Cottagecore improv blocks

I am a member of the European/Dutch circle of do. Good Stitches. We collaborate on charity quilts throughout the year and donate them to various good causes. Now we’re starting a new quilt again after the summer break. The assignment? Improv Floating Squares blocks, as inspired by the first score of The Improv Handbook for Modern Quilters. 

Do you remember this quilt? Probably not! I made it way back in 2015, when Sherri Lynn Wood’s book had recently been released. My quilt is also based on the Floating Squares concept. It is the book’s first improv prompt and a nice way to start with improv patchwork piecing. Definitely a good choice for a bee block.

We have been asked to make blocks using two solid colors, plus white fabric as the filler fabric. Our palette is called Cottagecore, from Dragonfly Ave. Luckily I have some suitable soft and dusty fabrics in my scrap drawers. The peach and blue shades are yarn-dyed wovens, so the colors are more complex in real life.

I began with large pieces of scrap fabric and mostly small pieces of white scrap squares. I’ll be making two blocks in total: one that uses peach and tan as the colors and one that uses yellow and blue as the colors.

I experimented with two different improv piecing approaches. With the yellow/blue block, I began by sewing the large scrap pieces together. Then I cut the pieced unit in random widths and began re-arranging, while adding white fabric. With the tan/peach block, I began by cutting the peach and tan fabrics into random squares and rectangles. Then I sewed them together with white scraps, simply looking for pieces that were approximately the same size.

Ta da, the finished blocks! Do you prefer one over the other?

I am more fond of the peach/tan version, as it has a more random feeling. With the yellow/blue block it wasn’t until I took this picture that I realized that the yellow/blue divide at the center of the block is almost continuous. But I won’t mess with it. That’s the thing about improv - you have to let it happen. Mistakes are just momentary disappointments that might show themselves to be something special at a later stage.

Happy weekend, all!