floral medallion, an adventure in improv

While unpacking my quilting books recently, I came across "Liberated Quiltmaking II" by Gwen Marston and I was once again captivated with Gwen's free-form, innovative approach, especially with her liberated medallions. Further improv posts recently by Ann from fretnotyourself and Kaja from sewslowly have inspired me (again) to try a bit of improv.

This idea of a floral medallion quilt has been simmering away in my mind and down on the 'desigh floor' for a while now. 

Fabric selection started with using my stash. I chose a lovely 18" floral outbackwife fabric  for my centre. And then I've been slowly planning one border at a time.
The first border was an easy decision for me. I had two pieces of fabric in my stash, and while years apart, I felt they worked well to bring out the colours in my centre section. I've used a small print "Christine" a recent Outback Wife fabric and an older fabric, 'Dashing Roses' from Art Gallery.

Next up, from the 'spare parts' basket, a crazy pieced border
made up of quirky vintage fabrics, ginghams and modern prints.

Then things got a bit tricky. I don't know about you, but I can't seem to be able to sew a bit and then work out the next bit as I go. I like to have an overall idea of where I'm heading before I sew anything, so I lay everything out first on the 'design floor'.
Plans do have a way of changing. And, to be honest, these borders have changed many times over the past week, thank goodness I didn't actually cut & sew anything together - improv is certainly not as easy as it looks {sigh}.

I audtioned several fabrics for the third border, but most seemed to me to swamp the centre floral piece. At the moment I'm thinking of using a variety of yellow fabrics, to help draw out those warm golds in the centre. They will all be in different lengths as I don't have enough of anything to go all the way around, the main one here is Bari J. Ackerman, Sage, Yuma Lemons in Mist . . .

Some of my strips of fabric ran short so I added a few wonky corner flying geese and extra fabric. I also want my borders to all be different widths and I'm really excited about adding some 'kantha' style quilting to the centre floral square, but that's a little way off yet.

. . . and then another border of an oldish Anna Maria Horner fabric from the stash basket,

something a bit crazy different, maybe

I haven't yet figured out what happens after the fourth border, I keep telling myself evaluation & consideration are all part of the process. After several changes & some discussion with my "personal colour consultant" (aka my daughter), I think I can now safely say I'll be stitching this up soonish . . . it's either that, or I continue to walk around it for a few more days/weeks!

Linking up with Myra from 'finished or not Friday' here at busyhandsquilts     

- I'd love to hear about your experiences with improv too