Welcome to week 2 of the 30-Days of Improv QAL. Last week you tackled cutting freehand and rocked the stripes! Let’s build on these skills by adding some complexity to the angular shapes with L-Shapes. This week, we're excited to be partnering with the Daylight Company, which brings daylight indoors and an exclusive discount just for you (more below)! |
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SHAPE OF THE WEEK: L-SHAPES |
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There’s something special about L-Shapes that connect so perfectly with the concept of improv: you can keep them as straight or wonky as you like, and they encourage you to think about connection (how the elements fit together). Take the time this week to explore all the different ways you can approach L-Shapes to see how you can transform the shape by playing with the scale (think small, medium, and large) and how wonky you can make them! Here’s a visual to get your creative ideas flowing. |
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- Monday – start simple with a basic L-Shape – whatever immediately comes to mind, do that!
- Tuesday – try working on a smaller scale to see how cutting and piecing feels when working with smaller pieces. Tip – use a leader and ender (aka sew a scrap first before sewing your pieces) to help avoid your machine ‘eating’ your fabric!
- Wednesday – embrace the wonk by cutting freehand to see how that impacts your L-Shapes. See how different your blocks look and feel when you avoid keeping things on the straight and narrow.
- Thursday – once you have a block stitched up or parts of a block pieced, try slicing it up and reassembling it in a different layout. What shapes emerge?
- Friday – wild card day! What technique or element do you want to focus on today? Maybe invert your L-Shapes to see what effect that has?!
Remember, the prompts are simply guidelines. We're targeting to make 5 blocks per week, Monday through Friday with the weekends off to recoup. Feel free to make more or less blocks! |
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The general target is 6.5” blocks, but feel free to deviate where you see fit. This is your improv project, and you call the shots! |
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One thing we discussed a lot during last summer’s 30-Days of Improv QAL was how to deal with bubbles, puckers, and wrinkles in our improv patchwork piecing. Our top tip this week to help combat your fabric getting pulled and distorted is to press your seams instead of ironing them! What’s the difference, you ask? Ironing is the back-and-forth motion you use when ironing a shirt, while pressing is lifting and placing your iron down on a spot, leaving it for a few seconds and then lifting it up again and placing it back down in a new spot. Pressing your seams will ensure you don’t distort them by pulling and dragging your fabric the way ironing does. Sometimes bubbles still happen: don’t worry too much as most of this will get smoothed out once you quilt your piece. But if the bubbles are bothering you, you’ve got a couple different options: - Try snipping into the seam allowance (not through your stitches) along the edge of the puckering to see if that helps ease the puckering
- Redo the seam so it lays flatter
- Use the block on a future slice and dice day
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Week 2 is sponsored by the task and quilting lighting solutions company, the Daylight Company. Because the secret sauce to any quilting project is being able to see while stitching! GIVEAWAY DETAILS To be eligible to enter the weekly giveaway prize, you must: This week’s giveaway is open to US, Canadian (excluding QC), UK and EU country residents only due to shipping restrictions. |
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EXCLUSIVE DAYLIGHT COMPANY DISCOUNT |
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The team at Daylight Company has kindly offered you an exclusive discount for 25% off any of the following products in their US and UK websites: Use code SUMMERIMPROV25 to save now through August 12, 2023 at midnight. |
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We love seeing your work pop up on the 'gram and wanted to celebrate your improv exploration by featuring the Stripe blocks that caught our eye this week! |
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Be sure to check out the #30DaysofImprovQAL hashtag to connect with fellow quilters and get in on the improv fun! Until next week, |
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Just joining? Catch up on previous weeks' emails here: |
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