Project Improv Blocks

About 5 weeks ago, I signed up for Project Improv. It's a group effort to make improv quilted blocks and the create quilts to donate out of the individual blocks. I said I'd make a blue/green block and today I made 3 of them. I'll send them off to Jacqui tomorrow, but in the meantime I'll show them to you.

It was my second time making improv blocks (see the results of my first time here), and it's a fun and relaxing way to quilt. This time, I got out my scrap box, plucked out the blues and greens, and got started. None of the blocks ended up looking like my mental vision when I began, and that's a good thing. You'll see that several of the same fabrics show up in the three blocks and yet each block is quite different in scheme and tone from the others.

This block uses the darkest colors and has a more "masculine" feel. I'm not into assigning gender to my crafts, but I know that a lot of charity quilting projects suffer from a lack of male-appropriate or male-acceptable quilts, so I thought I'd create one that, I think, anyone, male, female, or otherwise, might like.

In contrast, this block uses more mid-range blues, greens, and yellows. I added the yellow strip to bring out the yellow undertones in the center block. The turquoise fabric on the left and bottom of the block is one of my favorite fabrics -- I love the color and its softness. I only have about a 3/4" strip left, and I don't remember where I got it.

I have a lot (ok, a few pieces) of frog fabric. I use it a lot in baby quilts (see: gender neutral), and I find frogs fun. So I mixed up the blue frog fabric and the green frog fabric, and added some other greens and a little white to put it together.

Making these blocks reminded me that I'm a binge quilter. I go through phases of quilting and not-quilting, and when I (or piece), I do a lot of it at one time.