Strippy Improv Blocks, aka My New Obsession

It started with this postcard. Our guild (Great Lakes Modern Quilt Guild) is having a virtual holiday party, and everyone was asked to make a fabric postcard and mail to it, Secret Santa style. I procrastinated as usual and then started playing around with this idea. 

Once I had the postcard finished, the idea kept growing. Decorations on the tree using those fancy machine stitches! 

Ornaments!

And the kids got involved. 

Sidenote here...can I brag on these two a bit? The 6-year-old (above) is very independent. I helped him sew the tree, but he insisted on doing the machine quilting himself. Including the pedal. Pretty impressive, right? And I like the gradation of his tree--I'll be copying that for my next one! 

And below--this kid is 9. Look at his tree (which he gave to me as an early Christmas present!). It was his idea to upsize, his idea to add a star and ornaments, and he did ALL the sewing himself (except joining the ends of the binding strips--that's hard! 

Ok, back on track: And then I made a little video (with the 11-year-old's help) for IG (find it in my feed) and it blew up - or at least as much as IG blows up for me. Which was pretty fun!

And my imagination kept going... 

Snowmen!

Stars!

Candy canes!

Decorated trees!

For those who have asked, I'm currently working (as fast as I can!) on two things--a video tutorial on the basic technique, and then a more involved pattern that will include all of the shapes you see here as well as a wall hanging/table runner assembly. When both are ready, I'll post about it here, on IG, FB, and in my newsletter, so make sure you're connected (links below)! 

These go together so fast, and they're so fun! Plenty of time to make some before Christmas.

If you like what you've seen here, you can also find me:

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Purple Stitch and Flip Quilt Top

I've had blocks from one quilt taking up half of my design wall since October. Every couple of weeks, I'd find time to add a few more blocks and play with the layout. 
(Note to self: Don't make quilts with 4" blocks--you have to make so many!)

I've been wanting to make a big push to get this finished and off my design wall (as well as off my UFO list!), and I finally have. Now it moves to the "needs to be quilted" list. :) 

Which quilt is it, you ask? 
My Stitch and Flip Improvisation quilt I started in Jacquie Gering's workshop in September. 

It went from here: 

to here: 

 to a month or so of this:

to sewn vertical rows:

to a finished quilt top! 

Love these close-ups of the improvisational corners. 

And individual "four-patches"

Can't wait to quilt this! 

Find my original post on this quilt here.