A Bend in the Road - Finished

I signed up for Stitched In Color's Curves Class this month, and last week we covered improv curves.  Actually, I've done some improv curves before, so for my practice this week, I worked on an improv curves WIP... the quilt that I started at Sherri Lynn Woods' Get Your Curve On Workshop. 

To be honest, this poor fellow never got a lot of love from me.   We had the option in the class to make "c" shapes or "s" shapes, and I thought "oh s's are pretty..." so I made those.  Then I laid them out and was reminded of worms.  Then I sewed them together and was reminded of brains.  Then I made more, sewed them on, and was reminded of intestines.  Aside from the slimy disgustingness of the squiggle shape, I really did not like how I distributed color in the piece.  There were smaller moments in the quilt that I really loved, but they disappeared in the overall top.

I read in Rachel's class intro that she had been inspired by Sherri Lynn Woods' work, but when she really thought about it, she didn't want to do quite the same thing.  When I brought this top out of hiding this week, I looked at it and decided that I felt the same way.  So I chopped it to pieces!  Don't worry... I sewed it back together after.

Cutting the piece into blocks allowed me to re-distribute color and get rid of the wormy-ness of the original work.  I got my curves practice in for the week by piecing some new improv curves to get enough blocks for a 40" square top.  Having finished this - now I really want to make a wonky rail fence quilt.  Wouldn't that be so pretty?

I straight-line quilted an echoed X and backed it with a piece of fabric that I hand dyed using the shibori technique.  I used a medium grey Kona for the binding to keep things calm and let the top be the star.  I did put in a little stripe of dark plum anywhere that I joined strips, just for a bit of interest that's not too in-your-face.  

I hadn't planned to finish any UFOs this month because I have a lot on my plate at the moment.  I surprised myself and did one almost by accident.  Maybe this is getting to be a habit??  That would be awesome if it were true.  Who else has been hittin' the UFOs this year?