Two ways to do Improvisational design... First Curvy then boxy...

I sewed some this week. Sewed like a dervish. Even Milo's antics were ignored.

All sewing was improv.

For me, there are two ways to sew as you go... one involves sewing free cut curves with oddly shaped pieces. I did that with the green scraps.

 The other is fitting in hard edge shapes, like squares, rectangles and triangles together, and I used that technique with my ocean scraps. To me, that's more like putting a puzzle together.

 Both ways are fun.

With curves I use all the odd shapes so it's a bit more like a mosaic. And the curves lend themselves to organic work, like flowers and landscapes.

I start both styles the same way, by sorting through my small scraps. Seems easier to start with little pieces.This time I found some pre-sewn sections to start with and began by laying the bits out, sorting by tone, seeing what might work together. Moving things around... sew a little, regroup...

I wanted to do a green landscape, so I decided to do strips at the top like trees or grasses, and small odd pieces at the bottom like forest floor. This time I stayed with light greens for some reason. It could have benefited from some darker pieces in the bottom, and the image is washed out so it does have more variation than it looks.
You can see I am sorting it to fit together eventually. I do not plan beyond that. I keep the wrinkled little odd shapes to one side and pull them out if they might fit in somewhere.

I love how lines can join up, like the curve near the right bottom continued into the next insert. Random surprises.

Color and texture.
considering how it might eventually be squared off, I like forming it on my grid mat.

sewing a line, then moving groups around to balance the color. The strips were smaller on that left side, so I put together two sections to make them longer.

That line becomes a hard design element, and eventually I ended up inverting the whole section so the hard line was closer to the strong  horizontal line joining the forest floor to the trees.

 Still, the process is the same. sew a few pieces, lay them back in the puzzle, sew some more.

While I was doing that, I also made three small squares... and thought to join them in another work.

Recognize the top left piece I started with some days ago?? it has now been turned on it's side since I added in a tiny grouping that looked like mountains. The tree I was building became more like shadow, and I am going to insert a trunk to the side. I have to integrate the three tones, I saw emerge, probably with some little raw edge applique pieces just sewn to the top and allowed to fray.

I'll do that during the quilting process.
Do you like the avocado green strip along the top of the forest scene? I love the tone, but am not sure about it, so it's not sewn in yet.

I also made another dresden, with dark green.

I turned to a bag of ocean fabric scraps leftover from making two ocean quilts. I have so many pretty and some whimsical ocean prints of every color. This was all in a little bag inside the turquoise scrap bin.

The pieces were mostly hard straight edged. So I started fitting them together on the mat... til they formed a large rectangle, wider than long. Then I start sewing one to another, and seeing if it fits in with another section... keep going, move them around, sew some triangles around a little fish block...

triangles to triangles, polar bears to crabs to turtles to fish...
 It's so different from sewing the weird shaped ones to each other. It's still fun, putting the puzzle together, building sections to find they fit almost perfectly to the other sections. Big pieces like the top right turtle, next to little shards of others.

I loved putting a triangle onto a strip, just to blunt the edge a little, seeing if I could merge some colors. To me it looks like a glass kaleidoscope when the little pieces fall into place.

I have very few pieces left now, it's all sewn into something about 24" X 30"
It is ready to quilt, and I think it could use a focus so maybe some thread lace fan coral??? Maybe one fish tail applique swimming off? Or a seahorse??

I was happy to see flamingos in here, and the mermaids fit along two sides. I had only a 2 1/2 " strip of them. I like the crazy frogs, and dolphins and fish wearing snorkels. That big whale near the center.
 I know it's a mish mash of color and print but I kind of like it.
I usually do a whimsical portrait or statement quilt. Recognizable images. Working in an abstract, improvisational way is very different for me, and I find it really engages my design sense.

You have to close the door to the inner censor.
Ignore her knocking and whispers that it's of no use, and possibly ugly.
Keep going through the moments when it has no focus or meaning.
Remember angles are interesting in a finished piece.
Stand back and look at it after a little trip to the kitchen for a glass of water.
Don't be afraid to move a section around or discard it.
Enjoy the rotary cutter. Embrace the unknown. Form a tight bond with your sewing machine.

linking to
http://www.myquiltinfatuation.com/
Esther's blog Wednesdays 
http://www.sillymamaquilts.com  
Let's be social Wednesdays 
Midweek makers wednesdays
 Free motion by the River Tuesdays   
https://stitchallthethings.com/ to do Tuesday 
https://fretnotyourself.blogspot.com/ (where you'll find others working improvisationally)
design wall Mondays at smallquiltsanddollquilts
lovelaughquilt.mondays
Main Crush Monday
the mop link party mondays
sew can do mondays