Strip Sandwiches Improv Quilting – A Review
February 25, 2026
Hi!
It’s been a while, but this week I’m delighted to be able to review another fab class from the Creative Spark platform, and one of my favourite Improv quilters, Timna Tarr. I do enjoy the freedoms of Improvisational quilting, and in this easy “Strip Sandwiches Improv Quilting” class, Timna shares her steps and theories behind what looks like simple strip pieced blocks, and how to give them a definite ‘wow’ factor in your quilts.
This class is about an hour long, and aimed for a Confident Beginner upwards. Honestly, it’s really for anyone who would like to try Improv quilting, and would enjoy freedom from having to measure EVERYTHING! Sometimes you just want to sew, and if that’s you, then you will love this class. As Timna says – “just eyeball it”.
She touched on pressing seams, and I’m on board with her sentiments about this too, in the ever-present ‘press to one side’ vs ‘press all seams open’ debate… Timna said “Quilting should be fun – it shouldn’t be torture”, and I couldn’t agree more! 🙂
To show her technique, Timna used a few sets of 5 inch charm squares, and went into quite good detail about choosing and blending or contrasting colours in these pieced blocks.
There are plenty of troubleshooting tips and suggestions for variations along the way, which really help to make this a fun and relaxed approach to quiltmaking these style of quilts.
(This was a great tip too – to use Post Its, or painters tape to mark your ruler, to make it super easy when you have a bunch of blocks to square up.)
Timna spent a reasonable amount of time discussing layout options too, outlining the ‘how’ and ‘why’s’ of different options, and how to make them work in your quilts, with your chosen fabrics.
There’s a short mini-lecture included too, where she explains her technique for laying out quilts with all sorts of different fabrics to keep them interesting and balanced, and so the colours are dispersed to draw the eye and keep it interesting.
In a look at more steeply angled pieced blocks, Timna shared a few layout options too. This 16 block mini quilt looks quite different, depending on how it’s laid out.
Even angles
Chevrons
or diamonds.
One tip I really enjoyed was that Timna sets a rule for herself with each new quilt. It might be around which colours or fabrics she’s going to use, or even the combination of colours (red backgrounds with green strips) like in the mini quilt above.
This quilt example had wide inset strips, and the rule was to use greys for the background.
Her big Color Confetti quilt is very striking, and the rule for this quilt was to use some of every plain colour in her stash!
Timna prefers using smaller blocks, and as many different fabrics as she can. She believes “the bigger the quilt, the more cohesive it looks”.
(With cutting and organising tips for this too!)
You can absolutely get stuck into creating your own Improv quilts with your own rules, after taking this class, but Timna has also included a downloadable written pattern for this quilt too, if you want help getting started.
I really enjoyed this easy “Strip Sandwiches Improv Quilting” class, and I’m sure you will too.
Creative Spark and Timna have very kindly given me one free class to give away this week to a lucky reader too!! If you’d like to be in the running, please comment below with a ‘rule’ that you’d set yourself for making a quilt similar to these, and I’ll draw a winner at random next Tuesday 3rd March.
If you can’t wait until then, and you’re keen to try this for yourself, then do check it out HERE now.
Enjoy your week!
6 responses to “Strip Sandwiches Improv Quilting – A Review”
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Thank you for this. It looks very interesting and I plan to check it out!
Regards.
Timna’s quilts are so fun! I have heard her speak via a Zoom lecture through my quilt guild. Her lecture about her mosaic technique was so informative and inspirational! This improv technique looks doable for someone like me who needs to get out of her comfort zone.
Been thinking about doing something like this myself.
My rule is to have a few blocks that really stand out to break up the monotony of regular matching blocks. Can be plains or bold patterns but must contrast strongly.
I will start assembling some blocks from my larger scrap pieces. Do more at regular intervals. Don’t want to rush and finish such an interesting patchwork concept.
Have fun everyone
Gill
I would have a rule for use up scraps from my pink and red stash! It’s a ginormous pile🤣🤣🤣
This looks easy enough sewing wise as it doesn’t look like everything has to line up perfectly. There are 2 ways I would like to try it by limiting myself to the scraps I already have without cutting into yardage. I would also like to challenge myself with it just one color family such as all “basically” blues. I seen some quilts done in a single color family that really spoke to me.