Improv Paper Piecing: A Modern Approach to Quilt Design

Description

Love to create repeating blocks in your quilts but tired of the same patterns? Step away from the ordinary and try your hand at a new technique-based approach to improvisation. Gorgeous photographs illustrate 10 beautiful projects where Amy Friend seamlessly bridges the gap between improvised design and technical execution. Discover a unique approach to creating one-of-a-kind blocks with guided exercises that explore scale, symmetry and alternate gridwork. Then, with Amy's help, you'll have the opportunity to design your own patterns. You really can have a dash of the unexpected through improv with the precision of paper piecing and still create those secondary patterns we all love in quilts made using traditional blocks. With a modern spin, Improv Paper Piecing gracefully guides the reader, step-by-step, through improvisationally designing your own paper piecing patterns to strategically setting the grid - so that the end result is a masterful, unique quilt of repeated blocks. If you're looking for a fun exciting challenge, the party is here. Step over and stitch outside the box. AUTHOR: Amy Friend is an award-winner quilter and a former museum curator. A member of the Modern Quilt Guild, Amy enjoys paper piecing and modern quilt design. She blogs at www.duringquiettime.com. Her first book, Intentional Piecing: From Fussy Cutting to Foundation Piecing, was published in May, 2016. SELLING POINTS: 52 weeks of prompts to challenge quilters of every level Fun and interactive consumable annual Great for gifting! The first diary in the popular journaling market

Amy Friend is an award-winner quilter and a former museum curator. A member of the Modern Quilt Guild, Amy enjoys paper piecing and modern quilt design. She blogs at www.duringquiettime.com.

How do you create impact in a simple way? Paper piecing is a traditional quilting method whilst improvisational paper piecing takes that idea and turns it modern. You can now simply create one of a kind blocks to design your own quilts with stunning effects. This book shows exercises to explore scale, symmetry and grids to create contemporary quilts. An approach to design that will work for most producing repeatable patterns by thinking of the secondary shapes created by block design. It's a bit like drawing negative space instead of the object itself. The exercises are very good and Amy walks you through the whole process. An excellent book for those who love to play with design. Fabric selection, design ideas and templates are all included. * yarnsandfabrics.co.uk * I was excited to get my hands on this book having seen quite a buzz about it in Blog-land for a couple of months. Amy is a former museum curator and trained art historian who has designed for the likes of Art Gallery Fabrics and Sizzix as well as well as quilting, sewing and raising her three children. (Have you noticed how generally clever and multi-talented quilters tend to be? There's a pattern forming here...let's discuss). In Improv Paper Piecing Amy sets out to combine two approaches to quilt making that are seemingly at odds with one another. One reviewer even described the book's title as an oxymoron. Improvisational quilting relies on a journey of instinct and experimentation with unpredictable and sometimes startling results, whilst paper piecing is a much more mathematical process relying on accuracy and pre-planning. To marry the two, Amy has set one simple guideline, which is that the quilter needs to have straight stitching lines and a sewable order. In doing this, it's possible to sew asymmetrical shapes, pieces cut on the bias, and hard to measure acute angles. She uses sketches to create improvisational designs and encourages her readers to doodle using interlocking squares or stacking triangles that can later be neatened up into block designs. There are 12 quilt designs that you can follow with playful names such as 'A little to the Left' and 'Wonky' that might suggest a rather haphazard end result but fear not, the designs are asymmetrical variations of traditional blocks. You won't be totally thrown in at the deep end as templates are provided for all of the quilt projects but Amy's ultimate aim is that you use her guidance to create your own works of art. This is a good-looking book with photography throughout by guess who? Amy herself. Now back to our earlier discussion... * Popular Patchwork *