Improv Mashup Scrap Play

1-Day 6hrs / All Levels

Nurture your spontaneity! Interrupt fixed-pattern design habits of sameness, symmetry and coordination to discover new aesthetic pathways through mismatch and the unexpected. We will accomplish this with a playful series of timed sewing sessions to create spontaneous patchwork segments guided by randomly chosen prompts. Learn how to juxtapose diverse outcomes into single dynamic composition and experience how abstract narratives are surprisingly revealed when patterns collide.

Draw on your entire lexicon of patterns to create a composition populated with narratives that show up and relate in unpredictable yet beautifully human ways through the fissure where differences meet. —Sherri Lynn Wood

Skills & Techniques

Basic ruler free piecing, template free curve piecing and strip-piecing techniques.
Darting fixes on and across the seam when patchwork doesn’t lie flat.
Practice spontaneous piecing working with a time limit.
Consider the range of prompts and limits of quiltmaking, such as shape, color, aspects of design and poetic prompts, as a way to structure and direct improv quilting compositions.
Order of sewing and utilizing filler to equalize different size sections
Centering exercise to harness your presence, emotion and truth.
Composition strategies for harmonizing diverse pattern segments into a single abstract quilt story.
Evaluation process to learn and incorporate surprises, discoveries, satisfactions and overcome challenges.
Experience creative flow through play, and relinquishing control.

Materials

Bring scraps of all sizes and colors in a variety of values, neutrals, shades, tints, brights. I recommend 50% solids so the focus stays on the patterns you make and not on the prints, but ultimately it is your choice. There is no fixed amount needed. It all depends on your personal scale, tempo, and size goals.
Resist the urge to coordinate or “match” your fabric selections with a focus fabric, or with a rigid, predetermined colorway.
Bring scraps to share with the class.
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.