Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Refresher course


Hi All 15 minute players!

I just wanted to do an updated post for all the newbies to the site...
and also a refresher for those of you who are already playing along.


The ideas behind this site, are based on my own experiences and how 
I play and use play to find my creative flow.


There are many exercises I use to daily to keep the ideas coming...
Here I listed one example of a way to start,

or here


When I use experiments like these through out my day, it gives me a way to STOP thinking... 
I can sew randomly, and find color schemes I like, piecing methods I can try,
playing with patterns etc, and often they lead me to a new idea for a quilt...  

The idea here is to randomly play, a little each day, and at the end of say a month, 
you will have a load of blocks that  are not anything that you 
would have started out "trying" to make...

This gives you a good set of blocks to then sift through,  lay them out, look at, 
examine, and play with...


Since you do not have a planned destination for these blocks, you may find a new layout, a new process, or a new technique in the next phase of putting that top together...  or maybe a selection of blocks will jump out at you, and they grow into a quilt....


The things you see on the site are explorations of ideas, 
someone try something new, shares it with us, 
and it may inspire you to try something else...

some ideas to start you playing:

try different shapes,
start a new way each  time
put colors together you never use
try free piecing scraps
try paper piecing with scraps
try cutting and slashing
try cutting with scissors
try tearing fabric
try to add some applique
try using scraps the size you find them


the main idea is to not have a planned vision of where your heading with your blocks...
use you 15 minutes to randomly play and wait till you have a good number of blocks completed before you start to assemble. 


These warms ups, will help you in your regular quilting skills. you will piece better, see better, and open your mind to even more possibilities.

Feel free to try the things you see here, try new things on your own, 
show them to us, tell us about them, and let your mind run free...

Worry about "where it's going"... later.



If you want to play along, please email me or comment here, 
and I can add you to the list...

PLEASE SEND ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS... 

I had a few requests recently with the no reply comment thingy, so I haven't been able to 
add you to the list...
if you haven't heard from me, then I couldn't respond to your email.

Happy Playing!

Victoria

13 comments:

Mary-Frances said...

Thanks for the reminder Victoria!

Sandy Panagos said...

Thank you Victoria.

Diane said...

Hi Victoria,
I've been lurking and love all the creativity I've seen. I'd love to quit lurking and join in. My email is dinypalm@aol.com.
Thanks!
Diane

San-Dee said...

like Diane, I've been reading along and thinking how much fun!! I'd like to join now that I have my machine back in hand's reach! sno.wear1@gmail.com

23rdspiral said...

thanks for the refresher Victoria! I'm loving the second to last block so much... i just want to start sewing right now. but i have to go to work :0(

hared said...

Thanks so much for this blog and all the great contributors. I've been so inspired and learned a lot! Gina in Missouri

Encyclopedia said...

Okay V...not sure if i did this correctly, i am a follower now...and not sure what the Bee thing is...but i started with some scraps and will post what i have...smiles..i will check out your instructions...but i like the idea of 15 minutes and see what you end up with down the road...

Birdie said...

I just signed up for the intuition quilt...but this sounds fun too!! So many wonderful things on your site...lovin' it! Thanks!!

Karen said...

I have always loved working with scraps. You have stroked my creative side and I will jump in tomorrow. Thanks. I am glad I found your site.

Quilting By Celia said...

I have done a couple of quilt tops using my scraps and a similar technique (see my blog). I would like to join this group and share in the creativity.
Regards Celia
celiagibson@hotmail.com

elizabeth said...

Love your idea on playing with fabric scraps to create new blocks. It puts a whole new twist on what to do with the scrap bag that has pieces to small or not the right shape for planned but to big and nice to toss out. My email is bluebunny@mail.com

Anonymous said...

I come to your site via Nifty Quilts, and what you have been doing for a long time is precisely what I am discovering now ! So I will take time to read it bit by bit every day ;-)
For the time being I take part to the crumb quilt along with Jo's Country Junction and I love it. Every week I show some of my liberated blocks on my blog.
Thanks for all your sharings !
Katell, France
quilteuse-forever at live.fr

Anonymous said...

I just love your site and dip in and out fairly regularly, this is my kind of sewing. I would love to receive emails from you, my address is
Morticia2@btconnect.com
Thanks