The route indicated by improv process, sometimes takes unexpected turns. This is one of such stories.

A few months ago, while I was testing a challenge of our own with Giovanna, we selected 13 fabric colors to be used by both of us, so that each of us would compose a quilt dedicated to color green.

Giovanna was checking whether our color combination was working well, by trying the palette with a software that creates nested squares. Maybe seeing the image of her trial has influenced me: I started sewing my work, by coupling colors in a composition based on squares.

Day after day, switching and adjusting block position, I prepared enough pieces to fill the chosen size on the design wall. The figures were growing from left to right, from a crowded corner towards a bit of negative space, as if the blocks were going with the wind. At that point, everything seemed ready, it was only required to unite the blocks. But… I felt uneasy… something in the composition didn’t fit.

Suddenly, the mother quilt divided itself into two children quilts.
It was like the duplication mechanism of a cell that splits into two cells: biology calls it “mitosis”…

So, the route of improvisation led to two different paths, and I finalized two distinct quilts. Which, by the way, played me another trick: they forgot the quest for green, and decided to be dressed in orange (a-ha, orange likes to become a dominant color! Our first public challenge knows it well…).

At the end of the story, I started a third quilt to respect the initial goal set between Giovanna and myself, and for the third one I really used a lot of green. But this is another story…

In the previous post, we left Giovanna busy with her suitcase to be filled, and some travel to be done.

What was the content of her suitcase?
A bundle of quilts!
All the quilts she had sewn in the recent years. Large quilts, small quilts, mini quilts, top to be finished, flying thread…

In February 2020, Giovanna took the train from Mestre, near Venice, and reached Paola in Trieste.
At Paola’s home, the quilts popping out from Giovanna’s bag seemed to be endless. It was the first chance we had to see each other in person, and to look at all the quilting work done by both of us until that day.

What kind of quilts are the ones carried by Giovanna?
We met because Improv Modern Patchwork is our common passion. We could see similar things in our works, but once we put them together, we also noticed all the differences.
The same, but different. Is this the essence of improv? For sure it is one of the things we most appreciate. To be free during working process may lead, over time, to an identifiable customization.

Reading books of reknown improv quilters, we can see that almost all of them describe what improv is. Words are almost the same, but their works are not. At a first glance, they are identifiable one from another. Different ways to use colors, shapes. layout, quilting, become a kind of signature.

As well as modern patchwork, also improv patchwork is part of a bigger movement in continuous evolution, and it is experienced as a personal creative growth.
We are at the beginning of this journey: we are studying and experimenting. We are driven by curiosity and passion. In this website we will try to create some insights, and to gather other quilters, in order to grow together.

Hello!

The path towards the construction of this site started on the verge of new year 2020, when Giovanna and Paola first met, thanks to the common interest for improv modern patchwork.

We encountered on the web: both of us attended an on-line workshop, Improv Row by Row, led by Daria Blandina and Roberta Sperandio, and the sneak peeks of our work in progress suggested we had a similar taste for color choice.

Paola decided to break the ice inviting Giovanna to start a joint project. During the first phone call, while Giovanna was on the mountain enjoiying family holidays, Paola proposed to meet in person. Even if this required to take the train, Giovanna liked the idea of travelling, and started to fill her luggage. A new year was starting: the best moment to fill our agenda with new plans!

So, let’s introduce ourselves.

Since year 1997, Paola pursued her passion with graphics by use of drawing and photography, presented in solo and group exhibits. Her project of science communication based on creative pictures taken at the microscope toured Italy for some years.

In 2017 she discovered modern patchwork as a mean for expression, and started sewing wall quilts. Her first quilt gallery, “Doppio Trasporto” (walking on fabric fields) was shown in Trieste at Atelier dell’arte; other group exhibits include participation to Abilmente fair in Vicenza.

Giovanna familiarized with patchwork for the first time in 2007 during a journey in USA. The approach with modern patchwork came in 2016, when she noticed the freedom of creative expression possible with such technique. Curiosity lead to passion, study, research and experimentation: she always strives to learn and improve.

Giovanna’s quilts have been shown in the main Italian textile fairs (in Turin, in Vicenza) and in local guild group shows (in Treviso). Her work has been featured in international blogs and magazines dedicated to modern patchwork.

In this web site we will collect our ideas on improv, we will tell stories of joint initiatives, and we will go for a wider participation to this adventure.

… to be continued!