Something I had been meaning to do.....

Some while back (at least over a year ago, before I moved back to Switzerland) I started taking an interest in modern quilts/quilting.  I think this probably coincided with experimenting more with my free motion quilting as, modern quilts often have more negative space than traditional quilts, leaving lots of space for free motion quilting.

As I love quilting books, I of course added one or two modern quilting books to my collection.  One of these was a delightful book called 'Artful Improv' by Cindy Grisdela which I read from cover to cover and then put to one side meaning to try some of the techniques and ideas.  However, life took over, we moved home, other projects (baby quilts) took priority and I still hadn't tried any of the techniques.

That is until the beginning of 2019.  I had pulled this book out and put it on my list of projects to make in 2019.  I still had some quilting to finish on the last baby quilt which I showed you in my last post but, the idea to try some of the techniques from the book was still there.  Earlier this week I was browsing on the internet (as one does) and found a delightful pillow project on Pinterest, which reminded me of the style of the projects in 'Artful Improv'.  Well, it wasn't surprising as the pillow was a project made by Cindy Grisdela and is a free project from the publishers of the book C&T Publishing.  It felt like the Universe was speaking to me and I just couldn't resist trying the improv piecing and making the pillow.

I even had some similar green fabric in my stash to that which Cindy had used when she made her version.  It was a really fun project and Cindy's instructions are clear and easy to follow, so I didn't have any trouble with the improv piecing or sewing the curves.

The pieced pillow top was nice but, I knew that some quilting would bring it to life.  I added some wavy lines using the walking foot on the machine (as Cindy had done on her pillow) then I just couldn't resist adding some free-motion quilted bubbles.  

The construction of the pillow was a straight-forward envelope back, so that didn't take long and I am now the proud owner of a pretty little improv-style pillow!  I am really thrilled with it!  Now I am keen to try some of the other techniques from Cindy's book!!