Improvisation my way - an update

Remember this one from last week?

The difficulty with improvisation is knowing when to stop chopping and changing. However, this piece did not quite "feel" finished to me, but I wasn't sure how I wanted to change it. I did know I wanted it somewhat bigger - it was only 23" - but I did not want to loose the improvisation too much by just adding straight borders. So I took it out the other day and sat there looking at it for a while...

Putting a strip of fabric over it this way and that way, trying to imagine how it would look and would that be how I wanted it to look...

Putting the ruler over it this way and that way... will I cut it apart...won't I??

And then... oops! Too late, it's done!

Now to make it better. Cutting strips, moving the cut piece to the side, moving it to the left and to the right, turning it a little and a lot...

In the end, I decided to sew it together at a slight angle. Without further hesitation I started sewing it together, I wanted to see straight away whether it would look the way I envisaged! I added the lime strip and then sewed the cut off piece back in place again, but tilted a bit.


Of course I had not thought about the total shape it would become, and had to add strips to the piece to make it resemble a square again afterwards! If I had thought about it, I would have added extra strips to the triangle to make it bigger before I sewed it to the main piece. It would have avoided an awkward Y seam... But that is improvisation, too, and I added some strips to make up for it - one strip turned out to be a bit too short, too, so another small improvisation was needed there! 

I also added more lime all around. I felt it was looking rather "caved in", was I happy with it? It still didn't seem finished to me.

I decided to add some weight to the outside edges, at two sides. I had a try out; symmetrical, maybe adding a border top and bottom? Or asymmetrical, adding borders side and bottom?

In the end, I decided on this:

At the moment I think this is done. The piece feels a bit lopsided, but to balance that I intend to add the last piece - yes, I'm running out! - of dark blue to the binding on the left and upper area.

Now, however, it has to be decided how to quilt it... It'll sit there for a while for me to look at, until I just decide to start. I'll keep you updated (you've been warned!).

Linking with:

Linky Tuesday
Let's Bee Social
Show and Tell Tuesday
WIP Wednesday 
Needle and Thread Thursday 
Show off Saturday   

Sandra