Improv Pods: Flashback Quilt

A few years ago, a friend was moving away, so I decided to make her a table runner. It was the first small quilt I'd ever made. I decided to make a table runner from Jacquie Gering's and Katie Pederson's book, Quilting Modern. I picked the improv pod runner, and I loved their color choices so much, I elected to use them in my runner, too. Yellow and gray. I bought fabric for it, and because it's such a small piece, I had enough fabric to make two, so I made myself one, too. I was pretty excited about the pattern and feared I would have separation anxiety. Also, and most importantly--it was a very new technique for me, and I figured I should have enough to make two so that I could pick and choose which blocks to use in hers.

I was really nervous, but didn't know how nervous I should be because I didn't know curves were supposed to be scary. The curves were a little intimidating to me, but I went for it, and I'm glad I didn't know to be really terrified of them, because they went great, and were pretty easy once I'd done a couple! I loved the technique so much I used it when I pieced my Jesus quilt.

The one thing I noticed when I was almost done (I'm a tad embarrassed it took me that long! ;-)) was that longer pods with more gentle curves were far easier to ease together than short ones. Of course, once I noticed this, I realized immediately why: the gentler curve is closer to a straight line.

This was also the first improv project I made, and while I made it, it was outside my comfort zone to improv too much, so I kept the sizing consistent and trimmed the pod blocks to square, consistent sizes. It worked really well for me.

I really love this runner, and I use it on my dining table even still. I don't know if my friend uses hers, but I often remember her when I look at it, which is good enough for me. ;-)

Improv Pod Table Runner
Pieced and quilted by me!
Completed December 2012