Improvising, creating, and quilting together—at the Folk School

What a week! 

Student work from the Improv Quilting class on display at the Closing Ceremony.

Last week I had the pleasure of teaching Intro to Improv Quilting at John C. Campbell Folk School, and I couldn’t have asked for a more adventurous, enthusiastic, and collaborative group. Nine students, along with our wonderful studio assistant, jumped right in and spent the week exploring what can happen when you set aside the ruler, trust the process, and let the patchwork tell you where it wants to go.

Student work from the Improv Quilting class on display at the Closing Ceremony.

No rulers, no patterns, no rules!

The first day, students learned the fundamentals of ruler-free cutting and strip-pieced patchwork.

Piecing free-form cut fabric strips.

Strip piecing.

Sub-cutting strip-pieced units.

On Day 2, curved piecing was introduced.

Demonstration of cutting curves.

Discussion of more complex curves.

These techniques gave everyone a collection of playful, unexpected shapes and pieced units to work with—and, more importantly, possibilities for seeing patchwork in a new way. The words “freeing” and “freedom” came out frequently in comments and conversations throughout the week.

Curved piecing is a two-hand process.

Strip piecing, slicing, and rearranging to create improv patchwork units.

Collaboration!

Setting the seams after chain piecing several units.

As the week progressed, the students began combining their improv units into larger, more innovative compositions. 

Combining strips to create new compositions.

Instead of following a predetermined quilt pattern, they learned to respond to what was developing on their design walls. 

Reacting to the composition on the design wall.

Combining different strip-pieced units to create more complex patchwork.

Auditioning pieced units on the design wall.

Pieces were shifted, rotated, sliced, recombined, and rearranged as the compositions evolved. One decision led to another, and gradually each student’s piece began to develop its own personality. 

The design wall.

Along with curves, strips, and rectangles, students worked with several triangle units. We were transported back to high school geometry class! Do you remember what the isosceles triangle is? They did!

Working with triangles.

With each passing day, it was exciting to watch individual units transform into innovative and artful, improvisational quilt pieces.

Embracing the concept of “Improvisation”

At mid-week, students participated in an exercise that totally embodied the concept of “improvisation.”

Choosing fabrics from a color palette for their improv blocks.

A game of improv challenged students to work within an assigned color palette—“warm colors,” in this case—and randomly-chosen quilt block patterns to improvisationally create quilt blocks, as they saw fit. 

Fabric selections—chosen by each student—from the “warm” color palette.

Some students drew quick sketches to determine cutting parameters and a plan of attack for a construction sequence.

Determining measurements for the units in the block.

Sketching the block and assigning color placement.

Constraints and “making do with what you’re given” invokes creativity! This group successfully met the challenge.

Improv block interpretations: Plus block, Moon over the Mountain, Pinwheel, Hosanna,
Rail Fence, 9-patch, Broken Dishes, and Friendship Star.

Unexpected weather

The quilting and weaving studio in the mist.

Of course, no Folk School week would be complete without a little adventure beyond the studio! Serendipitously (and thankfully), the sporadic rain showers throughout the week came during class time in the studio or during meals—and not while walking to and from studios, the dining hall, or to our housing.

Our studio time was serenaded by the sound of rainfall and a little bit of drama from the thunder. 

Adding additional colors with new strip sets.

Unaffected, the quilting students pressed on with their work …

Auditioning value using the camera phone.

Seeking input from a fellow student.

Thursday evening, however, a thunderstorm brought a campus-wide power outage which added an unexpected twist to our experience. Perhaps a good reminder that not everything can be planned? Or perhaps another form of improvisation?? One quilting student resorted to hand piecing, I pulled out my knitting project and knitted by the glow of the Emergency Exit signs, and the weavers in the adjacent studio continued throwing their shuttles with the aid of flashlights. 

Sometimes you just have to embrace the interruption, improvise in the moment, and let the creative process continue when the lights come back on.

The Improv Grand Finale  

The best evidence of what the students accomplished in five days was on the design walls on Friday and in a group display at the Closing Ceremony. Seeing the finished pieces all together was a wonderful reminder of just how much creativity can emerge when we give ourselves permission to experiment. Here are the talented quilt artists with their final pieces.

Jeanne took several improv units and created an abstract “face.”
She plans to incorporate her black and white strip set on a tote.

Jenny created a lap quilt sampler of improv units with a southwestern color palette.
She’s considering straight line quilting and a binding for her piece.

Jane worked on two pieces simultaneously! She auditioned two layouts and determined
a vertical format best served her compositions. A diptych might be in store.

Beverly incorporated an ombré fabric in her painterly piece.
She also successfully overcame several construction challenges.

Lee was extremely productive and created three pieces.
Her first, larger piece, evolved over several days and a final rotation resulted in a happy revelation.

Carrie’s piece reflects a story about her dog and a copperhead snake.
She designed a lot of meaning into her piece.

Pam used hand-dyed fabrics for her pieces. She found the ruler-free process very liberating
and likes the “loose-straight” lines captured through the process.

Carolyn pared down her original color palette and then incorporated strips from the “spare parts department”
to add accents and details. She’s considering the addition of sashiko stitching to her piece.

Kathy completed two pieces. She chose a limited color palette for a dynamic second piece (top).
She siad the second piece was a more relaxed process, knowing her first piece was finished.

Our studio assistant, Kim, created her piece in a warm color palette.
Her insightful idea of using smaller patchwork bits to create note cards left nothing to go to waste.

Group discussion and wrap up

In my classes, I like to have a group discussion about each student’s final pieces as well their thoughts about their class experience and the improv process. Insights from students included:

• This [class] is like “Jazz for Quilters”—not dixieland jazz, but “cool” jazz. 
• The process is important! At first, the process seemed completely opposite from “improv” but it turned out to be what was needed.  
• Process make progress. 
• We had no “there,” no “pattern to get to” ... but [I learned] it’s OK to not have a pattern.  
• You can fix anything!  
• I love the free-form cutting. It was very freeing! It eliminates [the need for] perfection. 
• I was amazed at how easy cutting without a ruler was. 
• The inspiration presentations were very helpful. 
• I’m usually a “product person,” but I learned to enjoy the “process” and was surprised how fun it was. 
• Having no pre-conceived pattern was very freeing. 
• I learned how to “see it” and then how to “build it.” 

The best parts of the class?

• The people! 
• Great collaboration with other classmates. 
• learning about the “cheat pieces” and other [piecing and composition] tricks. 
• Coping pieces are magic! 

Intro to Improv Quilting class, August 2026.
From left: Pam, Beverly, Kathy, Carrie, Lee, Veronica, Jenny, Jane, Kim, Jeanne, Carolyn.

Improvisational quilting requires a willingness to experiment and react in the moment, and this group embraced that process beautifully. Through the week, there were surprises, sticking with the process and pushing through the “messy middle,” happy accidents, bold decisions, and plenty of creative problem-solving. By the end of the week, the students had produced an impressive collection of work that reflected their individual voices and stories.

Thank you!

Thank you to my students for being willing to experiment and play—even if you occasionally wondered, “What have I gotten myself into?” Your spirit of adventure, curiosity, letting go, and “trusting the process” is exactly what makes teaching Intro to Improv Quilting—and teaching at the Folk School—so special and a lot of fun.

Thank you to the staff of the Folk School for all the behind-the-scenes work you do to create a seamless and wonderful experience. 

And a big Thank You to Kim, my fantastic studio assistant, for keeping me organized, checking the “quilt math,” and sharing your inspiring quilting story with the class. Your generosity, thoughtfulness, and copies of your book is very much appreciated.

Here is a class collaboration for the folk school’s Mouse Town—an improv mouse-size bed quilt. The clothespins were hand made by a student in the woodworking studio.

A new improv quilt for Mouse Town.
Photo credit: Jane Curtis

It was a week of cutting without rulers, piecing without patterns, rolling dice, moving pieces around the design wall, dodging rain showers, surviving a power outage, and—most importantly—learning and making quilt art together. I’d say that’s a very successful week of improv!

Show and Tell from this class is on this post.