Today I wanted to share with you how I create an improv (or Fear-Less quilt) that doesn’t have a plan, and is a slow hand stitched make, over time. I’m talking about colour / color palette and how I go about the ‘design’ of a quilt that doesn’t officially have a proper design aspect to it. Starting with colour / color really helps with the process when you’re using instinct rather than a set pattern.

This quilt has been a long time in the making. I started hand stitching it more than a year ago. I’ve used hand dyed linen and upcycled fabrics that were mostly gifted to me, and some special vintage fabrics. Recently I picked up the quilt top again, made a simple backing for it and started to do the beautiful process of some large hand-stitch quilting.

I wanted to make this quilt in a very organic way (okay, many of my textile works are actually made in that way, but this one more so). What I did was start with some fabrics and joined them together in whatever shape they already were.

When I needed to add another piece, I simply picked up the next fabric in the assorted piles of fabric and added it on. I used some that I’d previously embroidered onto, which meant that this quilt actually had a long evolution of my work put into it.

I think perhaps the quilt is called “a very simple map of my heart”. I some vague memory from long ago watching a movie called ‘Map of the Human Heart’, and while the images I have of that movie are fuzzy, the name has stuck in my head for such a long time. (Perhaps it’s not a movie I might want to watch again, but the name is beautiful at any rate).

That to me is part of art making or writing and of sharing stories. We gather inspiration from many sources over many years, and conversations, memories, experiences. And when the time comes then those ideas come out to play together. The art making process, for me, is where I edit the ideas, decide on the way they sit together and the colours, shapes, stories they form as a cohesive whole.

While I say that this quilt evolved by simply picking up the next piece and adding it on, the reality is actually more complex than that.

I thought I’d share a few ways that I begin working on a quilt like this, because I know it’s hard for many people to dive in without a pattern or a solid idea of what they’re actually creating.

The way that I begin a quilt like this is to start with a colour palette that feels right to me. Often, I pare this back, so that the design itself can be a little more random or perhaps a little less structured and over-thought.

TO BEGIN choosing your colours for an improv quilt:

start with a limited colour palette

When you’re creating something that might end up being ‘less cohesive’ (due to instinctual working) having a refined and pared-back selection of fabrics and colours makes it easier on the eye when it’s finished.

You’ll find, as you become more courageous and understanding of your own process, that extending these colours becomes a little easier. Perhaps as you’re working you might add in one or two unexpected colours to the work. This adds to the interest - but let your eye guide you on when and how to add the ‘new visitors’ to the project.

Trust what you know & what you feel

You know the answer. Let’s repeat YOU ALREADY KNOW THE ANSWER! This quilt, being a ‘map of heart’ - or whatever it ends up becoming - is your story. Which means, there is no right nor wrong way.

At every next step, simply ask the fabrics / audition the fabrics that you’ll add in. Be considerate but not over-analysing every single piece.

Consider the detail & the over-all

Sometimes we get caught up in each single little detail - of life, of a quilt. This means we get stuck, we agonise. The flow of creativity stops. When I’m writing anything what I do is I create.. I write. I don’t edit while I’m writing as that stops the flow. Then I edit. The way you might consider doing this with a quilt, is that you’ve edited first - with your colours and your fabric selection. This means once you begin, you can allow the flow to evolve.

Each single piece in a quilt becomes part of the whole. When you finish you don’t notice every single ‘mistake’ or bit you don’t like. You look at the whole piece together. This is life - one mistake does not (hopefully) dictate your whole life.

You can always change it

In a non-instinctual quilt-making process you would probably un-pick sections that don’t work. What I do is if there are parts that I don’t like or love, I will applique another piece over the top. Why? Well, why not?

You are making up the rules about your quilt. How it looks, how it feels. You are adding to the story at each step and each stage.

A quilt is simply some fabric, but also a lesson

What you can take from each quilt you create is not the final end result - though that is a lovely snuggly part of it all. But instead consider a quilt as a ‘sketchbook’ for your next quilt. Look at the lesson you learned from it, during the process and afterwards too. Analyse how it makes you feel, what things you better understood about the colours, the construction, the errors that you made.

Take these lessons into the next quilt, or project that you create. Don’t let them force you against a wall to never make again. Don’t decide to unpick the whole quilt because you don’t love it. Someone else will love it - your family won’t see the ‘mistakes’ the way you notice them.

You can always cut it up to become parts of another quilt. This is a fun way to take one lesson, story, part of something and connect it to another part.

I know that by starting with such a limited colour selection I have space to play a little more with my process and worry less about any perfectionism that might hold me back. In truth, for anyone who has followed me for any time, or taken any of my online course, you probably know that my thoughts about perfectionism are that if we hold ourselves back, waiting for everything to slot into the exact right spot, then we’ll probably never get out of bed or step out the front door.

This process and way of working is super scary for many people. I get it of course. Doing our own things and following our own paths is super super hard. I think that society actually teaches us to ignore our instinct and instead go with the pack. Maybe that’s a human need for staying alive, but we don’t really need to cling onto that anymore. Especially with quiltmaking, sewing or any textiles crafts or arts.

With quilts in my first years of actually wanting to make official “quilts”, rather than simply fabric stitched together I saw a lot of online people making perfect joins, talking about 1/8” seam allowance, and all their lines meeting up perfectly. There’s a book in my library where the woman has the smallest quilt stitches I’ve ever seen on any hand sewn piece, and it sort of makes me not want to do any making at all.

This is all, of course, very crazy. And especially not the way I mother taught me to be in the world. But I continued on to not follow my instinct and not take my personal experience, but to stay stagnant and instead not move forward at all.

A quilt is in essence a whole lot of pieces of fabric cut up and sewn back together. With something warm in the middle and setting on the back to hold it all together. The binding itself is more of a ‘make things easier’ (in my mind anyway) than an actual need for the quilt process.

In my earlier moments of getting back into sewing and learning about quilting I hadn’t yet heard of the Gees Bend quilters, who were in fact doing their own things out of firstly necessity, but also out of a creative practice.

‘A simple (rough) map of my heart’ has a few different processes in it, because it’s made up of pieces that I had in my collection. There are some sections that have inset circles, and some that have applique. Some bit have more traditional embroidery stitches on it, and some have my version of ‘slow stitch’.

I’d love to hear your stories about quilt-making, choosing colours or going with the flow of your creativity without having a set plan or outcome?

I have an online courses where I share my process of creating quilts in my Fear-Less, improv & courageous manner. Perhaps you’re ready to take the step away from the fear of ‘perfect’ seams and start a journey into the joy of embracing your imperfections.