Improv sampler

My first attempt at improv quilting

I’ve been sniffing around books and blog posts about improvisational quilting. If you don’t know what that means, it’s about quilting with intuition, rather than with a pattern or fixed outcome.

The thing I am finding is my ingrained idea of quilting is harder to break through than I thought it would be. Seems I am more rotary cutter and repeated patterns than I thought!

When I first started quilting - or patchwork as it was called back then - I hand-stitched a sampler quilt. With each 12½” block I learned a new technique. This was a great way to modulate my learning and something I plan to repeat as I approach the new modern quilting skills.

My plan is to make Tula Pink’s City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt blocks and slowly break through my need to rule the quilt with my ingrained ways. Each block is a manageable 6½” which might be achievable in one sitting… or famous last words.

I am well known for starting things and not finishing them. 100 blocks is a tall order and it’s HIGHLY unlikely I will stay the course. But I know what I will do, I will learn from.

So whether I end up with a bed quilt, throw, cot quilt or table runner, cushion cover or mug rug, I’m gonna start this project this with the first of Tula’s squares: the cross.