improv process

Shaping the creative brain

drawing, improv process, techniques

Drawing is one of the three creative techniques I use (quilting, photography and drawing). They influence each other.

In drawing I have a few subset themes. One is botanical drawing.

Botanical drawing has a long history, and I cannot practice it without referring to its ancient practice.

I visited three times the Botanical Garden of Padova, where historical botanical drawings are displayed in the museum. It is the most ancient university botanical garden of the world that preserves its original location. Founded in 1545, it’s part of the world UNESCO heritage, it hosts 6000 plants from 5 continents. A cradle of science and scientific exchanges.

During my latest visit the Botanical Garden of Padova I collected photos of plants, for my future drawings.

I made, in the past months, this collection of small botanical drawings, where I practiced a bit with abstraction, always starting from some photograph of mine. I’ve been abstracting, in particular, the shape, underlining the contours and subtracting colours. The infinite curves created by biology have always fascinated me. I published these drawings in my recently created Instagram profile @the_cult_of_ink.

My future steps in drawing aim to go beyond the abstraction by subtraction. I will continue with addition and composition: this is a method that I’ve used during improv quilting, when I practiced adding fabric pieces on the design wall. I love seeing how different media influence your brain in training you on some practices which can be transferred to other media.

Here below it is shown one of my most recent botanical drawing: this is started from tens of separate flower and petal drawings (ink on paper), recombined, drawing them again and again, choosing the final composition with pencil and eraser. The result is re united in an imaginary organic creation.  

The logo of the Instagram profile @the_cult_of_ink was made in this same way: selecting petal shapes and repeating them. Here below you can see the source (photographic details) and the resulting final drawing. Question to the quilting friends: does it look like connecting pieces of fabric?

Design with a friend – part 4

collaborations, improv process, techniques

I compared my past photos of scraps and seeds (exercise on composition) and my past quilts. And I discovered that I have some recurrent composition preferences.

So, I started to wonder. Do I repeat myself?

Thus, I checked my backlog of photos.
I found at least 15 composition types, here below are shown the most evident types.

This reassured me: maybe I’m not repeating myself too much.

Thanks to the quilting friends who sent me a small white envelope with their quilting scraps. One day I received two letters in the same afternoon, by Linda @flourishingpalms and Gigi @gigi.v13. It’s wonderful to be connected in this way even if we are overseas.

The two images below use a rotational symmetry and echoing of a shape, that was created by somebody else: in this case a shape from a small piece received by Ally Ryde. I didn’t choose on purpose to use this format of composition: it was spontaneous, at the beginning; but now, in retrospect, I find interesting to discover that I was influenced by somebody else’s shape.

These scraps will be valuable for me, to continue exercising on composition types. Maybe I can find more ways to fill the space. It’s impossible for me to totally repeat myself, if the scraps I’m using are different, because they are your scraps and not my scraps.

So, with your input, I’m safe!

Design with a friend – part 3

collaborations, improv process

My series of photos with scraps and seeds, is a way to exercise on composition.

In the past years I had the impression that my exploration, on quilt composition types, was very slow. I manage to finish one, or only a few, quilts per year. I felt this completion rate as a problem, respect to the need to learn.

On the design wall, at work in progress phase, I can try different composition options: that’s the beauty of doing quilts improvisationally. But I also need to see the finalised effect on a completed quilt. And this requires months.

Now, by making compositions with photos, I can potentially see a finished composition every day. I hope that, with this photographic practice, my experience with compositions will evolve.

For example, by comparing my past photos and past quilts, I discovered that I have some recurrent composition preferences.

One of my favorite types of image, evidently, is an image including the presence of a flow. Like the one I used in the quilt Sealights (shown at QuiltCon in 2022).

Another type is a composition containing rotational symmetry. Like the one I used in the quilt Night lights, shown at QuiltCon in 2024. It was a funny discovery to find these compositional solutions again in my photos, not made on purpose, but reappearing when checked in retrospect.

I invited quilting friends to send me a small white envelope with quilting scraps. The fragments should be small, such as the seeds and berries that may become included in the picture.

Thanks to Carla @falcolupo, who sent me some remainders from her quilting and sewing work. It was so special to have the opportunity to keep in my hands the same material she was recently working with. A warm effect: from digital to real!

Here below you can see a photo composition I made with her sewing scraps. For the first time I felt the inspiration to use plenty of different seeds and berries, instead of only one or two types maximum. The variety of her stitches influenced me! This initiative “Design with a friend” shows how can we influence each other with our creative examples, even with small pieces. Would you like to join?

Design with a friend – part 2

collaborations, improv process, techniques

A few months ago, I started a series of photos with scraps and seeds, simply as an occasion to feel better in short time, thanks to the beauty of nature and fabric colors in my hands, and the ease of photography.
Later it became something more.
It clearly resulted as a way to exercise on composition.

Seeds on a table are like scraps on a design wall.

The feeling of improv quilting, appearing when you try casually the positioning of fabric scraps, came to me in the same way, when I tried different versions of compositions with seeds on the photo set.
Adjusting different quilt compositions may be slow and time consuming. I have a limited design wall space: to give room to new work in progress, I needed to add a new layer of batting on top of the previous quilting work!

On the contrary, photo composition are quicker to be made. By the way, if you use fresh vegetables, you must be quick. Sometimes I have only a few days available to manipulate seed buds, because they transform quickly. I picked the ones in the picture here below from a public garden bush, named pittosporum tobira. One day, these green buds opened and revealed the red seeds inside: It was a surprise! I took a picture of them, together with the red fabric I was using for my quilt in progress. The paper fragments in this composition are from Ally @allyryde.

An additional meaning of making photo compositions came when I realized that I could use them as an occasion of connecting with quilting friends, to continue the idea started embedding the paper pieces received by Ally, together with more quilting friends.

In these days I discussed with Linda @flourishingpalms  and Lenny @modernstitchwitch about the tools we use to keep connected with each other.  Most of the times we chat on the socials, and very rarely we can meet face to face, thanks to a flight overseas. Since the social platforms can be changed unilaterally, we shall not be fully dependent on them: it’s better to put alternatives in place. In that sense, I’m trying to use multiple channels as networking tools, to ensure I can keep connected with people, whatever happens with one of those channels: so I try to use also e-mail and on-line meetings.

For the playtime “design with a friend” I invite you to send me a small white envelope with your quilting scraps; then, I will try to make new photo compositions with them, to send you back a small photo print. Let’s make best use also of post offices!

Design with a friend – part 1

collaborations, improv process

This week I had the opportunity to talk to the group Beyond Borders, part of the Modern Quilt Guild, about the way I make my quilts and I design with scraps.

I’m a scrap saver, I allow scraps guide my improv and I use scraps as one of the elements of quilt composition. How did this quilt,  River gone green, come about?

This quilt was made with remainders of earlier work.
The green fields were non-used remainders from this work below: “Open air” (at the moment part of the SAQA global exhibition Abstraction: textural elements). A hint of the green area, inside “Open air”, remained: down at right.
Scraps can be used to trace lines on the design wall: you can see here, how I used scraps while composing “Open Air”.

In this period, when I didn’t have time for sewing, I thought that I can still use scraps… for photos! Like I did 20 years ago in my first photo gallery: Flowers, fruits and embroidery.

Recently I started to make photo composition with scraps received from a friend. In the picture below you can see how I used paper and fabric scraps. The piece of paper was from Ally Ryde, design teacher. Thank you, Ally, for giving me these small pieces, that became the start of something new!

I would like to continue in this way: to keep connected with quilting friends, receiving scraps (fabric, paper, small reminders from work in progress) and using them to exercise in making compositions. The name for this photo series will be: “design with a friend”. After having received a postal letter with tiny pieces, I can send back a postcard with the photo I’ve made.
Would you like to join?

Participation to Camouflage quilt show

Exhibits, improv process

“Spot the dot”, my last quilt finish, has been selected to be part of “Camouflage”. Juried by Lorraine Roy, it’s an exhibition celebrating the wonder of wildlife and the artistry of concealment, inspired by a theme submitted by SAQA Member Leilani Purvis.

 “Spot the dot” will be on display, at the International Quilt Festival, Houston Texas, since October 31, 2024. Additional venues are Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, Tucson, Arizona (July 19th – September 28, 2025); Detroit Zoo, Royal Oak, Michigan (November 2025 – February 2026); exhibition will travel through December 2027.

I now have five works travelling with SAQA shows. Thanks to SAQA international nonprofit organisation, whose mission is to promote art quilts, for the organisation of many initiatives and opportunities.

This is the story of “Spot the dot”.

How would you behave, if you had a mixed identity, such as the one of a black and white dot (pardon, a black and white button) appearing in this quilt?

Would you act like the black dots, who are wandering around, exploring opportunities, searching for a gate to break free? Or you’d rather look for safety, hiding within the crowd, pressed inside a box, among the other buttons that look quite similar you?

Ok, let’s take another point of view. Let’s join the observer, who can easily spot the dot. Human brain is wired to connect the dots and to go straight to the point. So… what’s the point of treasure hunt? To find ‘em all! Until the last point.

Play the game and search for a “point”!

QuiltCon and the effects of visual perception

Exhibits, improv process

My preparation for the visit in the US to QuiltCon 2024 started four months in advance. In these days, Fabia Delise mentioned the retrospective exhibition dedicated to the abstract expressionist Mark Rothko hosted by the Fondation Louis Vuitton. Perfect timing! I decided that my connecting flight had to pass through Paris, and I booked the tickets for that gallery.

It was a very strong experience. The large paintings by Rothko game me the idea of wide horizons, of the blocking of walls, of the wish to dive in, of the feeling to fly above… The luminosity of space was recognized very well by my visual perception system. This show made me wish to spend more time outdoor or, as paper engineer Annalisa Metus recently said, of being en plein air.

I spent the rest of my day in Paris walking in the zone of La Défense in Paris, where I found the monument “Iris” by Raymond Moretti, among skyscrapers illuminated in the night.

When I arrived to my destination, at QuiltCon, one of the first quiltmakers that I met was Scott Culley. His quilt Shadow won first prize in the Piecing category: congratulations Scott! Only at a certain distance, the composition of a face can be recognized. He made other works based on visual perception effects, such as the earlier quilt Mask-3.

A few days before going to QuiltCon, I read the impressive story of the work Reconceived by Jennifer Candon, and how she is aware of visual perception factors, while choosing colorful zones and areas for the eyes to rest, in her quilts. I commented her: “I bet on an award”. Indeed her work won the first prize in the Improv category.

Here you can see how big is the work of Jennifer, at right; in the center, still in the Improv category, was hanging my quilt “Night Lights” juried in the show.

Night Lights is intended as an abstract work, even if it is based on a real experience feeling. I use to walk by the sea in whatever hour of the day. Late afternoon hour in Winter is enough to find an extreme condition: a black sky above a black horizon of water. The tip of the pier is one of my favorite places, where only natural illumination remains, the last streetlamp and its wavy reflections left behind.

I was happy to find in the show the work Iridescence by Julie Reuben , which has been juried also in the Abstraction: Textural Elements (SAQA Global Exhibition) together with my quilt Open air. Her handwork quilting creates color play in a very interesting zone: the limit of visibility.

The quilt with a secret code

improv process

The third and last episode of the series “The secret lives of quilts” of this Summer is out on Patchworkvictim blog, on its YouTube channel, and here above! This episode tells the story of the quilt “Open air”.

I made “Open air” at the end of the pandemic period. It was started in one of the workshops with Irene Roderick, which I had the opportunity to attend in the on-line mode. This quilt expresses the feelings you can have when you get out of your home, after a long time spent in the inside. In that moment, the air outside feels so fresh, the light so bright, that it almost surprises your eyes for the sudden change of luminosity. I tried to express this in my work, thanks to the large amount of white fabric used, and I always feel good still now when I look at “Open air”.

For this quilt I also used printed fabric with text. This is a way of working that I adopted after having met the quilter Linda McLaren: it was Linda who proposed me to try fabric with text in a previous work and I continued also in this case. I placed words spread around in the texture. Sometimes these words compose a sort of a message; in some other positions they are put casually. So, we may say that this work is a quilt with a “secret code”.

Textures connect with Nature

collaborations, improv process, joining events

During March 2023 I had the opportunity to present my talk “From the microscope to the sky” to SAQA Texas, in a zoom gathering moderated by Susie Monday, Texas Regional Representative of Studio Art Quilt Associates. Susie, together with me, will be part of the Color in context: Red SAQA global exhibition. 

I explained how I am inspired by textures that I find in nature and during my professional experience.

I have used photography for twenty years, and among my past photo galleries there was one fully dedicated to textures visible in the reflections on the surface of water.

I started to use microscopy during my thesis work at the University, and the pictures I gathered in that period became part of a science communication project which travelled around Italy for some years.

I am still using microscopy and other imaging techniques, such as optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, x-ray tomography and ultrasonic testing: I have a professional relationship with images and I continuously work extracting technical meaning from raw abstract pictures.

When I put my recent texture quilts aside to the images obtained at the microscope, sometimes I find they have similarities. I don’t use photos as a direct source to make a quilt as a replica of the subject, but the library of pictures filling my memory surely influence my quilting practice.

Ally Ryde described my works as “quilts of places”. My last quilts are a collection of landscape textures, such as: Grasshopper path, Sealights, The space between the clouds and River gone green.

After many quilts dedicated to exploring this subject, I have the feeling that textures spontaneously speak of Nature. Since ancient times, our brain needed to recognize the variation of a popping fruit among the dense foliage; to spot the movement of creatures approaching through the thickness of the grass.

We are specialized in looking at textures.
And this experience is a continuous pleasure.

The meaning of a map

improv process

Last Spring I joined a virtual workshop led by David Owen Hastings, named: Inspired by art. As inspiration source, I chose the super detailed maps by graphic designer Thomas Ashley. The workshop was interesting and comprehensive, and it activated visions since its beginning: it started with a wonderful imagery that David shared from his countryside!

As a workshop exercise, I drafted a fuzzy section of a map on my design wall.
I recalled the awesome works of gorgeous map quilters such as Alicia Merret, Leah Evans and Niraja Lorenz and, with some doubts, I asked myself: why making one more map?
In a conversation after the workshop, David encouraged me: he was very kind, and the map idea found quiet settlement in some place of my mind.

During this Summer, the occasion to elaborate this subject topic came again, thanks to the game launched by Quilt Improv Studio, Pop improv challenge: I randomly started piecing some acid green fields. And suddenly, from my design wall, a message appeared so strong that I didn’t dare to touch the pins and to adjust the vision. I found reply to my earlier question: “It depends on what you want to say with your map”.

This is the story of my quilt made for the Pop Improv game. Its title is: “River gone green”.

This Summer our family holidays found destination in Spain, to the ancient city of Valencia.
Valencia was founded as a Roman colony in 138 BC. Building site were the banks of the River Turia, alluvial silts accumulated on the floodplain formed in the lower course of the river, which were highly fertile.
Valencia today is one of the world’s top rank global cities: a primary node in the global economic network. But centuries of development changed its relationship with Nature very deeply. Strong growth at the sides of its riverbanks found its limit on 14 October 1957, when the Great Flood of Valencia flooded large parts of the city of Valencia. As a reaction, Turia river was diverted and its coexistence with the citizens found an end. The old course of the river has been turned into a central green space for the city: a cultural attraction known as the Garden of the Turia, which I myself walked in, smitten by surprise.

Acid and saturated colors typical of Pop Art aesthetics, as requested by Quilt Improv Studio challenge, proved perfect to convey through my quilt the message of what happens when commodification of Nature hits an extreme, such as in the story of Turia river bed, not anymore filled with water, but now gone green. Like a glowing ghost of its former stream shape.

Today, awareness that rivers are continuously changing landscapes, which can’t be frozen into a fixed narrow stream (as it happened to the vast majority of the rivers in the world), is well consolidated in the scientific community: leaving room for rivers to flow and flood is safer than building houses too close to riverbanks. The few remaining examples of rivers having a course that still preserves its natural features, such as my beloved Tagliamento river (the “king of the Alps” worth of getting Unesco tutelage), are studied and imitated during projects for restoring damaged river’s health. Didn’t you expect that honoring the wilderness of rivers would also make safer the communities around them?