Early Morning Club, Week Sixteen

Oy! Midweek is becoming the posting time of choice for my pieces. Never fear, I'm still getting up and doing them each morning, but the process of posting them is slipping away.

Monday, October 27th

After last week's scattered series of pieces--some of which inspired me and some of which bored me---I returned to improvisational patchwork. This piece began with a background rectangle in which I made a series of random cuts and then pieced in a variety of brown fabrics (just scraps really, that were hanging around my work table). I like the overall composition of this piece--it feels balanced.

Tuesday, October 28th
Here's another piece that began as a black rectangle randomly cut. Again I was working with balancing negative and positive space. Too often my improvisational pieces have no background, no negative space, which is alright, but I think designs are often more interesting when they balance them both.

Wednesday, October 29th
Here, I wanted to work with focus fabrics. But I think the design is lacking. There is no connection between the various patches--they just feel plunked down and sewn together. This is comparison with Monday's and Tuesday's pieces where the various fabrics interact to create a more cohesive design.

Thursday, October 30th
Another attempt at using a focus fabric (the vintage chickens). I like the red, blue, and gold fabrics I picked to go with it. This is a more successful design, I think, because the patches related to each other and that helps my eye move around the piece.

Friday, October 31st
Boo! A customer gave me a piece of this cute Halloween fabric so of course I had to use it today. (Thanks Chris!) The white, yellow, orange striped pieces are my ode to candy corn. I like this piece. It is simple and makes me happy.

Saturday, November 1st
As I was cleaning my sewing table, I found a pile of scraps arranged like the design in the middle. I thought that was a fortuitous find, so I used it for the center of this piece.

Sunday, November 2nd
Again, another piece that began with a background rectangle that I cut. As I made my cuts, I thought about design and balance. I chose a palette of colors--blues, teals, purples, and yellow--that is not one I typically work with. I tried to balance placement and size of the different colors to create an interesting design. I'm really happy with this one.

General Thoughts

I adore this improvisational patchwork. When I work in this manner, I think I get closest to expressing what is inside me. So that is good to know. It may be time for me to work on a larger improvisational piece outside of my morning work. I can see making a wonderfully cozy bed quilt using these techniques. Making an art wallhanging would be alright, but so often I look at these improvisational pieces and just want to wrap myself up in them.