Library Roulette, Class 700: Adventures in Improv Quilts

For the second craft in my Library Roulette Class 700 project, I made this paper quilt using patterned papers from a Valentine's Day collection (affiliate link here and below). 

The book I chose for 746 (Textile Arts) is Adventures in Improv Quilts. As you know, I'm not a quilter and almost never do fabric crafts, but it didn't matter. I LOVE this book. I learned so much about improv quilts and how they are made through the well-written text and plentiful photos. 

Pretty much all of the exercises, tips, and tricks that are intended for designing with fabric are applicable for designing with paper. The guided exercise I tried was called Retro Circles. 

I chose four coordinating papers and cut them each into 4" squares. 

I stacked the papers and cut three gentle curves. 

Then I shuffled the cut pieces and created four blocks, each with one of the four papers. When working with fabric, you chain piece them together. Paper is so much easier - just glue the pieces to a 4" background.

I repeated that process three more times to give me a total of 16 squares. Then it was time to arrange them. I played with a lot of different possibilities....

..... before settling on this one. Then it was just a matter of gluing the squares to a 16" background. 

Obviously, with fabric you would go on to quilt it. With paper, that isn't necessary. But it could be a lot of fun. I'm strongly considering making another paper quilt and experimenting with both real and faux stitching. 

This was such a fun project! There are so many other fun ideas in Adventures in Improv Quilts that I would like to try in paper.