Improv(ish) Tree Quilt tutorial

Hello quilty friends!

As you all know there have been horrific fires in Australia. It’s just awful watching the footage of the desperate wildlife and landscapes being ravaged by fire. There have been a number fundraisers by lovely quilt designers to raise money to help care for the injured animals. It’s also wonderful to see how many people are contributing to make pouches and cosies for orphaned joeys, baby koalas, bats etc. Stellar effort from the crafting community!

In addition to wildlife being affected, there are a number of communities that have lost everything: homes, farms, livestock etc. The Wollongong MQG has put a call out for quilt blocks of tress to make quilts for some of these people. So I made a little tree block to contribute towards their cause.

I named it “improv(ish)” given that it is part curve-piecing, part FPP but the FPP sections are improv designed so each one is different.

I then had a few requests for a pattern for it. Which got me thinking…

Given that it was improv’d, and for a good cause, I thought a free tutorial would be a better solution than a paid for pattern. So I made a second block…

Because the blocks are improv’d each will be different from each other, just as trees are in nature. And you can vary the size or proportions as you wish, so you will have a lot of fun making these I promise!

You can find the Youtube tutorial on how to make an Improv(ish) tree quilt here.

I also uploaded the two curve templates for the sizes that I made for you.

The block is easy to make, and quite addictive. So why not make a block or two to send to Australia. Please read their blog post for all the details about their call for blocks.

In addition to the Australia project, this improvish tree block would be a perfect Block Lotto project for guilds too, as each person’s tree would be a little different. So feel free to share with your guild.

Tag your blocks with #improvishtreequilt to share online.

Happy stitching!