Day 4

My mapped-out outline for Day 4, as shown above, was to continue the process of creating additional building blocks. Yet to be explored was the construction of curved pieces. I originally learned how to make these while studying Rayna Gillman’s book Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts: A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design. With the mindset that we should strive to continually learn new things, I decided to explore Cindy’s techniques for curved strips.

Beginning on page 56 she walks her reader through the six easy steps. Each time I have attempted to make these I have grown to better understand the method.

Here are four strips waiting to be sewn together. Its hard to imagine how they can be be stitched but it really works.

This is how the strips looked after they were sewn together and the photo below shows how they looked after being pressed.

Using four different color combinations I was able to end up with eight brand new curved strips.

With the curved strips finally tackled it was time to make a commitment on some of the auditioned fabrics. Shown below are two of the blocks that received new borders.

Mystery QAL Day Four, Borders Added

Mystery QAL Day 4, Another Block with Added Borders

One More Project

Before calling it quits for the day I decided to stitch together one very long strip of pieced fabrics to be used as a building block for future units. When choosing the colors I tried to make certain I used as many of my previously selected fabrics as possible.

Let’s Compare

Day 3 of my Mystery QAL Project

Mystery QAL Day 4, Design Board

The two photos above show a comparison of Day 3 and Day 4’s progress. Day 4 definitely looks more crowded and shows a lot more activity.

Here’s a recap of Day 4 as per my notes.

Did you see the comment labeled #11? I think it’s funny that I thought it was pertinent to include it. Who makes a note about cleaning their iron??? LOL!

Well, that’s it for today! Time to ponder my next moves.

Thank You

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me! I love receiving your comments and interacting with you. Your participation makes this journey more interesting than you could ever imagine. I look forward to each of our visits. 🙂

Talk with you soon!

I’m so excited to share more of my Mystery QAL adventures. I’m using Cindy Grisdela’s book  titled Artful Improv: Explore Color Recipes, Building Blocks & Free-Motion Quilting as a reference. This is Day 3!

A Diary

As you can see from the photo above, by the time Day 3 rolled around I had started keeping notes on my progress. I don’t always immediately share my projects on my blog; without notes and photos I would have a hard time remembering what I did on any given day. Writing about my progress gives me a wonderful opportunity to document my art pieces; to record part of my own history.

These posts are a great place for me to refer back to. I can revisit them at anytime to analyze my outcomes and learn from my disappointments; one could say this is my public diary.

I chose to write my notes on recycled paper. I buy my batting by the roll. As the material unfurls a continuous feed of brown paper accumulates. Rather than toss the paper into a re-cycle bin I roll it up and save it for future use.

When I decided to begin taking notes I thought it would be fun to use the saved paper. So, that’s why you will be seeing most of my notes written on the brown paper. Now back to Day 3.

Day 3

Shared above is a photo of my design wall at the end of Day 3. The board saw many, many versions before I called it a day. The most noticeable changes are the eight filler fabrics I decided to audition. There is one in the top left corner. Just to the right of that is a lime green piece under one of my angled blocks and there is another bright green fabric resting beneath a severed strip from one my angled pieces blocks. I’ll let you find the other five. Also new on the board is three additional improv circle blocks, and a few new angled strip blocks.

Each one of the new additions helped to reinvent my evolving art piece. I was very happy with my progress and so thrilled with the color combinations.

Before we continue lets talk a little bit about the improv circle blocks. The improv circle blocks have turned out to be one of my new-found favorite techniques. I’m so amazed at how four squares of differently colored fabrics can be turned into such interesting designs.

I don’t know why I haven’t thought about using this method to create such interesting circles. Maybe it’s because my focus typically is directed toward angular lines rather than curves. Both, meaning circles and curved lines, if not repeated adequately throughout an original art piece could demand all of the eye’s attention. Typically that is not an artist’s desired outcome. But oh how much impact they can have when used properly.

In the quilt pattern world there are many beautiful quilt blocks. Some of the blocks are labor intensive. In contrast, with the wonky circles it takes relatively very little time to turn squares of fabric into an abstract design. This abstract design adds just as much punch, in my eyes. 🙂 Of course you could say my opinion is ever so slightly slanted toward the abstract direction. 🙂 Don’t get me wrong…I think quilts created from patterns, with specific intended dimensions demand just as much praise as my wonky creations. I just happen to prefer abstract art. Moving on!

Well, that’s it for today! Time to ponder my next moves.

Thank You

Thank you so much for sharing your time with me! I love receiving your comments and interacting with you. Your participation makes this journey more interesting than you could ever imagine. I look forward to each of our visits. 🙂

Talk with you soon!