Tuesday, March 25, 2014

A Book Review - Rayna Gillman's - Create Your Own Free Form Quilts

Having been a long time "traditional quilter" and relatively new "art quilter" I have lots of bits and pieces of fabric that I have not been able to throw out.
 It is all sorted into strip sizes and cut up into squares waiting for a project or the need for just that little amount of colour. 


I have long been a blog follower of Rayna Gillman and love her style of blogging and thought I could stumble my way through doing some free form quilting of my own. My initial attempts was ok... but lack the zing of pictures I have seen via the internet.


Rayna' book has long been on my list of books to purchase so I ordered it from Amazon. [[ASIN:1607052504 Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts: A Stress-Free Journey to Original Design]] and it arrived swiftly to my mail box. I devoured the book.

Rayna's book is well written and full of wonderful pictures of her work and her friends and students. The book goes through a series of methods and what if's to lead you through the journey of creating one of your own creations. It is full of tips, design principle and suggestions including colour theory.

The book has sparked my creativity. There is no wrong way to create but leads you on an intuitive journey. If you don't like a unit you have created then put it back in "the box" until you may put it in another creation or you may decide to cut it up or add to it some other time.


Now I am off to the races sewing strips, creating units and finding out why or why not I like certain combinations. When you are using up your bits and pieces or even some of your stash in small amounts it is freeing. It enables you to create something that is not a huge investment in money...that you are willing to try things that you may not normally do and you will be in for some surprises too! 


I like the book so much I watched the DVD Rayna did from Interweave - Free Form Fabric Art. The DVD is not as in depth as the book but does give a live visual glimpse of her work.

So the journey continues... I am off to play with strips, pieces and my rotary cutter! 

And thanks to Rayna for sparking my creativity again... 

Warning this process is addictive... 

Have fun! 

Jo