‘Polygon’ has a very broad definition:
noun
- 1.a plane figure with at least three straight sides and angles, and typically five or more.
So basically a straight sided shape with at least three sides.
On Sunday I received the explanatory email with the Week 2 prompts from Amanda and Shannon. I watched their reels on IG taking note that the initial shapes they were exploring were freehand squares and rectangles. That was a relief! Not too complicated – when I saw ‘polygon’ I was immediately thinking hexagons, parallelograms (get me and my GCSE maths!) and all manor of many-sided shapes!
Here’s the photo record of my second week of improv (I’ve copied the daily prompts in red).
- Monday – pick the first polygon shape that captures your interest (don’t overthink it!). Get comfortable cutting and piecing those gentle angles.
No deep thought process involved, I just decided five sided pentagons would be my polygon of choice (for Day 1 at least!).
In avoiding Y-Seams I ended up surrounding my freehand pentagon Log Cabin style.
- Tuesday – try working on a smaller scale to see how cutting and piecing feels when working with smaller pieces. Tip – use a leader and ender (aka sew a scrap first before sewing your pieces) to help avoid your machine ‘eating’ your fabric!
I was a bit fearful of going too small after my trials with bulky seams in Wk 1… But I managed it on a second attempt…
I cut my little turquoise pentagon in half and stitched it back together with a strip of white between. The centre pentagon measures 1-3/8ths inch at it’s widest.
I wasn’t enjoying the process or the results until I took a look at the close-up photo above. I like the way the dissected turquoise pentagon was reformed by the white strip to re-create the original shape and two new turquoise shapes – one four sided and the other actually five-sided (just).
- Wednesday – embrace the wonk by exaggerating the angles of your polygons. See how different your blocks look and feel when you avoid keeping things on the straight and narrow.
I cut ‘pointy’ pentagons through all five fabrics at once. I liked the shapes but didn’t feel moved to do anything with them or to them!
- Thursday – once you have a block stitched up or parts of a block pieced, try slicing it up and reassembling it in a different layout. What shapes emerge?
I sliced each pentagon in half through different angles and stitched a strip between them. Surprised to find a hexagon emerge from one of them.
- Friday – details are fun, but too much of a good thing isn’t always good. Try incorporating some breathing space into your composition. What element do you want the focus to be on?
My blocks and left over shapes. I concentrated on drawing attention to the polygons but realise I’m fighting against too many prints.
End of Week 2 Conclusion: The short version – I really have no idea what I’m doing or what Improv Patchwork is! The longer version – I feel very uncomfortable trying to be artistic – I’m a crafter NOT an artist – so this whole improv thing is making me feel a fraud. I’m sure I’m barely touching on the art of improv. I still seem to be chopping up fabric to make Crazy Patchwork blocks rather than contemplating elements of my ‘design’ before auditioning, adding, chopping or rearranging.
Hmm! The blocks are on my design wall. They may grow on me or, come the end of the 30 Days, I may be relieved to throw them all in the bin and go fondle my rulers!
Can you recommend any books or improv patch-workers to follow on social media? Maybe I will begin to understand what it’s all about and how to ease into imrpov?
Allison
I am not an improv sewist so I can’t offer help in that department. However, stretching your comfort zone and trying new things does bring growth, and you find out what you like and what you don’t like. You learn more about design, and color, and technique, and you come to admire those who excel in an area that you don’t particularly care for. You are training your artist’s eye. Something that you learn by this may actually be used as a crossover to the kind of creativity that you do enjoy. 🙂
Thanks Laura. I feel a bit like I’m wasting my time (and fabric!) but going through the process of learning is a good thing. And as you say even if this branch of patchwork-quilting turns out not to be my thing I’m learning to appreciate the effort and thought that others give to improv and the experience will be of benefit in the creative choices I make with future projects.
Hi Allison,
The very first quilt I ever finished had scrappy improv blocks in it made by randomly sewing together scraps – then I cut them into blocks and added “normal” cut blocks to them. I reckoned that with the whole thing being odd leftovers, it didn’t matter if I went wrong and had to chuck the whole thing out. But it worked.
Having said that, I’ve only just finished my third quilt so what do I know?
But more to the point – an improv quilter I find very inspiring is Debbie of “A Quilter’s Table”. Some of her quilts I’m just in awe of, but sometimes she uses an idea that makes me think “I could try that”. For example, a recent x-block looks possible and even achievable in the prints that I prefer (I’m not really into solids).
Thanks for your encouraging message Caroline. It’s good to find inspiration from other creatives. I’ll definitely look up Debbie – thanks for the recommendation 🙂