Improvisational quilt making and jazz share striking and exciting similarities 

Discover what they are and how to put them to use in making your contemporary quilts. If freedom and fun are what you need in your quilt making, this is the class for you.  Learn to free yourself of all those tight restrictions that threaten to choke your creativity while you create a color-rich and exuberant piece, without losing the essence of a quilt.

After viewing evocative images, you will be guided in a sensitive, step-by-step process to help you breathe new life into your blocks, and put them together to make a stunning quilt top.

Discussions will emphasize color, pattern-making, and syncopation of repetition and rhythm,  Techniques will include free-hand cutting and machine piecing to make pieces fit.  Your quilt making will never be the same again!

Supply List

The good part about working from home is that you have all your supplies around you! Use what pleases you as can work by hand and / or machine. 

Normal sewing supplies for hand and / or machine work

Normal requirements for machine and hand sewing.

Notebook with pens or pencils

Fabrics

This is the really fun part. Choose a palette of colors that best suits music that you love. This could be bright and bold, dark and moody  or soft and subtle. You will need a large variety in your chosen range, including solids, hand-dyes, stripes, checks or patterns that please you in a range of lights, mediums and darks. Make sure you include some contrast colors in your selection. 

Preparation

Listen to music, particularly jazz, and imagine the music in color as your feet and fingers tap in time to the music, maybe you even dance!

“The quilt pictured is called “Wednesday Night” and is a response to the jazz concerts we went to for years with a group of friends. The music and rhythm seemed to come out of and disappear into the night around us, soothing, and engaging in its rhythm.”  – Rosalie Dace