Ad Hoc Improv Quilters - Sharing

AHIQ Challenge: Share your previous month's improvisational quilt, top, block, plans, or ideas.

Hmm. Mainly I was working on plans or ideas, and just trying to get myself a little organized and ready to sew and quilt again!

I did push myself to actually finish two charity quilts during December.  My 10th and 11th all time quilt finishes!

For some reason, I also felt confident enough to try out some new-to-me-techniques.

I don't mean creative piecing or even much thought going into the fabrics or to the colors. The quilts I finished were pieced last year and made from charm squares I had hurriedly cut years before at the adult education class when the Accuquilt Studio became available! It's too bad that I wasn't able to plan what fabrics I cut, but blue always looks good with other colors so it's all okay.

We lived in a furnished apartment during most of 2013, and there was the prettiest quilt there. It's funny, I don't remember the design. The colors included blocks with a lot of pink and each had a white background. What I do remember are the beautiful Baptist fans that were hand stitched from edge to edge of that quilt.

My Quilt #10:

My Quilt #10 - asymmetric blue without binding
QFK Practice FMQ (Fabric cut 2012 finished 2015) Blogged

I had dreamt of sewing beautiful feathers in the corners of the first (mainly) charm square charity quilt and then filling it in with the Baptist fan design. The quilting was somehow going to make this project beautiful.

But when I started moving the fabric the feathers weren't really beautiful, and the fabric was not moving with ease on the sewing machine table.

It was very awkward to quilt after taking such a long break from regular sewing. I realized that I should have planned the fans out even more with my paper doodling. With the pressure I put on myself to keep sewing without breaking a needle or the thread, my alternating rows start with different orientations so it looks more like rolling hills than fans. After the middle of the second row, I thought the quilt was awful and the fans would look funny if I continued with them. I wanted to change the design to something that would be quicker to finish just so I could move on.

I decided on trying out an orange peel design. Something I had thought was pretty, but didn't want to have to mark the squares out so hadn't sewn before. With the charm squares to guide me though, the new (orange peel) design was much easier and quicker to sew than the fans. Since I had made this quilt without borders or the need for binding, once I was finished the quilting project was done. And wonderfully and magically, after washing it became something that I would be pleased to donate.

My Quilt #11:

My Quilt #11 - orange peel with separate binding QFK -
one design orange peel FMQ  (Fabric cut 2012 finished 2015) Blogged

I decided that I would use the orange peel design to quilt the entire next quilt. When the bobbin ran out, I remembered I had purchased the grey thread I was using for another project. I really wanted to finish these quilts up before the charity group met again, so to continue with the scrap quilt theme I used different colors of thread to finish the quilt top. It was great fun. I would do one line thru the quilt, cut the thread, turn the project 90 degrees and then sew another line. I continued until the bobbin or the top thread ran out. Then I would look for even more colorful thread to partially fill a bobbin and continue sewing the lines. I'm very pleased with how the quilting turned out for this second quilt.

I had planned on doing a binding by bringing the backing to the front, but I made a mistake at the first corner. I wasn't able to rip the stitches out, so instead I trimmed the quilt so the sides of the quilt were even, used a bowl to shape rounded corners and used the remaining fabric for the binding.

I don't love all the fabric decisions I made, but I do really like the way this quilt turned out. Well, really how both of them turned out now. I think they will be good quilts to donate and they will be appreciated.

Let's see....

Here are my all time quilt finishes!

My Quilt #9 - Cultural Fusion hour glass with oversized wrap around binding - group donation Minimal FMQ (Started and Completed 2015) Blogged

My Quilt #8 - Block Lotto 2010 Winnings with oversized wrap around binding - finished with friend for her daughter. Minimal SITD FMQ (Blocks 2010, completed 2015)

My Quilt #7 - green with oversized wrap around binding QFK - Minimal SITD FMQ (Started and completed 2015)

My Quilt #6 - baseball with wrap around binding QFK - one design FMQ (Started and completed 2013) Blogged

My Quilt #5 - large star with separate binding sofa quilt - one design FMQ  (Started around 1967 - Completed 2012) Blogged 

My Quilt #4 - pink practice piece with separate binding for wheel chair - Practice FMQ (Started and completed 2012) Blogged

My Quilt #3 - yellow Quilts with wrap around binding QFK (Different block FMQ) Click photo for detail (Started and completed 2010)

My Quilt #2 - blue/black/red with wrap around binding QFK (Quilts for Kids) (different FMQ by fabric)  Click photo for detail (Started and completed 2010)

My Quilt #1 - crazy quilt without binding - tied - given as gift to my son (Project Started 1992 - finished November 2009)

Found photo: Shows
quilt in the rented
2013 apartment that had 
Baptist Fans

By the end of 2016 I hope that I go forward and finish more quilts! And that I experiment with projects made up of single blocks of color, but with a variety colors for the thread, and different shaped edges for the perimeter.

and my family and friends, I'm sure, hope I will finish their quilts!

: )

and I'll work on my run-on sentences!

: )

Thanks for visiting!