Improv (Un)Planning: A guided approach to the improv quilting mindset
No sewing required, all skill levels welcome!
One of improv quilting’s many pleasures is the infinite number of ways the process can be customized by the artist. Unlike following a pattern, improvisation allows quilters to make decisions about fabric placement, measurements, and design spontaneously according to personal taste or artistic intention. But when given all of the options in the world, many people get overwhelmed. This workshop will allow students to practice an improv mindset and experiment with ideas on paper before threading a needle, developing at least three concepts for improv art pieces to make at home.
Melanie Tuazon will walk participants through each phase of a quilt project, allowing them to find restraints and processes that emphasize their strengths and preferences. They’ll practice planning for the unplanned and working within the improvisation process’s feedback loop.
We’ll imagine scenarios through analogy and drawing exercises, including:
Variations on a block: Students design a quilt block and learn about ways to improvise on it.
Make a rule, break a rule: Students will design a quilt with selected constraints and learn when it’s okay to break them.
Find your wonky shape: Students will talk about techniques for making basic quilting shapes without rulers.
“Casting” your fabrics: Students will cast fabrics or colors as characters in an abstract art story
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Materials: pen, pencil, colored pencils/markers/crayons, fabric swatches (optional)
Meet the Instructor!
Melanie Tuazon is an award-winning quilter and fiber artist whose process includes a spectrum of improvisation. She enjoys incorporating planned and unplanned design elements and techniques, which repeatedly use curves, skinny piecing, and occasional handwork. Much of her work explores how modern domesticity, feminism and identity intersect within the context of the quilting tradition. Before learning to quilt in 2011 Melanie was a journalist, and that experience led to writing articles for Curated Quilts, Quiltcon Magazine, Love Patchwork & Quilting, and other fiber arts publications. She has shown quilts on three continents in shows and museums and won ribbons at International Quilt Festival and Quiltcon, where she has also been a faculty member.