Saturday, May 31, 2014

Improv Series

The goal this year is to work on UFOs and I have been going like wildfire on that task. I have quite the stack of tops accumulating ready for quilting. These began as piles of blocks. Well one can only work on UFOs for so long. There needs to be some stuff just for fun.

Yesterday I picked up the squares I had cut for the Improv series at the Arizona Retreat and decided to make some progress. Well I got on a roll and out of 9 squares I have 4 when I started. I made 5 more and the blocks were ready for trimming. Today I worked on the trimming and got them all trimmed. I loved the way they looked so decided to sew them together. Think giant nine patch. This really did not take very long as there were only a few seams to match where the blocks came together. With these blocks I was using complementary colors; orange and blue. This series will be called over the limit and this orange and blue top is Over The Limit II. The second in the series.
Over The Limit II
The first in this series has a tutorial that I posted February 15 2014. It is Over The Limit I completed the top at the Retreat in Arizona. I love the technique so much that I started the second in the series. There are a few design problems though. The blocks become very skewed as they are sewn and there is a lot of waste in the technique to trim the blocks into squares. I think I will try changing up the technique for the next one in the series. I want to work in a grey/black colorway next with an accent color. Below the Over the Limit I is a top called Energy. It was pieced as a challenge for the Arizona Retreat this year. The challenge was to use lumberyard cuts and make a quilt. I did not want to do something traditional so instead came up with the striking color choice for deep blue and orange and set the jagged line offcenter. I really love the impact of this one.
Over The Limit I



Energy                                                                                                                       
I finally got all the cats herded together into a finished top and found some fabric in my stash for  the borders. I got the first border sewn on yesterday and hope to get the second border sewn today so this one will finally be ready for quilting.

1 comment:

Pat/SWquilter said...

-The top looks great! I love that McCall's kitty block.