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March's Challenge - brought to you by Alyson

In March, we will be working with IMPROV CURVES!


Improv curves may sound a little scary, but with just a little practice, you’ll have it mastered in no time!


We’re going to call this block a kayak and it’s inspired by this photo from @dailyoverview on Instagram:


The tutorial is based on the method for improv fish, provided by Nicholas Ball (@quiltsfromtheattic on Instagram)


  1. You’ll need 2 pieces of background (water) and one piece of foreground (kayak) that is slightly smaller than the background pieces. The water pieces I started with are approximately 16”x7”.


  1. Overlap the kayak piece over one of the water pieces about halfway. Use your rotary cutter to cut a gentle curve from top to bottom of your kayak piece.


  2. Match up the edge of the kayak curve with the edge of the water curve.  Pin to remind you where to sew IF YOU WANT TO, but do not pin the whole curve.


  3. With the kayak piece on the bottom, slowly sew around the curve using a quarter inch seam, matching up the edge of the water and the kayak as you go. THE CURVES WILL NOT MATCH UP EXACTLY AT THE END. Don’t worry about this!  It’ll go away when you cut the next curve.


  4. Finger press to whichever side makes the most sense.  For these, I pressed the seam toward the kayak fabric.


  5. Overlap the kayak & water unit over the second water piece, leaving enough to cut a gentle curve from water’s edge to water’s edge, making sure to pass through the points of the kayak as you do. (This takes care of that edge that didn’t match up earlier!)

  6. Sew, matching up curve edge to curve edge as you did before.  This edge *should* match up more closely at the end than the previous one. Press to whichever side seems logical as you did before. I pressed the second seam out, towards the water.


  7. Tah-dah, KAYAK! At this point, you could add an improv triangle and turn your kayak into a fish.  You could also set these on the diagonal and make improv orange peels or add applique circles and turn them into eyes...there’s so much more that can be done with this basic shape!

  8. Lay out your kayaks, sew them together and hooray, you’ve made a quilt!  I think this is a great opportunity to practice some wavy line walking foot quilting to make the water/kayak connection stronger.


Important things to remember

  • Improv is not an exact science. Your Kayaks will not look like mine!

  • Improv generates LOTS of scraps. Save them for another quilt or toss them. Really!  I give you permission!

  • There are no mistakes in improv, only results that you may feel are not ideal.  One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.  Remember that!

  • Sherri Lynn Wood recommends that we use the “YES, AND...” method when we get stuck on something we are unhappy with. Try it!


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