Improv Floating Squares 1: Score 1

This arrived last Friday:

Sherri Lynn Wood's Improve Handbook for Modern Quilters - my copy and my tools!

after dithering over whether or not to buy it since it's arrival on the market was announced, I finally raided my piggy bank, and I'm so glad I did. This book is crammed full of useful suggestions for organising improv. This was the biggest problem for me I think; I would just start without having considered where I was going, or setting myself limits. I still don't know where it all will lead, but at least I'm not thinking totally open-ended any more.

Following the suggestions in Score 1, I made this 19" x 17" piece.

Score 1: Floating Squares 19" x 17"

The colours are dark red, orange and a cream/yellow; the latter doesn't show up to well in the photo. I set myself the limit of a 20" square, but when I ran out of dark red completely - not a square inch left in my stash - decided to call it a day.

The only tools I used were cutting mat, rotary cutter, scissors, and finger pressing tool (to give my arthritis a break!) All the cutting was freehand, but I did use the lines on the cutting mat as visual guides. I was surprised how quickly I got used to working this way, and while not perfect, a deviation of one eighth of an inch I find acceptable. However it does result in wonky "squares" and when there are two together the deviation is obvious. Next time I have to pay more attention to the orientation of wonky pieces before I stitch them together.

I haven't squared up yet because I'm considering continuing by using the same filler fabric and orange and pink squares as a transition to pink and ... what? I don't know yet; we'll see! At the moment I'm just thinking about what I will do with this if I do stop here.

I enjoyed this exercise enormously and found it so much more satisfying than following a pattern. Who cares about wonkiness? It's liberated wonkiness!

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Happy Sewing

Marly.