pink and gray improv quilt top

It wouldn’t be Fall in Vermont without a little apple picking!  We headed out to one of my favorite orchards for some apples, cider donuts, pumpkins, and to let Max admire the tractors (one of his favorite activities these days). Of course I brought a quilt top along for a few photos – the orchard seemed as good a place as any for a quick little photo shoot.

While Max was busy selecting all the best drops, I got Morgan to do what he does best –

This quilt started out as the stack shown here. I love the combo of the dark gray, pink, plum, and lemon, but when I started sewing them into a herringbone type block design, I wasn’t loving how dark it was and I felt the yellow was kind of taking over.

I ended up adding several additional solids, including some extra light pink and some grays and off whites, and really limiting my use of the yellow. And I decided to forgo the herringbone for some improv-pieced strip sections.

I usually have some idea of how I want a quilt to look, but here I had absolutely no idea. Other than the fact that I wanted to sew strips together, I was kind of clueless, and in fact this stuck around on the design wall for quite some time. I decided to just stick with the strips, pieced in variously sized sections, and see where it went.

I’m really happy with how it turned out, and I guess it serves as a reminder to myself that it’s not always necessary to have a specific plan in place!