A review of Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts: A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design
Note: This article was originally published in my Substack, The Wandering Maker Corner.
Have you ever wanted to just grab some fabric and start sewing it together without strict rules or thinking about points meeting? Do you enjoy the look of abstract art quilts and wonder if you could create one? This book by Rayna Gillman will help you to start.
I checked out this book using Kindle Unlimited which is a wonderful way to experience a book or browse different subjects without making a final purchase to download permanently or have a physical copy taking up room on a shelf. In fact, many of the books I will be reviewing in the future will be from my Kindle Unlimited adventures.
Why this book?
The reason I selected this one is I have always wanted to create art quilts and although I have a very extensive collection of quilt books I rarely follow a pattern exactly as shown. I don’t like buying quilt kits. My joy comes from picking out the fabrics even before I have a pattern in mind so you can probably guess that I also have a very large collection of fabric and this book seemed like it could help me with creating unique quilt pieces and use up some of my stash.
What does this book do and not do?
This is a guide book. There are no patterns. There are no hard rules. It shows you how to take your fabric and simply start by sewing strips together. You can work with yardage, scraps or existing blocks to create new looks. There are plenty of images and exercises to help you improvise and create unique pieces.
One of first things it will help you with is how to sort your fabrics if this is something you haven’t already done. If you are like me and are a compulsive fabric hoarder you may already have piles of fabrics separated by color, print, or themes.
Once you have mastered cutting and sewing strips, Rayna will show you how to take the strips and make them into various configurations. This includes making them into creative blocks with or without borders.
My final thoughts
The best piece of advice the book provides you is to be experimental and not be afraid of putting different colors together. The more you do this, the more you will find you can sew with less stress and more joy. If you are ready to let go of patterns and simply cut and sew then this book is for you. However, if you need more structured instructions I would at least recommend taking a look through it to appreciate this format and see how different patterns and colors can make unique projects.
My experiment
I took a few blocks I had in my stash from a class I took several years ago (I don’t get rid of anything) and used the information in this book to start cutting into them as encouraged by this book.
This first image is after I had already started slicing up some the half triangle blocks (like the ones on the far left) to make the rows you see in the center. I forgot to stop and photograph them beforehand.
This next image is where I completed some more slicing and added some purple strips. I will be adding more strips and am considering adding a full border around it to make it looked more like a framed piece of art. (Note: not all sections are sewn together yet as I am testing out if I like it.)
What do you think? Have you created improv quilt blocks or full quilts before? If not, are you ready to try?
