Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts: A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design

by Rayna Gillman

Discover there’s no such thing as a mistake when you learn how to create original designs with this no-rules method of quilting.• Create one-of-a-kind quilts with free-form cutting and piecing• Discover how to spontaneously combine your own original units and design as you go!• Blend hand-prints and hand-dyes with commercial fabrics to create truly original quiltsEnjoy the freedom of free-form! In this follow-up to Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth, Rayna shares her “can’t make a mistake” approach to designing quilts. Learn how to how to trust your instincts so you can work more intuitively, and develop a new appreciation for the therapy of sewing without a plan. With these new skills, you can create new work from leftovers and scraps, dig into those favorite fabrics, and transform all those unfinished projects!

Genres: Quilting, Nonfiction, Art, Crafts, How To, Reference

98 pages, Kindle Edition

First published December 16, 2011

Reviews

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

***Second read, 2018***

I first read this book just over five years ago and it was "too arty" for me. Amazing what a difference a few years can make. In 2014, I began drawing and painting and now consider myself an artist. Circling back to this book now, it is perfect for the kind of quilting I want to be doing! Five stars all the way.

If you enjoy color and quilting, and want to learn how to design a quilt as you go, this is a terrific resource. She provides many examples, both from her own work and from others, and explains many different techniques she uses in her own work. So many pearls of wisdom here. I think it really helped me to take another look at this, because I remembered so much of it from the first time, but having taken an arty detour in between allowed me to understand this at a whole new level.

If you have always wanted to design your own quilt, and you don't want to have to worry about matching seams or sewing a perfect 1/4" line, this is your book. You will find tons of ideas and inspiration here and it is so much fun to use her techniques. I highly recommend this book!

***First read, 2013***
Her stuff may be a little too arty for what I'm trying to do right now, which is to make a quilt for my bed. I have lots of romantic, sleepy fabric and most of her work has a very modern, choppy feel. However, I think I can use some of her techniques along with some I picked up from Design Your Own Quilts: One-Of-A-Kind Quilts to come up with something that is uniquely me. And still sleepy. Sleepy is important.

If what you're looking to do is make modernish arty quilts, and you don't want to have to worry about making templates, precision piecing, or even sewing a straight line, then this book is the one for you. I found it very inspirational, and she does make it all look very easy. I doubt it's as easy for a non-art major, but we shall see.

[Merrie Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was anxiously awaiting the release of Rayna’s new book and wasn’t disappointed. Like her previous book, Create Your Own Hand-Printed Cloth, this is a process book. It doesn’t contain patterns, template or “projects”. What it does contain is inspiration and permission to play and create without fear of the quilt police – no ¼” seam allowances required, no matching of seams. The book contains clear, detailed photographs and Rayna’s writing style is easy to read and understand. Her emphasis is on working intuitively, trusting our instincts and erasing the word “mistake” from our vocabulary. I love Rayna’s disregard for color wheel terms like analogous, complementary and split complementary; instead she suggests going with what looks and feels right. Throughout the book, Rayna’s emphasis is on helping us create “original” quilts. The icing on the cake is that this book is a great scrap/stash buster with lots of ways to use up all those odds and ends we have been collecting for years.

[Eli · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't often read all the way through crafting-type books, I usually just look at a few of the ideas and skip through. But I read this one front to back. I've done a freeform quilt before but wasn't sure how I felt about it. It was fun and easy but I felt like I was breaking some sort of taboo. But this books validates my desire to work without patterns and it takes the pressure off of cutting and sewing in perfect straight lines. It's also really great for green quilters (like myself) that do their best to mostly use found/donated fabric and household items.

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Table of contents: Working with strips of fabric, freehand cutting and sewing, slicing, dicing, combining, a no-recipe recipe (sew a strip set, slice across it, insert a strip or strips, rotate and slice again, insert a strip across the first one, repeat or not, 34-35), no need for a color wheel. Reminders: Play, have fun, try not to overthink. A design wall is helpful to reflection, engagement, and the evolution of your free-form quilt; taking pictures as you go can be helpful as well. Favorite sentences: “you can jumpstart your creativity by sewing strips and going on from there. Try taking a twenty-minute therapy sewing break at least three days (or evenings) a week, and pretty soon you’ll have a box full of bits, strips, and 'leftovers' waiting for you when you are ready to play. I promise, magic will happen! Trust the process” (94).

[DR AINE · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent guide to improvisional, no rulers, quilt creation

Clear step by step explanations of where to start, how to upcycle unloved fabrics, blocks and ufos, advice on colour and contrast and a process to get to a finished quilt top. Excellent tips and pictures of the work in progress and finished quilt examples.

[Constance E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Modern, original, and refreshingly simple

Rayna Gilman believes in letting your creativity emerge by getting original. Set aside those complicated and demanding techniques that few quilters ever master. Look at fabric qualities in different ways. Learn simple and enjoyable methods to sew really unique quilts. Read this book
Keep it by your stash when you need inspiration.

[Joann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks to a friend's recommendation, I learned about this book and have followed the instructions and made several pieces. It is an excellent book with very good instructions. I highly recommend it for anyone looking for a new approach to art quilting.

[Danielle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really good ideas, no technical info for complete beginners. But inspiring. I'll give her methods a try!

[Ann · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of ideas and techniques for blocks that did not turn out as you wished and what to do with scraps of fabric. Improv ramped up!!

[Deb W · Rating 2 out of 5]

Okay, if the idea is unfamiliar, but nothing new here.

[NiYa Costley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyed the lack of rules to follow and the idea of just playing

[RG · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great ideas in here - I love her style. Looking forward to trying out these techniques!

[liko_2000 · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's easy to say "just sew some strips together" when it comes to free-form or scrap quilting. And indeed in this book, Rayna Gillman makes this as one of the first suggestions as a therapeutic way to "not think and just sew". And for some quilters, this would be too little guidance in stepping out of the more rigid way traditional piecing is usually done. This book goes the extra mile to help the reader think outside the box when it come to putting together a quilt top.

Gillman uses her own quilts and those of her students to show just choosing a fabric and working with what you have can result in a fun and artistic quilt while also encouraging you to give yourself permission to trust your instincts and not worry about whether a set of colors are complementary or your seam isn't a perfect scant 1/4". In several examples, she shows pictures of quilt tops at various stages of completion to show that the piece doesn't have to come together all at once in order be worth showing.

The one real quibble I have with this book is that her quilts seem to fall strictly in the "art/museum showcase" category. As such the amount of color and abstractness may turn off some quilters and doesn't show how the techniques can have an outcome that would work as a baby shower or wedding gift. Granted, one could easily come to the conclusion of using Gillman's techniques for such occasions, but it would have been nice to see some examples.

Nevertheless, if this is not a book worth owning, it's definitely worth checking out from the library if you are looking for fresh inspiration.

[Miki · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of the things that keeps me from making more quilts is the cutting out of pieces...I HATE that! And since I'm not very good, I get discouraged when my quilt doesn't look like it's "supposed" to. This book moves away from formal piecing towards using strips - cut, torn, whatever - without using a template or pattern, and then putting them together in different ways. Granted, some of the color and print combinations are, in my opinion, butt-ugly, but the point is to make something that has meaning for you alone. I'm sure some - okay, a lot - of my choices would be viewed much the same by someone else. Anyway, I am looking forward to making my own design, and then NOT apologizing for the mess I made!

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm updating my review of this book. Rayna's quilting work is beautiful and her approach to quilting is fun and refreshing. A few core ideas are repeated in various ways, and I would like to see a wider variety of ideas for free-form quilting. I think the photography could have been better {brighter, showing more detail in the textures} but all in all the book has good ideas for playing with your fabrics in new ways. I believe my only qualm is that this short book is overpriced at about $27 USD.

[Nann · Rating 5 out of 5]

I want to pull out my orphan blocks, cut into them, and reassemble them using Rayna's design techniques.

[Jo · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is technique based with a huge emphasis on no patterns, no precision cutting or sewing and freedom to design on your own. Love that there isn't a pattern or any perfectionism to be found. It's about a method for creating quilt tops and options within the method. Recommended for those with some knowledge/experience with quilting as this book only covers methods for the quilt top, not for making the quilt sandwich, quilt stitching or binding.

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

The very early parts of this reminded me very much of a class I took from Nancy Crow years ago, and I was feeling sort of "been there, done that", but the more I read, the more excited I got; this approach seemed more fun and more do-able for me, and the section about transforming leftover/ugly traditional blocks was really eye opening for me. I'm really looking forward being able to play with some of these ideas soon.

[Jocelynne Broderick]

Wow this book is so far out of my realm of understanding or probability of ever making anything remotely close, even if I decided to do a "modern" quilt it would look nothing like these. I think the projects here are art quilts, so the title mislead me.

Beware any future readers!

[Caro · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the techniques but was not crazy about most of the results. However, her method of cutting into pieced blocks and adding random width strips turned a set of very dull blocks into some crazy ones, so for that I should give her at least another half star.

[~Anita~ · Rating 3 out of 5]

There is a lot of focus on unlearning habits made from making traditional quilts. Useless to me because my background is primarily in hand embroidery and garment making. I think her emphasis on sewing strips has stayed with me however.

[Christina Cox · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finally a book that validates my style of quilting!!

[Allison · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good book but but just wasn't what I was looking for.

[Carly · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really interesting resource with ideas that I want to try.

[Peggy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not my style but great resource for modern free-form quilting. Enough good ideas to get you going.