Sunday, February 18, 2018

Improv Day 1

I certainly didn't start the day out thinking I would be making something totally improv, but that is exactly what happened!   There I was just sewing along on a project (that I can't share yet) when I got tired of that and started playing with scraps.

Last July I won a box of scraps from Myra at Busy Hands Quilts.  Her scraps are so much more interesting than mine!  I started with this 5 inch scrap . . .

Added some leftover binding Myra used on something. 
And now we have this . . .

I love this yellow and blue floral.  Does anybody recognize it and know what line it is from?  I'm not really very creative, I just keep adding fabric in rounds.  Next round was this . . .

Then I didn't know what to do next and my eye was caught by some other scraps and I started sewing those together . . .   The pieces with black in them were exactly those sizes and the lighter floral was in a long strip so I cut up the long strip for a kind log cabin effect.  LOVE these colors!   

I just noticed that there are pink flowers all in a row.  I should have flipped those around a little bit more.  Oh well.  Moving on . . .

This was a random block I sewed together after something else had to be trimmed while making one of my bee blocks.  I've had it for a while.  I figured it would get used somewhere . . .

I added an extra strip to one side of the pink and gray block so it would fit up against the log cabin . . .  Starting to look more improvy and not so symmetrical.

Now that those two sections are sewn together, I added another low volume strip with gray in it to the bottom of this piece.

OK, back to the scrap heap!  I found three rows of little squares already sewn together so I just made them into a 9-patch.  I didn't get the corners matched up the greatest, but that's ok.  Close enough!

I had some pretty gray scraps with touches of turquoise so I took those and just wrapped them around three sides of the 9-patch . . .  I was trying to sew with the scraps as I found them and not cut them up too much.

Now I'm going to put these two sections together . . . except the log cabin section isn't quite long enough to go with the other one so I sewed a few crumbs together and added them to the right side to make it long enough . . .

Now here they are all together!   I'm loving these colors!


And last but not least Myra's lovely scrap box had some AWESOME fabric (I think maybe Amy Butler?) to put a perfect border around this to make a doll quilt.

There is a fun story behind this doll quilt.   I get most of my blog notifications via e-mail and I was getting way behind on reading them.  So I decided I was just going to delete all the e-mails I hadn't read yet so I could be caught up.  There were 100 or so that were going to be deleted.  For some reason, and I can't even remember why, I decided to click on this post from Bernie at Needle & Foot Fine Fabrics.  I think I was supposed to.

Thanks to Bernie, I learned about a wonderful lady named Amy Jandrisevits owner and creator of A Doll Like Me who makes dolls for children who might possibly be missing a limb or have some other unique characteristic about them and she makes dolls that look the the child.  Bernie had the idea to collect doll quilts to send to her that she could send to the child along with the doll she makes for them.  If you want to read in more detail about A Doll Like Me, please read Bernie's blog post and join in the event she was inspired to start called Share the Love, Quilting for Kids. 

So far, I've just got the top put together but it's basted and ready to quilt!  Maybe I'll have a finished quilt to show you in a few days.  What are you going to do with the first block you started making you ask?   I have no idea! It did kind of get abandoned, didn't it?  It possibly might be the base for another doll quilt!

I can't wait to see all the quilts that get made for this event.  There are already quite a few and you can view them on Instagram at #adolllikeme.  I'll be adding mine there soon!

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8 comments:

  1. It is so lovely to just drop everything and play, sounds like you really enjoyed it, made something so worthwhile, and, I don't believe this, but improvised, yipeeeeee!!!!!! It's a lovely little doll quilt Janice, can't wait to see how you quilt it.

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  2. Looks like you had TOO much fun playing in Myra's box of scraps!! I hear you, though. Other people's scraps are way more interesting than our own!

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  3. Cute doll quilt! I read about the drive for doll quilts and hope to sew up one or two soon. It looks like you had great fun playing with scraps!

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  4. Hi, Janice! What a wonderfully pretty doll quilt! I wish my improv blocks turned out so nice!

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  5. Oh, these fabrics are just perfect for a sweet little doll quilt! I love that you just let the improv muse whisper in your ear. It turned out great! I can't wait to see how you quilt it up :)

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  6. Wow! what a great charity! Love your little quilt and it's always good to take a breather from a big quilt (especially on a deadline). Hope it's going well!

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  7. Janice, this is lovely. The florals and the colors are really pretty - well done. I have been having a blast making these tiny quilts too. Thank you so much for thinking of Amy's kiddos and contributing to the doll quilt drive. Can't wait to see how your finish this up. :-)

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I LOVE meeting new quilting friends and always respond to comments so I'd love to hear from you!