Intuitive Quilts Stories: Relationships in Abstract Piecing

5-day retreat

A practiced improviser observes and is familiar with their intuitive sense of color and their signature cut. Just like us, our line, patterns and colors both evolve and remain essentially authentic.

—Sherri Lynn Wood

Skills & Techniques

• Learn to piece abstractly and improvisationally through a heart centered approach

• Basic ruler free techniques for piecing simple shapes and strips

• Darting on and across the seam when patchwork bubbles

• Ironing strategies to make the most of your line

• Order of sewing / utilizing filler to equalize different size sections

• Improv Composition strategies

• Centering exercise to tap into your presence, emotion, truth and early color memories to create diverse intuitive color characters that carry meaning

• Incorporate rhythm to further define characters

• Tap into meaningful authentic narratives waiting to be told.

Materials

• Fat quarter and similarly sized scraps and/or up to selvage-to-selvage length cuts, in a variety of values, hues, neutrals, shades, tints and brights. I recommend a minimum of 30% solids so the focus stays on the patterns you make and not on the prints, but ultimately it is your choice. There is no fixed amount needed. It all depends on your size goals and your speed. Bring enough to spark your imagination and feel well sourced for a five day retreat.

• Bring at least one fat-quartered size scrap to share with the class.

• Resist the urge to coordinate or “match” your selections with a focus fabric, or with a rigid, predetermined colorway.

• Sustainable sewing practices such as shopping your stash and utilizing found materials is encouraged. Note on washing: If my intention is to wash a quilt made from up-cycled materials, I pre-wash and dry all my materials as I would the finished quilt.

• It’s improv! You will learn something no matter what materials you decide to work with. 

Tools & Supplies

• Large cloth scissors – make sure they are sharp

• Rotary cutter and cutting mat – no ruler necessary

• Seam ripper

• Pins

• Tailors chalk or marking tool

• Sewing machine with neutral medium value thread

• Ironing station

  better grammar

  Innovative, mindful, improvisational quilting as a creative life practice. Restorative, flow sewing, abstract piecing quilts. The brand tone should be described as: innovative.

  Clean grammar. American English.