Saturday photos #38

This weekend I am sorting clothes - putting away some summer stuff, digging out the knitwear.  

Fiddling about

I'm still waiting for the post, but while I wait I've started sorting out some strips, with a couple of projects in mind.

If you want something a bit more interesting, head over to Ann's blog Fret Not Yourself and read her AHIQ post.  

AHIQ - here we go!

Welcome to the first post for AHIQ (Ad Hoc Improv Quilters).  Ann and I have spent a fair amount of time over the summer planning this, and talking over what we want it to do/be; now it’s your turn to get involved. We hope this will be an opportunity for lots of fun, as well as a chance to share and to learn new stuff from each other. 

There will be two parts to this: the AHIQ linky party on the last Tuesday of every month - anyone working in an improvisational way is welcome to post their work. 

There will also be a series of “why don’t you try this” posts aimed at providing starting points/ideas and at opening discussion about the different ways we work, both in terms of technique and creativity.  The first of these will come next  Tuesday (8th) and will challenge you to see what happens if you start with one simple shape.

But first things first: what do we mean by “improv”?  Well, the dictionary defines it in two ways “to create or perform spontaneously and without preparation” and “to produce or make something from whatever is available.”  I guess for me quilt improv falls somewhere between these two ideas. So there is an element of jumping in and seeing where you go, and of making do with the choices you have at hand, even if these limits are self-imposed.

BUT we recognise that not everyone's improv is the same: ie lots of people will never feel comfortable just jumping in and chopping away with no idea at all of where they're going.  If it suits you then this feels liberating but if you are uncomfortable you are possibly not going to produce your best work.  So, just to be clear, we are NOT the improv quilt police – throw away your rulers or use them every time you work, it’s fine either way.  Use solids and prints or mix them up, work with traditional elements or not, impose lots of boundaries on yourself or keep them to a minimum, none of this dictates whether you are an improv quilter or not.  Doing your own thing, whatever that may be, is what it’s all about.

When the first AHIQ post went up, this was one of the comments:

“I struggle with different labels for quilts. Beyond 3 layers held together with some sort of quilting I'm never quite sure what kind of quilt I'm making. Add improv as a label and I'm lost. Improv to me means improvise...make do with what you have. So if I use used clothing in a quilt (like grandma did) because I can't afford fabric is that improv quilting? If I make crumb blocks (aka made fabric) but then use it in a traditional star block is that improv? If I use a tea towel as a center of a quilt and add traditional as well as free form blocks around it is that improv? If I sew scraps into blocks and then add beads, embroidery, etc. is that improv?????”

I would say all of this could fit under the improv quilting umbrella and if you are doing any of this, I hope you will feel you fit here.

Why work in this way at all?  I think the appeal of the idea, and the satisfaction when it works, are about feeling that you have found a different way of expressing something.  I came across a great quote from Joe Cunningham that sums it up for me:

 “What I am trying to do is to make quilts that anyone could make, but that only I would make – quilts that are the result of everything I have seen, everything I have experienced, and everything I love to do.”  

(Joe Cunningham, in his book Men and the Art of Quiltmaking, AQS Publishing, 2010 p.18)

Filling in the blanks

Most of my slow Sunday stitching is actually quilting, but I will also do a bit more on the denim.  I have carried on adding little patches along with the stitching and am like them a lot (not to mention using up some scraps).  This week's job is to fill in some of the big areas still untouched.  I keep thinking I will leave some blank spaces, but when I've tried this they haven't looked quite right: more unfinished than deliberate.  I still like the idea though, so will keep fiddling about trying to get it right.

Saturday #37

The last days of summer.

I am not a robot

And if I were, I wouldn't have a stupid dodgy leg that hurts when I sit down to the sewing machine for more than 5 minutes at a time.  Luckily I am waiting for the cavalry to arrive with my extra fabric, so I can take things a bit slower than I would otherwise want to.  I have sewn together some of my bits but now am going to pause until the post delivers.

Following the discussion about the horizontal strips I have trimmed quite a bit off the one that is sitting at bottom left (and of course will lose another little bit in the seam).  It looks much better, not so heavy now, and I am watching out where I need these strips to make sure I don't make the same mistake again.

In the meantime I am playing around with ideas and drafting a post or two for AHIQ - only a week to go now!  

As for the title of this post - I don't mind comment verification, understanding that it serves a purpose.  For a while I was even enjoying it, particularly when I was invited to identify 'all the cakes' or 'all the bread'.  Picking out street signs was less fun, but I discovered that if you got it wrong, they sent you back to foodstuffs.  But now, heaven help me, they are asking me to identify 'all the commercial trucks'.  Firstly, don't care about trucks of any description AT ALL, secondly I didn't even know there was such a thing as a non-commercial truck (am I particularly ill-informed or is it a more American thing?).  A robot has as good a chance of getting this right as I have.

Eking out the scraps

I'm still here, eking out my last bits of fabric for now, but I have to confess that I have asked Lara to send me her blue grunge.  I have literally used every single last tiny scrap and though I might not need much more of it, I am pretty darn sure I'm going to want at least  a wee bit more.  

In the meantime, more blocks with scrappy edges, like this little one.

I did a couple more like this too.

Interestingly, when I tried this one out, the gold didn't look right to my eye, a bit too heavy, so I tweaked it a bit:

Much better.

I am playing around with layout all the time too.  There are some chunks stitched together, but nothing much bigger than six or eight blocks, so it's easy to move them about.  It's funny how some versions look much better than others.  

I am trying to make sure any horizontal strips I use are a bit on the slimmer side now, and have moved the two heavy ones so they are no long right next to each other. I think this will work a bit better. 

Do you like how I have chosen to work in the doorway between two rooms this time, so that wherever I stand I end up with a bit of door in the corner of my photos?  I also knock myself silly on the top of the door frame every time I stand on a chair to get a picture.  I have only myself to blame!