Saturday 01 April 2023: Online Workshop (Improv Triangles!)

Nicholas Ball - Saturday 1 April 2023 - 4.00pm to 7.00pm (GMT)

Online Interactive Workshop: Improv Triangles!

We're absolutely delighted to welcome Nicholas Ball back under the CraftyMonkies spotlight for a repeat of his Improv Triangles workshop, which last ran with CraftyMonkies in February 2023, to coincide with his Improv Triangle Sewalong on Instagram, also during February. There were so many of you who emailed us and Nicholas to ask if we could please put on a second class as you missed this class in February, so we did! Please make sure you book early!

Introduction by Nicholas:-

I’m so pleased to be able to offer a companion workshop to the Improv Triangle Sewalong I’m hosting on Instagram in 2023.  If you’re new to improv piecing, or want a little extra tuition during the sewalong, then this is the class for you.

What I love most about my Improv Triangles technique is the versatility of the units created. This simple shape has so many uses in improvised patchwork and is a great skill to add to your improv arsenal. Where some people see trees, others see gnome hats! You can use the familiarity of triangles to suggest all sorts things in your compositions. After you make a few you’ll soon find the only limit is your imagination!...

What You Will Learn in this Online Interactive Workshop:-

You'll learn how to throw off the dreaded 'shackles of constraint' and let your inner-creative run wild with this fabulous technique-based improv-quilting class! In the workshop you will first learn Nicholas' basic method for creating improv triangle units. We’ll then look at adding variation to these units using inserts. Finally, a quick and easy stacked triangle method will be explored, giving you three different way to use triangles. We will also discuss fabric choice and the different ways to arrange your sewn units into a finished composition.

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Skill Level for this Online Interactive Workshop:-

This class is suitable for all skill levels. It’s perfect for competent sewers who want to explore more liberated piecing, perhaps as a change from traditional quilting, but it’s also a perfect improv introduction for quilters who are just starting out and have little quilting experience.

Material requirements for this Online Interactive Workshop:-

Whilst not essential for the workshop, my book Inspiring Improv (published by Lucky Spool, 2019) will expand upon the techniques learnt and provide many more improv tips and tricks. Improv Triangles is one of the six techniques featured and detailed instructions for piecing irregular shaped units together are also included.

Fabric requirements for this Online Interactive Workshop:-

Whilst difficult to give exact fabric amounts and measurements when sewing in an improvised way, please use the following as a rough guide. Remember, Nicholas will be discussing fabric requirements in more detail during the first week of the sewalong!

For the basic triangles, large scraps of solid and print fabric in square-ish and rectangle-ish pieces work well for the background, whilst smaller scraps are perfect for the triangles. Feel free to cut your pieces from yardage. The background pieces shouldn’t be smaller than approximately 4” for your first attempt at this technique.

For the insert triangles, the same sized background pieces as the basic triangles can be used. For the triangles, strips of approximately 1.5” - 2.5”. These need not be full width of fabric, so feel free to use what you have.

Finally, for the stacked triangles, an assortment of squares, anything from 5” to as large as you want! As the name suggests we will be cutting through stacks of fabric, so as long as your prices are all roughly the same size, anything will work. A layer cake or charm pack would be perfect.

Please don’t stress about these requirements!!! They are simply a guide and Nicholas has yet to teach a class where something couldn’t be made because of the wrong fabric pieces. If in doubt, gather up a selection of prints and colours you like and you can cut during the workshop. Accuracy at the cutting stage is not so important using these techniques, so it won’t take long at all if you want to cut your pieces along with Nicholas. They also needn’t be perfectly square or straight, so feel free to use scissors!

This is very much a technique-based workshop. We will be exploring triangles and won’t have a finished project in mind. Feel free to make as many or as few of the units as you like. You can combine them into a sampler or continue to work on the project after the workshop by adding more units to it during the sewalong. Don’t feel any pressure to cut up all your precious fabric!!!

Equipment requirements for this Online Interactive Workshop:-

• Sewing-Machine
• Good quality thread in an appropriate weight for piecing (Nicholas recommends Aurifil)
• Rotary Cutter - with a new blade!
• Cutting Mat
• Patchwork Ruler (we can make any size work, but a small 1” x 12” is very handy, as is a 12.5” square.
• Fabric Scissors
• Most important of all - a willingness to explore your own creativity! It's going to be FUN!!!...

​​Tickets for this Online Interactive Workshop (via the Zoom platform) will be limited & allocated on a first-come/first-served basis! If applicable, any free pattern, or other information, relevant to this course will be forwarded to you after booking and approximately 5 days before the course date. The ticket price of £30.00 is based on ONE person attending this crafting class.

This CraftyMonkies Online Interactive Workshop is being broadcast from the United Kingdom and the class time given is based on GMT (Greenwich Meantime). We advise you check via Google Search (or similar) to see corresponding start-time in YOUR location! Here's a great world time zone reference:-

https://www.worldtimebuddy.com/

IMPORTANT!!!

This class is a live Zoom Workshop ONLY! We are NOT able to offer a recorded Pay-On-Demand video for sale after this event.