Quilt It Wright - Part II

Quilt It Wright - Part II
Piecing the quilt top
(part I here )
My improv quilt process inspired by Frank Lloyd Wright and his architecture masterpiece Fallingwater



Improv piecing for me is a process of building and assessing.  I add, step back, and ask myself - is this where I want this to go?  Is it enough?  Too much?  From the beginning of this project I wasn't afraid to add or subtract or go in a new direction.

I started with 7 squares and rectangles that would make up my focal pieces.  I chose a gradation of blues and pieced a section of background around each one.

I built around each block with some of the colors that I discarded as background (see previous post ) but still wanted to use in the quilt. After adding a piece to the block I would put the block back up on the design wall to get an idea of how my quilt was growing and if I wanted to add more to the section, where should I add each piece.  It was a long process, but necessary to see each new addition up on the wall with all the pieces as a whole.

After adding background I began to feel that the whole piece was too busy and going in the wrong direction.  I made a few changes at this point, that I know were the right decision.  This is how an improv piece can grow and change as you work with your fabrics and colors.
(before changes)

(

I eliminated two of the blocks, bringing the total blocks down to 5 and I shifted the top most block to the right side instead of the left.  I am much happier with this layout over the first one.  

I added vertical pieces to the top, to reflect the tall vertical chimneys of Fallingwater.
I also incorporated white horizontal strips, I kept seeing the white balconies of the structure and wanted to see these in the quilt

Above is the top all pieced together 

The last step is to add the tumbling blocks.  I made these from all the different blues of Oakshott I had available.  I added a very lightweight fusible to the back and fused the shapes to the squares.  Early on I had decided to add the fused pieces after I had the top together.  While it would have been easier to add them in the beginning, with so much handling of each block I realized that the lightly fused pieces would be falling off as I built up the quilt top.  

Next up - Quilting!
Thank you for following along on my process

Part I Inspiration HERE
Part III Quilting HERE
Part IV Faced Binding HERE
Part V The Finished Quilt HERE 

Quilt It Wright - Part I

I am going to fill you in on what I've been making in the last few months.  It was a whirlwind of sewing.  I finished a couple of quilts for Quilt Market back in October - which I will show in another post.  This post is about an improv quilt that I had been thinking about from the beginning of the year and finally worked on in September and October.

Part I - Inspiration, Beginning an Improv Quilt

I was inspired by the works of Frank Lloyd Wright, specifically his unique masterpiece Fallingwater 

Mr. Wright had several principles of design he followed:

Open Space

Geometric Shapes

Horizontal Lines

You find all of those elements in Fallingwater - and also in Modern Quilting.  Improv quilting isn't quite the same as Modern quilting - improvisational piecing is a process, it isn't willy nilly, it's bringing together pieces in a unique way that is pleasing in design, maybe following a vision or inspiration you have.  Other quilters might say that improv piecing IS willy nilly, just grabbing and sewing together.  That's not how I would define improv, but to each quilter his own ideas and descriptions.  

For my piece I was first taken by Fallingwater, and then I did some research on FLW - after some research, I put the photos and the readings away and I pulled fabrics.  I didn't want to follow an exact replica of Fallingwater - this is an inspiration piece.  

I used one of my favorite lines for this quilt - Oakshott solids

Although the photos of Fallingwater are not blue - I settled on blues for my color palette.  Blue is not my usual go to color way, but I had it in my mind that blues were what I wanted, so that is where I went.  

And naturally I first picked a color for the background majority of the quilt (the one on the far right) that I only had a FQ of and after searching the internet and a consultation call with Michael Oakshott, realized that the FQ I had was all there was going to be - I had to move on to a different idea for the background. 

Settling on a  new background idea, then sewing together yardage of Oakshott. 

That I hated the moment it went together.
Well hated for this project, I saw potential for another project, and that's how we quilters jump from one thing to another.  

I had to now rework the ideas I had with the fabrics I had available. It wasn't my first option, but I think that you'll agree with what I came out with in the end turned out for the best. I put together rectangles and squares of Oakshott, a gradation of color from dark to light.  

Next: After putting them all on my design wall, I started the process of piecing around each focal piece.

Part II here Piecing
Part III here Quilting
Part IV here Faced Binding
Part V here The Finished Quilt