Over a year ago, I attended a class given by a friend of mine, Barb Boatman. She is an amazing artist, making fantastic pieces out of everything you can think of including aluminum soda cans. She was featured in Quilt Folk a couple of years ago and I am lucky enough to have one of her woven and quilted aluminum pieces in my art collection. Anyway, she led us through an exercise that really hooked me. She calls it an Improv Meditation, and it is a handwork project.

The pieces are small, about 5 inches square. They are random placements of fabric and trims, buttons and fancy stitches. She had a lot of them to show us.

Each one was unique, some heavily embroidered, others simpler.

At the beginning of the class, we were given a kit. We brought scissors with us.

Barb told us to take the elements out of the kit and spread them out on the table. And while we did this exercise, we were not to have any distractions, phones off, no talking with our table mates, nothing on the table with the kit. Here was mine.

We were told to put the fabrics on top of the batting in an arrangement that pleased us. The idea was to slow down, take your time, play with all the elements, concentrate on just being creative. You didn’t have to use everything in the kit, only what you wanted to. There was no right or wrong, no rules to adhere to, just the uncomplicated placement and playing with fabrics and trims. You were free to just create whatever suited you.

The kit had a crewel needle and two colors of floss. I threaded the needle with a dark color and began to do a rough running stitch to hold the green strips down.

The stitches go through the batting, so you are hand quilting as you go.

Next was to stitch the trims. I have another piece of fabric to go over the break in the white lace.

I threaded the needle with the yellow floss I was given, and thought about how to stitch down the lace that would enhance the design of both lace pieces.

On top of the laces, I placed the orange bit that looked a bit like a sunburst to me, adding the large yellow button to the center. I used the red floss here for contrast. Then I stitched a row of French knots on the left.

At the end of the class, I had this.

At home, I added some buttons, and I knew I wanted to do more. So, I pulled out a bag of scraps that I planned to take to the cotton recycler, now looking at those little bits in a whole new light. What could I use?

I pulled out trims too, what would be good here?

The idea was not to plan too much, so I made kits for myself. I put just a bare minimum of thought to it. I grouped some similar colors, like fall prints or bee prints, but beyond that no thought. I grabbed small pinches of buttons and trims, and put them into quart size bags. I threw in skeins of floss in colors that coordinated, along with some decorative threads.

In my chair in the den, I did the creative designing early in the morning while My Sweet Babboo was still asleep and the house was quiet. I found that by giving myself permission to just let it flow, that my creativity was free the entire day. Over the next several weeks I had a few done. Some got some specialty bits, like a beehive button on the bee themed one, and a couple of sewing items on the sewing theme one.

Each one was finished with a backing piece, sewed on right sides together. Then it was turned right sides out and the opening slip stitched closed.

It was here that I decided to do one for every month of the year. So, I pulled more fabrics, blue and silver for January, patriotic for July. In the lower left below is February, in Mardi Gras colors. With the yellow button over a yellow flower in the original piece, a sun motif was suggested and that said August to me.

The last four were finished over the next few weeks, including one with a turkey for November, and one with Christmas colors.

When I had 12 done, I laid them out on my cutting board grid to place them equal distances apart both horizontally and vertically. I pinned a white grosgrain ribbon to the back to hold them together and provide a hanging loop.

They were carefully pinned, then were stitched to the ribbon by hand. I put cross pieces on as well, so that the panels wouldn’t twist.

Lastly, I stitched out two labels, one with the name and one with the maker information.

These were cut apart, the edges turned under and stitched to the back of two of the pieces.I put the project on a decorative hanger after the fair was over.

When I entered it in the fair, I really thought that the judge would problably not understand it. But she did! A second place ribbon was amazing!

I was so hooked on this technique, and the way it unlocks your mind, that I planned to have Barb give the program to our small area group. We made up 35 kits from my vast collection of scraps, trims, and buttons. It didn’t make a dent in the stash! I do think our members enjoyed the exercise. Now my imagination is running wild. What about doing a bunch with a seasonal theme? Maybe make them larger for pillows? Every bit of fabric, spare button, and snippet of trim is now seen in a new light. Could it be part of another improv piece? I hung the Year of Improv Meditation on the brick wall in my sewing space next to the fireplace.

Those of you who paint or stamp can do the same with paper, paint and glue. Open your mind to just be creative and play. The key is to give it your total focus with no distractions. Give this a try, you’ll be surprised at how addictive it gets!

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