Improvisationally Pieced Blocks

Hey, do you guys mind if I whine for a minute?....No?.....Good. It's April 3, and I'm still wearing wool socks! Waaaahhhhhh! I want some warm weather! The weather folks say it's supposed to be warming up. Please, let it be true!

Whew. Thanks. Now that I've got that out of my system....well, let's see what else I need to dig up that I've been working on......

How's this? After our March meeting of the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild, we had a little sew-in together. We figured....enough talking, let's get sewing! And one of our members, Jackie, agreed to give us a demonstration on her improvisational piecing style, which I happen to love. So, I was really excited. I buy my hand-dyed fabrics from Jackie. I decided I would use my hand dyed fabrics from her for this exercise. At our guild meetings, she sells little bags of her scraps. And I buy them up, becuase I can never decide what color of fabric I want from her. It's all so pretty. The scrap bags give me a little of everything. Here is one of the blocks I made after her demonstration. The really stripey piece is actually cut from a scrap from another project I did with her fabrics. I just can't bring myself to throw them away. So, this was a nice way to start using up some of those little scraps. Jackie also encouraged us to use more than one fabric in one of the "logs" in our blocks. You can see I did that also with the blue/orange log.

Here is another one I made. I like this one, too. I love these being "log cabin" style, but really irregular in every sense of the word. My blocks are all either 5" or 5.5". I can't remember off the top of my head.

I had no plan when I started each block. I just cut a center, and then I started adding fabrics as I went on. I cut them to width and lengh as I went. Sometimes I used a ruler; somtimes I did not. I let things get crooked. I just kept piecing until they were a little bigger than 5" or 5.5", and then I trimmed them up.

This is not unlike the intuitive piecing I was doing a while back with Lynn. You can see posts about that here, here, and here.

And here is the third block I made that day. Notice I made one of the stripey inserts, but I accidentally cut it so skinny, you could barely see it there. So, I added another one on this block.

I am really happy with how these turned out. I have no idea what I will do with them. They may go into a project of some sort one of these days. They might look good as the outside of a zipper bag. Or maybe they'll be a wall hanging. I don't know. That was the fun of it for me. I just wanted to create blocks to create blocks and not worry about it. Fun.

Jackie was helping me with another project the following week. That night, she came up to me and handed me a plastic bag with more of her scraps in it. I couldn't believe it! She gifted me with some wonderful fabric! And she gave Sweet Pea a piece of hand dyed fabric with some sea turtles stamped on it. Sweet Pea was really happy. (Jackie loves sea turtles. She was making this fabric as a practice for some other project she's working on. She had made another sea turtle fabric a while back and said she didn't like it. Sweet Pea told her how much she loved it, and Jackie gifted it to her. Sweet Pea has been quilting it and having a lot of fun with it. That's why Jackie gave her this new piece of fabric. Do I have the greatest friends, or what?!)

Speaking of great friends, a couple of you commented on how nuts I was to take on the Presidency of the Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild. Well, I have to tell you something, I have the most fantastic group of officers on this guild with me. They have each taken up their jobs very seriously, which has made the job of President really pretty easy. I'm so grateful to hang out with talented, hard-working, and dedicated friends!

Until next time,

Comments

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Good morning, Stephanie! Those are some bright blocks. They should remind you of spring. It's coming. Hang in there. I've decide I'm wearing flip-flops to help it along a bit :-)

Posted by: Sue | April 03, 2013 at 08:56 AM

Ooooh, they're beautiful! It looks like a project that's lots of fun. Just keep playing -- their final destination will come to you!

Posted by: Thimbleanna | April 03, 2013 at 10:26 AM

Love all the improv! And the hand-dyed fabrics are delicious!

Posted by: jenclair | April 03, 2013 at 10:56 AM

Hey Stephanie!! Looks like you've been up to some amazing sewing going on! I love all your blocks. The colors are all so fun. And how sweet of your friend to give Sweet Pea the hand dyed turtle fabric. That is awesome! Take care my friend!!

Posted by: Cindy Smith | April 03, 2013 at 12:50 PM

I love the fabrics and love the blocks. Glad to see you have had time to sew. The sun is shining but it is still cold. Hugs

Posted by: Cathy | April 03, 2013 at 12:52 PM

Great colors, great blocks! Must.find.time.to.sew.for.fun!

Posted by: Ellie Q | April 03, 2013 at 01:17 PM

What great fabrics. I like the log cabin style blocks you've been doing, it's always been one of my favorites.

Posted by: Deb | April 03, 2013 at 01:38 PM

You chose the perfect fabric for these blocks. You're lucky to know someone that hand dyes fabric. Can you imagine a quilt from these?

Posted by: Linda in Calif. | April 03, 2013 at 05:09 PM

What fun little blocks in pretty colors! If nothing else, you will have some awesome new potholders for summer entertaining!
Congrats on taking the lead at your guild....I'd love to visit sometime (when I'm in the neighborhood!). I'm totally with you on the cold weather thing...so over it!!

Posted by: Carla | April 03, 2013 at 09:48 PM