Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters

 Hi! And welcome to my stop on the blog hop for Sherri Lynn Wood’s book The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters: A Guide to Creating, Quilting, and Living Courageously

Sherri Lynn Wood

If you’re new here, please take a moment to browse around. A few of my favorite improv quilts shared here are Arne and The Painted Pebbles Quilt.

I’ve been following Sherri’s work for a few years, enjoying both her quilts and the writing on her blog. Last year, when she put out a call for testers for the scores in her improv book, I was quick to throw my hat in the ring. I was assigned to test the “Rhythmic Grid” score, which can be found on pages 58 – 69 of the book.

 Scores are what Sherri calls her improv patterns. The inclination to NOT call them patterns is one that I support, but since readers on this blog might not have the book in hand to understand the nuance of that term, I’ll explain—it’s basically a pattern, but with some fuzziness around it as far as what the final creation might really look like. The scores give you some limitations on what you’re doing and some goals for what you create, but you have to take it into your own hands as you make the final product.

 Here is a photo of me and my quilt at QuiltCon 2015:

dance for emily con1

And here it is in the book:

Sherri Lynn Wood

I hadn’t seen this at the time I made mine, but here’s Sherri’s quilt from the same score:

Sherri Lynn Wood

I was actually a bit cheeky when I made this quilt because I had a goal to get it into Sherri’s book. Since Sherri and I have somewhat similar tastes in colors, I decided to borrow the aesthetic of my friend Emily (emmmylizzy) in selecting my color scheme. I figured that Sherri and her publisher might want some diversity in the look of the creations, so having a different color story and feel to the fabrics might be helpful.

If you don’t follow Emily on Instagram, you might not know: she’s all about happiness, rainbows, cats, flowers, vintage sheets, and all the good things in life. That might sound cheesy, but I promise you, it isn’t. It’s wonderful, as our friend Jenna wrote on her blog, “When you see Emily, you smile. She is a walking heart emoticon and an outstanding person.”

In addition to stepping out of my comfortable little box when it came to fabric selection, I decided to break a couple of the rules in the score. I flipped the placement of prints and solids by using a print for the background (cats!) and solids for the grid.

dance for emily3

Additionally, those solids for the grid are supposed be fewer colors, but I mixed it up by pulling a rainbow and having the cools be “one color” and the warms be another.

dance for emily1

Having broken the fabric rules, I resolved to stick to remaining limitations of the score.

This quilt came together very quickly for me. It’s a no-ruler, jam-it-out, rollicking good time. I made a lot of patchwork and had it up on my design wall when I realized I had a problem: my rows went a bit akimbo. The score says NOT to square up rows, blocks, or anything and I had resolved to stick to that rule, so I needed to find another way to bridge the gap between my rows.

 Taking a bit of inspiration from a striped vintage sheet, I used my scraps to piece together some stripes that I could insert between the cleaved rows. Those little stripey bits ended up being my favorite part of the design!

dance for emily stripes1

 “A Dance for Emily” was quilted by professional long-armer Lynn Harris (hire her, she’s fabulous).

 I really think my journey with this quilt is exactly what the book lays out for you…a pathway to making patchwork like Sherri’s but also a pathway to making your own discoveries and having a new experience in quilting.

The book is available now on Amazon.com and at book stores and quilt shops worldwide.  It’s a lovely book and I encourage you to check it out!

I do have a free copy to give away here!
To win, please leave a comment on this blog post by midnight on Wednesday, June 3, 2015. Tell me anything.

Rossie

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This Post Has 65 Comments

  1. Glad to see this quilt in person last February. I want to see you in person this summer or fall. Love your quilts. Love you. Don't love the goats.

  5. I'm new to your blog and like your pattern for the Scandinavian oakshott fabrics. As far as improvisation goes, I'm still enjoying using patterns. That being said, it's an interesting concept and the book looks to be a good guide.

    anndunn24(at)gmail.com

  6. I love the idea of a "non-pattern" to provide a framework to work within but allow for variation. I looooove you infill stripey pieces to square up the quilt!!!!!

  10. I discovered poison ivy climbing up my window, but once I get rid of it, I'll be itching to make an improv quilt–in greens.

  11. My favorite part of your quilt is the use of the cat print as the background – even though I'm a dog person and wish you'd have used a dog print LOL – I love the interest it adds without creating too much confusion. The little stripy things are also great! I so need this book, because I'm not very good at improvising and need help in cutting loose. I love improv quilts, but am much better, myself, at sticking to a pattern.

  12. Sounds like a fun book and a nice bridge between total improv and following a pattern. And you are totally right about Emily!

  13. WoW! Love your quilt! I haven't done a quilt this way before. My style was very traditional but in the last few years my taste has changed. There are so many different and wonderful designers now that there is something for everyone. I'm learning to step outside my box and a total improve quilt is on my bucket list ;-D

    Awesome giveaway!

    usairdoll(at)gmail(dot)com

  14. I love the quilting (and the quilt). I'd really like to read the book. Why does my local library not have a copy?!

  15. Cats, YES. Stripes, absolutely perfect. Rainbow warm cool thing, I'm into it. And CONGRATS on being in the book. That seems like a major accomplishment. I must have this book one way or another and if you choose me I promise to sew my way through every score in the book.I'll do that anyway but if I don't win a copy I have to wait until my birthday in August so you could give me a good head start. I love improv and I think this scores idea sounds fantastic. Sherri Lynn is full of genius. I also love goats. Go find me on instagram, @artandstole, and you can see my goat quilt. I don't have any real goats but I have milked one before, and then made goats milk ice cream with crushed oreos. It was one of the best things I've ever tasted!

  21. Oh, this book is at the top of my want list!! I love your improve quilt and blog!! I also follow Emily on Instagram and her work is amazing!! Thank you!!!

  22. Love your quilt and would love to win this book. And I really enjoy seeing your goat pictures pop up in my IG feed.

  24. One of my goals this year is to get more comfortable with improv piecing and to include it more into my quilting. Would love to win this!

  25. I'm okay with goats but much prefer your quilts. Loved you description of your process. I can't wait to make my own score. Thanks for the giveaway!

  26. Breaking rules seems like the way to go with improv anyway yes? I like the way you used warm and cool as your two colours! I'd love to win a copy of this book, the scores sound the perfect way to learn within guidelines. Often a blank slate can be altogether too intimidating!

  33. Lynn Harris is a favorite quilter of mine, love her quilting! I also would love a chance at winning this book…it is very much my own style, piecing and making it up as I go along. Sherri seems to have come up with a fun approach to a style I do enjoy

  34. Your blog was one of the first that I started reading and I love your fabric work. I too was assigned the Rhythmic Grid, and I am fascinated by how many different interpretations it has had. Never stop learning!

  35. I hang out with traditional quilters. I need some other inspiration to get me moving in a more modern direction. I'd love the book.

  36. I hang out with traditional quilters. I need some other inspiration to get me moving in a more modern direction. I'd love the book.

  40. I love those cats! I'd also love to win a copy of this book. I'm still a little tentative with my piecing; I could use some help and inspiration to be bolder!

  41. Oh cool, I'd love a chance to win this book! I love improv piecing, but could use a little hand-holding at times.

    I really like your quilt! I like the colors you chose, and the fact that you broke some rules (isn't that what improv is all about?) but followed others. I think you were very successful with this quilt!

  42. Thanks for your post Rossie, this is such a good explanation of Sherri's book, and how the scores 'work'. The book has been in my Amazon wish list for a while now – I think I'll finally get it now. I remember seeing your sweet quilt at QuiltCon, and loving the Lizzy House cats in it – it's so nice to now tie it in with being in the book. Have a good day. Cat x

  44. I love breaking the rules, but even more I love the looks on traditional quilters faces when I do, here hee!

  45. I won a FQ of the cat fabric in a bundle and wondered what any one would make with it and now I know. It looks good in your quilt.

  52. I had an opportunity to participate in this book, and declined. Since seeing some of the great quilts in it, I'm regretting my decision. Thanks for the chance to win the book!

  53. It's amazing how your quilt is so similar to Sherri's. I participated in the challenge, and my end result was totally opposite of her work, lol.

    deb
    ladara @ cfl. rr. com

  57. I am so inspired by what I've seen on this tour! I am loving the scores rather than a strict pattern. I am newish to quilting and I find myself loving patterns, but not really following them for one reason or another– this might just be the perfect balance! Sarah: crjandsbj(at)netzero(dot)com

  59. The Jazz of quilt making 😉 how fun to be able to sew outside the box and create a one of a kind, personal piece of art.

  60. I was lucky to participate in the improv round robin workshop that is featured in the book. I'd love to try some of the other "scores."

  64. I love how you used groups of colors to stand in for single solids! Those stripes are awesome, too.

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