Floating Squares Quilt-Along

4 hrs / Beginner & All Levels

Experience the freedom and joy of creative flow while learning basic ruler-free piecing techniques. Learn how to set and implement algorithms or procedures that allow you to improvise without overthinking. The Score For Floating Squares featured in The Improv Handbook For Modern Quilters is a great place to start for those new to improv quilting, more experienced improvisers will push the basic score through variations in scale.

How does it feel to work big and take up space, or to explore the intimacy of tiny-small? What conversation takes place when different scales interact in the same quilt? —Sherri Lynn Wood

Skills & Techniques

• Basic ruler & template free piecing and cutting techniques.

• Darting fixes on and across the seam when patchwork doesn’t lie flat.

• Learn composition strategies and order of sewing, utilizing filler to equalize different size sections.

• Learn how to set limits and implement procedures or algorithms to cultivate flow, freedom and spontaneity.

• Improvise in your comfort zone.

• Experience the joy of improvising without overthinking.

• Enjoy celebrating “mistakes” & letting go of perfection.

• Make-do with your scraps.

• Explore scale and value shifts.

• Evaluate your surprises, discoveries, satisfactions and overcome challenges, in a non-judgmental format.

Materials

• Scraps of all sizes and a fat quarter amount of filler fabric or more.

• If you run out of a particular fabric, no worries, it’s an opportunity to make a substitution.

• Sustainable sewing practices such as shopping your stash and utilizing found materials is encouraged. Note on washing: If my intention is to wash a quilt made from up-cycled materials, I pre-wash and dry all my materials as I would the finished quilt.

• It’s improv! You will learn something no matter what materials you decide to work with. 

  Note on washing: If my intention is to wash a quilt made from up-cycled materials, I pre-wash all my materials, if they haven’t been washed recently.

Tools & Supplies

• Large cloth scissors – make sure they are sharp

• Rotary cutter and cutting mat – no ruler necessary

• Seam ripper

• Pins

• Tailors chalk or marking tool

• Sewing machine

• Ironing station