Hello!

I’ve been wanting to try out improvisational quilting techniques for a while now. I decided to watch some YouTube videos and consult some blogs and I settled on starting with something simple, “zippers.” What are “zippers”? They’re slabs of fabric that have been cut and reassembled to resemble what I’d call an actual zipper with zipper teeth. I think there are other names for this technique but a zipper is what it looks like to me. A quick search on Pinterest led to some pins on this technique if you’re looking for more info.

Here is a quick photo of the finished test. Notes: they’re big which would be fine if I was making a larger wall hanging or quilt but I would need a lot more of them. The second thing is that I used a fabric that frays and unravels easily so it didn’t go as planned. There’s lots of threads hanging off and that seems to bother me a little bit. Don’t like the colors but I pulled random fabric scraps out of a drawer.

Going forward on my next version of this, I’m going to cut strips a little smaller and try solid colors. I think black and white would show good contrast and accentuate the design elements.

I’m starting to try out different improv techniques. My goal is to work on a technique for 3-4 days in the evenings and work my way through a variety of techniques. I’m trying to spend 30 minutes or less each day. It doesn’t seem like a lot but at times, that’s the time I have to spare. Monday night I spent about 15-20 minutes on cutting, sewing, and pressing. Because of time constraints, I won’t be doing tutorial style blog posts with lots of pictures of each technique.

I’d like to develop a vocabulary, of sorts, of different types of improv so I can go off on my own adventure creating larger wall hangings without set patterns. I hope my journey inspires or is informative to you.

Happy creating!

Camille