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 quilts

Enjoy 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!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Dec 16, 2011
• ISBN: 9781607052654

Book preview

Text and Photography copyright © 2011 by Rayna Gillman

Photography and Artwork copyright © 2011 by C&T Publishing, Inc.

Publisher: Amy Marson

Creative Director: Gailen Runge

Acquisitions Editor: Susanne Woods

Editor: Lynn Koolish

Technical Editor: Teresa Stroin

Cover/Book Designer: April Mostek

Production Coordinator: Zinnia Heinzmann

Production Editor: Alice Mace Nakanishi

Photography by Christina Carty-Francis and Diane Pedersen of C&T Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted

Published by C&T Publishing, Inc., P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549

All rights reserved. No part of this work covered by the copyright hereon may be used in any form or reproduced by any means—graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping, or information storage and retrieval systems—without written permission from the publisher. The copyrights on individual artworks are retained by the artists as noted in Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts. These designs may be used to make items only for personal use or donation to nonprofit groups for sale or for display only at events, provided the following credit is included on a conspicuous label: Designs copyright © 2011 by Rayna Gillman from the book Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts from C&T Publishing, Inc. Permission for all other purposes must be requested in writing from C&T Publishing, Inc.

Attention Teachers: C&T Publishing, Inc., encourages you to use this book as a text for teaching. Contact us at 800-284-1114 or www.ctpub.com for lesson plans and information about the C&T Creative Troupe.

We take great care to ensure that the information included in our products is accurate and presented in good faith, but no warranty is provided nor are results guaranteed. Having no control over the choices of materials or procedures used, neither the author nor C&T Publishing, Inc., shall have any liability to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damage caused directly or indirectly by the information contained in this book. For your convenience, we post an up-to-date listing of corrections on our website (www.ctpub.com). If a correction is not already noted, please contact our customer service department at [e-mail] or at P.O. Box 1456, Lafayette, CA 94549.

Trademark (™) and registered trademark (®) names are used throughout this book. Rather than use the symbols with every occurrence of a trademark or registered trademark name, we are using the names only in the editorial fashion and to the benefit of the owner, with no intention of infringement.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Gillman, Rayna, 1941-

Create your own free-form quilts : a stress-free journey to original design/Rayna Gillman.

p. cm.

ISBN 978-1-60705-250-0 (soft cover)

1. Quilting. I. Title.

TT835.G57 2011

746.46--dc22

2011015716

Printed in China

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

dedication

With love and thanks to Helene, whose long-ago advice to sew therapy strips was the impetus for this book. Over the years, she has taught me more about good design by osmosis than any formal training could have done.

acknowledgments

With special gratitude to Rachel, who agreed to be a guinea pig for some of my UFO (unfinished object) experiments and kept me company when I needed it. To my artist friends, who kept me sane while I juggled book and exhibit deadlines and tried to find time to make art. You know who you are. To Jessica, proofreader extraordinaire, without whom my book would have been much wonkier. And to Marty, who never complained when I left him alone so I could write—all my love, as always.

Special thanks to my intrepid editor, Lynn Koolish, and to the terrific staff at C&T.

You are the best!

contents

introduction

how to use this book

getting started

Get organized • Sorting fabrics • What to do with the uglies

start stripping

Gather your tools • Put away the ruler • Cutting strips • Freehand cutting and sewing Don’t worry about the ¼″ seam

slice, dice, combine

What if? • Variations on a theme • Adding strips • Changing proportions But, wait ... there’s more! • The no-recipe recipe • Making multiples

a square is a square is a square

What size square? • What size strips? • Work quickly and intuitively • Split square Thin strips • Where to go from here • What if you’d rather fuse?

add, subtract, multiply, divide

Keep an open eye and an open mind • Accidental multiples • Deliberate multiples

fearless color

Anything goes • You don’t need a color wheel • How can you tell what works? Trust your instincts • Leaving the safe zone • Making color choices • Be fearless with color! Color communicates • A word about value • A word about personality • Creating a color bridge

reinventing UFOs with strips and bits

Reinventing a block • Use what’s at hand • What was I thinking? • Reinventing a quilt top

Why is it unfinished? • Deconstructing a UFO • Reconstructing a UFO Creating leftovers as you go • Make lemonade from lemons

designing on the wall

The vertical advantage • Ad hoc design • Creating modules • Slow design Good composition needs slow design • Working with hand-printed cloth Putting it together • Be prepared for change

about the author

resources

When all else fails, sew strips, said my friend Helene when I had a bad case of blank design wall syndrome in 2001. She called it therapy sewing, and indeed, she was right. That day, I cut dozens of fabric strips from my stash of hand-dyed and commercial fabrics. Then I sewed my heart out, putting one next to the other without thinking about color or value or what went with what. The sew don’t think process made me feel immensely better—until the next day, when I was faced with a stack of strips all going in the same direction and looking rather clunky.

Sew-don’t-think strips

Out came the rotary cutter

Reviews for Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts

[merriejo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

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.