Quilty Goal 2022: Plan to Play
Purposefully playing without a purpose. That’s what I plan to do at least once a month this year.
Just go into my sewing space and play with fabric. No end goal in mind. Sew just for the joy of it. Experiment. Explore. Try things and be willing to let it not turn out. To guide this play, I assigned one shape or technique for each month of the year and set a calendar reminder on my phone.
My plan to play list
Here’s the list of themes:
January: Circles
February: Disappearing blocks
March: 45° Triangles (HST)
April: Flip (and Stitch)
May: Strips
June: Less
July: Bias
August: More
September: 9 Patch
October: Fold
November: FPP (foundation paper piecing)
December: Stretch
The Process
My approach will be simple and flexible. Each month, I’ll take an hour or a few minutes or several sessions (however much time I have to devote to play). During that time, I’ll look at that month’s theme, interpret it however I like in the moment and explore that theme with fabric. Whatever happens is right. No other rules besides to be free to be creative and make sure I make time to do just that.
January
January is circles. Curves are probably my favorite shape to play with, so why not start the year off right!
After spending a week doing lots of computer work for a pattern release I'm working on, I took some time to just sew. Circles.
I wanted to play around with juxtaposing a "perfect" circle inside of a wonky circle. I tried a few different approaches. One with bias tape that made this WAY harder than it had to be. (Hey, I tried something, and I learned something.)
The other was more straightforward, but it also gave me an idea for what to try next. So, next time I sit down with Circles this month, I'll know where I want to begin my exploration.
Ultimately, I discovered that the easiest way to achieve the look I was after was to use freezer paper for the “wonky” circle. It seems counter intuitive, but that’s what made the sewing easier and the result better. Once I figured that out, I continued to play with circles—chopping them up and putting them back together. I actually created a block (that I won’t share here) I felt was a seed idea for a future quilt pattern.
Improv circles on my design wall
As the year progresses, I’ll continue to share how my plan to play is going. It doesn’t need to arrive anywhere, in the end. This is definitely about the journey and feeding my creativity.
