Monday, September 3, 2007

Improvisational Quilts

A lot of people are teaching the improvisational method of quiltmaking. It all started after Nancy Crow showed us Anna Williams' quilt tops at QSDS. They were hanging all around one of the rooms and we were all drawn to them. Of course later there were the Gee's Bend quilts. The freedom of the random piecing and the joyful colors are wonderful.

I have a group of art quilters who meet at my house every 5-7 weeks. We decided to do our own version of how it is done. This is the piece I made.
Close up of the quilting in the center of the quilt.

I quilted each different color patch with a different design, so all of the red patches are quilted alike, all the lime green ones are alike, etc. (Click on picture for larger view)

Because of all of the curved seams which didn't usually match the piece they attached to, the quilt did not lay flat. However once it is layered on the batting, I could just move my hand in a circular motion to flatten the top down and it quilted just fine.

5 comments:

Tonya Ricucci said...

Wow, that's wonderful. I've been lucky enough to see some of Anna Williams quilt tops and several of the Cargo collection of African-American quilts from primarily Alabama. all wonderful and one common denominator? wobbly. And (for the most part) it just doesn't matter.

Joyce said...

I love this wonky quilt. Did you hand quilt it? I like the idea of doing each color differently.

meggie said...

Wow! I love the colours! The quilting! It is fabulous.

Quiltdivajulie said...

I JUST LOVE IT - everything, from the colors to the quilting... IT IS WONDERFUL!!!!

Chaska Peacock said...

I love Anna Williams's quilts. I wish someone would republish her book!!! I can't afford the out of print book is offered for.

Mai-Liis Peacock
http://www.Mai-Liis.com