This modern improv scrap quilt was a super quick make. The quilt top took me just two and half evenings to finish. I’ll show you how I got started and how I put it all together. This isn’t a pattern so much as a guide on how to make your own unique scrap quilt.
I knew I wanted to make my friend a modern quilt. But I also knew it had to be quick as the time for the wedding was approaching. So rather than looking for a pattern made up of lots of intricately cut and pieced blocks I decided to design my own free-form or improv-style quilt.
‘Designing’ my Quilt Top
I started by laying out some low volume large remnants on the floor. To make out the basic background of the quilt. On top of the low volume fabric I just randomly placed some of the Ruby star scraps from my scrap bag.
I started piecing my quilt ‘blocks’, by taking some low volume strips and I started chain piecing them with the Ruby star scraps as well as the flying geese blocks. The aim is to have the colored scrap surrounded on three sides by your background fabric whether that is all one fabric or lots of different remnants like mine.
Piecing the Improv ‘Blocks’
Then you will have these units or blocks and it becomes a kind of jigsaw puzzle operation of trying to fit them together.
Joining Sections to Make Your Quilt Top
The aim at this point is to build and build into larger sections that can be joined to eventually make the quilt top. To do this you will start by combining some of the smaller units you have made to each other and then trimming off one side or another to make a straight edge that will allow you to join it to another group of units.