Floating Squares

My sewing time has been limited lately, but this week I carved out a few hours to recharge my batteries and finish up my project for the KCMQG Quilt-Along using Sherri Lynn Wood's new book on liberated piecing.

 Sherri Lynn led a workshop for the KC Modern Guild a few month back and some of us got hooked on her fun methods! We enjoyed ourselves so much so, that we've decided to work through the book, one chapter at a time, and challenge ourselves to make up a project using each of the 10 Scores included in her book. Floating Squares is up first.

Lately, I've been drawn to fabrics by Kaffe Fassett and have managed to accumulate a nice collection. I've decided this QAL was a fine spot to start using the fabrics instead of just collecting them. For the floating squares method, you only need three fabrics. Here are my choices, cut into various square shapes without using a ruler...

Using white as a filler fabric, I began by sewing a couple of squareish shapes together...

...

...until I had formed a section like this. In the beginning, I had planned to join together several sections made of different fabrics.

But, it just wasn't doing anything for me so I continued on with the aqua, pink and white original choices until I had used up most of the Kaffee print and pink Cherrywood solid. 

Once I squared up the edges, the top measures about 24 inches by 26 inches. Since the fabrics are sometimes not joined on the straight grain, I sewed along the edges to keep everyhing from stretching out of shape. At this point, I'm not certain if I will create a small quilt from my effort or join other "scores" to it to make a larger quilt top. 

There were around eight of us that came to the modern guild meeting last night with our first score ready to reveal. Heres' mine hanging out with friends!

We all agree that making our Floating Squares was a very enjoyable experience!

Do You Doodle?

That's the first question that Sherri Lynn Wood asked of the class last Friday morning.  After an interesting and entertaining presentation by Sherri Lynn to the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild the night before, I could hardly wait to take her workshop on Doodling with fabric the next day. Here's the project that I made...course, I've got more doodling to do before it's finished...crazy, huh!

With only six quilters present, our class was a small one, so we had room to spread out and got close-up-and-personal input from our attentive instructor. I especially enjoyed the evaluation exercises spread out over the day. Here's our small beginnings, all grouped together, awaiting input from the class. 

Several hours later, our projects had grown in size and we were beginning to feel a flow to our work. Some of the questions that we were to ask ourselves included: What surprised me? What did I discover or learn? What was satisfying and dissatisfying? We gave each other constructive feedback and it felt like we were truly creating modern art!

Here's Sherri Lynn showing us one of her completed Doodle quilts. It looks pretty in the photo, but believe me when I say that, in person, it is even more  beautiful and happy!

Sherri Lynn's first book, detailing her methods for improvisational piecing, will be available for purchase later this month, but our guild was privileged to get to purchase it early. Of course, I snatched one up!

 The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters is a gorgeous book full of beautifully photographed quilts and tons of detailed pictures of the techniques used to make those quilts. I own several books that describe improv piecing but this one is, by far, the most stimulating how-to. Here's a glance at the table of contents...

 Reading Sherri Lynn's book from cover to cover will be a delight and I already have a good start! In her book, she outlines 10 different scores (Her term for deciding a set of rules or limits to work within as you create an improv project.) to help the quilter jump into this exciting and modern way of creating a quilt. 

Honestly, I don't know when I've ever taken a workshop that was more fun or purchased a quilting book that has gotten me more excited to try new things!

In fact, I'm seriously considering going through the book, chapter by chapter, and creating a project. Anyone game to join me? Get the book and let me know!