the work
At the end of the week, students have the opportunity to talk about their piece(s)—how they chose a color palette, what surprised them, if/how their perception of “improv” changed from the beginning of the week until the end.
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| Gwen was surprised by all aspects of the improv process. She said the exercises helped to broaden her pieces. Gwen plans to quilt her piece by hand with big stitch. |
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| Mari prefers a calming, neutral color palette. She found the improv process pushed her creativity resulting in the addition of raspberry and burgundy colors in one of her pieces. (But check out the sweater she’s wearing!) |
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| Lisa said “her colors picked her” and not the other way around. She found the grey fabric to be a good solution to resolving the composition of her piece. She plans to “up her game” with free-motion quilting to finish her pieces. |
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| The green/red/black color palette surprised Sue. In the future, she wants to loosen up her piecing by making and using larger blocks. She plans to expand her quiltmaking in more non-structured ways. |
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| Carol, a garment sewer, learned a new vocabulary and is excited about using “quilting” tools in future projects. She stretched herself in her choices of color and plans to take a beginning quilting class to expand her skills. |
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| Mary Anne’s hand-dyed fabrics provided a unique depth and texture to her pieces. She was pleasantly surprised to learn she now likes freehand cutting with the rotary cutter! |
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| Charlotte challenged herself with this color palette. By “letting go” of planning the color and fabric placement of each unit, she was surprised and pleased where the colors appeared in her project. Charlotte plans to write a tanka poem about the meaning behind this piece. |
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| June let go of “precise piecing” to be more free with cutting. She is inspired by the Gees Bend quilts and learned that it’s OK to cut into patchwork that wasn’t exciting to her. She is pleased and excited about the pieces that she cut up and then reassembled. |
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| Deborah started with fabrics that were not her favorites, but pushed herself and discovered that she did like the color and fabric choices in the end. Her previous work was more linear, but has now found an appreciation for curved piecing. Deborah enjoys hand sewing but is contemplating whether to finish these pieces by machine. |
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| As a more traditional quilter, Kristen was used to grid-based layouts. Free-form layouts are new to her. Techniques such as curved piecing inspired her “botanical” themed composition. Kristen plans to machine quilt her piece. |
As you can see, it was quite a productive week!
Wrap up and final thoughts
It was indeed a wonderful week of Improv Quilting at the Folk School! In addition to learning improvisational cutting and piecing techniques, basic sewing tips, and gaining inspiration from the demonstrations that were given, the overarching comment from my students was the camaraderie they felt from each other, our studio assistant, and me during the week. I will say that the Folk School values—joy, kindness, stewardship, and non-competitive—definitely sprang forth this week.
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| Keep “Singing behind the Plow.” |
