Doodle Quilt

Our book study group is currently on the doodle quilt in Sherri Wood's Improv Handbook. One month we simply doodled in our sketchbooks. ML led the meeting, posed thoughtful questions and kept us (ok, me) on task. Clockwise from top left: Tami, MK, 5 pages by M-N, me.

Doodle sketches from Improv book study

Tami and I discovered our first sketches were quilting designs; we had to lift the pencil to create piecing designs. She chose to explore assembling orphan blocks and other leftovers and may use a round robin/medallion format.  MK decided her striation layers called for more study. I like the Housetops (or quarter log cabins) and want to repeat them in more colors. But my doodle blocks will start with long sawteeth or triangles.

M-N had the most interesting sketches. Starting with discrete units, she connected them with theatrically motivated designs and realized she had sketched The Odyssey! Hopefully she'll write a post about it soon.

We spent another month sewing some of these ideas. I considered restarting to center more on Sherri's guidelines but finally decided to continue with one design. I cut the rectangles freehand but used the ruler on the diagonals. 

In the mean time...

Another friend is graduating college this spring and wants a quilt. Since she attends LSU I expected purple and gold but instead she likes blue and neutrals. It seemed like a good idea to make the sawteeth in her color scheme.

Blue and cream fabrics cut into long triangles

Lots and lots blue and cream/beige sawteeth. My first thought was to sew rows of teeth the length of the quilt and separate them with long tan sashing. To emphasize the fabrics, I sewed pairs of matching triangles together. In fact, sets of 6-8 triangles in the same fabrics seemed to work best.

Repeated fabrics make 
strong sets of sawtooth triangles.

Enjoy the day, Ann