Tag: Improv Round Robin

BAMQG Round Robin – Rhonda

As I mentioned the other day, I had Rhonda’s piece and I worked on it very quickly, then sent it off to Cheryl.

Rhonda's IRR piece - November 21, 2015
Rhonda’s IRR piece – November 21, 2015

When I got it from Rhonda, it was getting to be quite curvy. There is a lot of nice piecing and I did not want to touch the bottom portion (ignore my slippered feet!) as I didn’t want to ruin anything.

I took a leaf out of the notebook I used in a class at Fort Mason. Sonya Lee Barrington taught a beginning quilt class and one of the techniques I learned was called “Curved Strip Piecing.”

Rhonda's IRR with my signature fabric
Rhonda’s IRR with my signature fabric

I laid the piece over my signature fabric and cut along the edge. I made quick hash marks across the two fabrics and pinned them together. It made it easier to sew the curve, which came out mostly flat. My addition came out super bold. I hope people know they can cut off my signature fabric.

My contribution to Rhonda's IRR
My contribution to Rhonda’s IRR

For the rest of my addition, I used some piecing that was already done. I added some more and then sewed what I made to the piece.

I would have never thought to put half a piece on to someone else’s round robin, but I saw Michelle do it and decided it would fit with my timeframe. Again, I used some curved strip piecing to help make the piece fit.

BAMQG IRR Update

I the original idea for this IRR was to exchange the pieces at the meeting. Our group has been exchanging like crazy for the past two months. I have worked on several as you might remember from the series of blog posts.

I think it was the first time our group had been together since the initial start. We looked at all the pieces and traded them around. Some people changed their boxes to bags for easier mailing. We took the opportunity to exchange IRRs again and we got to see the work that has been done on the various pieces of our IRR exchange.

My IRR piece - November 21, 2015
My IRR piece – November 21, 2015

I was thrilled when I saw the work on my own piece. People used the solid turquoise as a background, which was my intention. This gives the whole piece a cohesive look. It is also mostly a square and getting to be quite large. I think I I’d like this piece to be in the bed-sized range.

People have not continued the Flying Geese after the first round or two, which is a little disappointing. There are a lot of rectangles, which I know are much easier than anything else. Hope springs eternal.

Michelle matched the motifs on the pink and blue fabrics in the left middle area beautifully.

Diana's IRR - November 21, 2015
Diana’s IRR – November 21, 2015

I was very pleased with the work I did on Diana’s. I saw that round motif and couldn’t get away from the idea of fussy cutting it. I wanted to make it more elaborate, but I waited until the the morning of the meeting. I made a cutting mistake, which kind of prevented me from doing what I wanted. I am also not sure my skills were up to the task. Diana loved what I did to her piece, which pleased me.

Rhonda's IRR piece - November 21, 2015
Rhonda’s IRR piece – November 21, 2015

Rhonda had her piece at the meeting so I grabbed it. She has tried to jump to another group, but we aren’t letting her go. I am supposed to send her piece to Cheryl after I am done. Other Club Doodlers are clamoring, so we will have to see.

BAMQG IRR Progress

More progress has happened on the BAMQG Improv Round Robin. I worked on Cindy’s and then handed it off to Michelle. Jen posted in the guild forum that she worked on mine.

Cindy's IRR Before
Cindy’s IRR Before

The first thing I did with Cindy’s was look through all of the fabric she provided with the piece sitting next to me.

I thought it had a lot going on. I decided to use the turquoise solid (shown at left) as the background with my signature fabric to continue the Flying Geese motif already used a couple of times by other contributors. With a vague plan in place, I got busy cutting and piecing.

The piece I made was a little too short so I added a pink square. There was a  pink solid in the group of fabrics, so I used that.

Cindy's IRR After
Cindy’s IRR After

I really did, mostly, cut without a ruler, but my piece looks very precise compared to the rest of the sections. I know that my arm injury is affecting my cutting. Mostly I have to rotary cut much slower and, apparently that equals more precision.

I like my part. It balances the turquoise on the left side and the Flying Geese do bring repetition and continuity to the piece.

This is also a good exercise in what I can do in 20 minutes. I am not counting cutting, because of the injury, but sewing and designing. I think looking at the fabrics first was a good thing to do. I think it helped jumpstart my process.

My IRR after Jen's work
My IRR after Jen’s work

Jen posted about my piece. Michelle had worked on it and made it into a L. I was a little concerned about that, but only a little. I knew my Club Doodle (the name of our group) pals would come through for me. Jen did with flying colors.

It is still keeping that turquoise background feel, which I am happy about. There are more Flying Geese, which I am also happy about.

I am also glad that the Queen Street fabric is finally getting its day in court.

In terms of administration, I have worked on Jen’s, Michelle’s, and now Cindy’s. I feel like I have worked on more of them, but, perhaps, that is because I also worked on mine. I need to work on Claire’s, Diana’s and Rhonda’s.

More IRR

As mentioned the other day, the IRR is going well. I worked on Michelle’s piece on Saturday. It is, as also mentioned, a 20 minute exercise, so I worked on it early and got it finished.

Michelle's IRR Start
Michelle’s IRR Start

I started with Michelle’s piece, by putting it on the wall and looking at it for a few days. That tactic would have worked better if I had taken a look at the fabrics she included. 😉

I decided, however, that I was going to work on it on Saturday and get it out of my hair.

I did loosen up a bit on Michelle’s. Even I can admit that mine was a bit more uptight than improv. I guess that is part of the process.

Once again, I have a shortage of design wall space. I really think I need a whole room with movable design walls all over it. OR I need to clear my mind of the jumble of projects in it. My mind is an insane mess right now.

Michelle's IRR with my contribution
Michelle’s IRR with my contribution

I should have balanced the piece out by putting my contribution on the bottom, but I wanted to continue those dark solid lines. I really do like the strips of bright. the top of the piece is very happy.

It is headed off to Jen next.

IRR Start etc

The other day I wrote about the Improv Round Robin, starting from the middle rather than the beginning.

The details of this round robin can be found in a blog post on the BAMQG site and in the book by Sherri Lynn Wood called the Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters.

IRR Start
IRR Start

The basic idea is that you spend 20 minutes on each round, including the start. I had to pick out fabrics and a signature fabric. I used Queen Street by Jennifer Paganelli and my signature fabric is a Philip Jacobs. You can see my signature fabric on the bottom of my starting piece.

The signature fabric is a fabric that we add to each piece we work on to know that we worked on it. I just had to use a Philip Jacobs as it is uniquely distinct to me. Many of the other modern quiltmakers don’t use Philip Jacobs fabrics that I have seen.

Wanting to try for a piece that was not square, I made my piece long and thin. Cutting is difficult for me at the moment, so I gave myself a bit more time on that piece, but then sewed like a demon so as not to break too much of the rules.

I kept looking at the Flying Geese TFQ and I have been exchanging. I decided to incorporate some of them into this piece, but the rest are just squares and rectangles. The solid is supposed to be the background.

IRR Start with Michelle's work
IRR Start with Michelle’s work

Michelle was kind enough to send me a photo of my start since I, apparently, forgot to take a photo of it.  She also sent a photo of what she added to the piece, so I can see how it is progressing.

I like that more of the Flying Geese have been incorporated.

 

IRR

I joined the Improv Round Robin at the last BAMQG meeting. I was really busy last week and didn’t get my stuff together until the morning of the meeting. I forgot the crucial thing: my starter piece. DUH! Fortunately everyone is really nice and I wasn’t the only one. I took Jen’s piece to work on and Michelle and I met near my house and we exchanged starters.

Jen's IRR Piece
Jen’s IRR Piece

After the meeting last Saturday, I came home and worked on Jen’s piece.

I thought there was no possible way she could have made her piece in 20 minutes (more on that later) until I saw that some of her piece looks like piecing, but is really part of the fabric. So that was her trick. 😉

I added the bottom, which I curved on one end to give someone else the opportunity to do some curved piecing. They may just cut it off or do an angle, which is OK, too.

One of the things about this project is that we each have to have a signature fabric that we add to all of the pieces. I had to use a Philip Jacobs print! It is the green and purple fabric on the right hand side. We are assured that everything will go together just fine.

Jen's IRR piece before trimming
Jen’s IRR piece before trimming

I added some more piecing at the curve, but cut it off. You can see what I did in the bottom photos.

You can see the kind of wonky piecing, which is what inspired me to cut off the end. I added the left side as well.

While I was trying to decide what to do, I pieced some strips of Jen’s fabric together. I ended up just putting them in the bin without using them. I kind of like the thought of adding something that someone can springboard off of.