Free Play - Tuesday
Free Play - Sunday

Free Play - Thursday

Thursday play

I didn't get to log any free play yesterday - Wednesdays as a rule are super busy. But, I did sneak upstairs to the design wall for about fifteen or twenty minutes after dinner and arranged the blocks until I was satisfied with how they looked. I envision this quilt as asquare so I left blank spaces where I thought something else was needed.

Thursday play 2

This morning, still satisfied with my arrangement from last night, I separated the blocks into groups for sewing. I find it much easier to sew small groups of blocks together to make bigger blocks and then join the bigger blocks into a quilt top. This way, there are no inset seams and it is easy to stop and start without getting things too messed up. I should also note that I still would have photographed each step for a visual reference even if I hadn't planned on blogging it.

Thursday play 3

I started in the top left corner and took the first set of blocks downstairs to sew. The photo above shows the process after I sewed the first two groups into bigger blocks. Unlike when I originally pieced the smaller blocks, I was very deliberate about how I added fabrics so it would be a pleasing composition overall. The first two photos came in handy here - I could look at them and see what fabrics would be next to each other and if there was too much or too little of a certain value or color.

Thursday play 4

Thursday play 5

Thursday play 6

This is what I had before I sewed it all together. I took a good long look and threw some different fabrics in the white spaces to see what worked and what didn't. It was a happy accident that I needed to add some longer, narrow pieces to make all the blocks fit together - I thought the compostition lacked those shapes.

Thursday play 7

And here it is! The final size is 33.5 x 35.5 which is just about perfect as I wanted it to be about 36" square. I plan on adding some borders to it to make it about a 60" square throw quilt. I've already pulled the fabrics for the borders and will probably start on those Saturday. Fridays are also normally crazy. I plan on improvisationally piecing the borders as well, but will use much larger pieces of fabric to balance all the little pieces in the main patchwork.

Thursday play 8

I need to emphasize that so far this has been a very worthwhile and freeing exercise for me. And fun! So much fun.

Comments

Jenny

I love it!

jess

Very inspiring!

The Lazy Fair

I love this, Erin! The colors are just gorgeous!

Cindy

I love the pops of solid aqua in the quilt!

beki

It sure looks like fun! I've enjoyed watching you through this process :)

larissa

So fun to see your work prcess.
I piece in a similar fashion avoiding inset seams at all costs.

Samantha C.

I've really enjoyed following your process on this so far. I've been a bit overwhelmed wen thinking about attempting an improv piece, but you've inspired me. I'm looking forward to seeing the end result!

Erin | house on hill road

Thanks, Samantha!

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