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

Truly, this book has been a game-changer for me. I took a quilting class years ago, and just couldn't grasp the meticulous details, so I never quilted again. After I read this book, it opened up a whole new world of quilting to me. I'm more of a big-picture person and adore the spontaneity and creativity promoted by the author. I created a wall hanging, potholders, and mug rugs using the techniques, with more to com!. Free-form quilts further launched my discovering "slow stitch" and embroidery. I am eternally grateful to the author for showing me that my style has value. The whole process has been a saving grace, particularly as a mindful process during the pandemic.

I highly recommend this book. Rayna describes the iterative nature of making a free-form or improvisational quilt from start to finish. She has lots of photos showing design possibilities and gives you advice for how to start and improve your designs. I have been making improv quilts for a long time and I still learned from this book. Wish I'd had it when I started on my own--lots of help for beginners to this style of quilting.

This had great examples of the way the designers got ideas for colors and shapes after they had photographed nature and other scenic places.I was excited about getting the book thinking it was a how to guide. But I misunderstood. It explains how the artists had taken photos and viewed those photos to abstractly replicate the colors, shapes etc to get the same feel in a fabric pieced hanging.

I'm a person who needs a little leeway with quiltmaking. Sometimes my quarter inch seam is a bit closer to a half inch and my corners are not always perfectly matched. Anyhow, you get the picture. Then along comes this book by Rayna Gillman, and boing! My wonky way of quiltmaking is right in style. She goes down a path that I am happy to follow. I AM a free-form kind of person, and her quilts are SO, so perfect for me. I should also mention her color choices. I love them! If you like bright and unusual, you'll like them too. From the very first look at this book, I was crazy about it. She explains everything so clearly, and it all makes sense in an odd way. They're not old-fashioned looking unless you are familiar with the Gees Bend quilts, then you'll see a similarity. The first thing she tells you is something a friend told her, "When all else fails, sew strips ..." That was easy for me because I already had piles of strips cut just waiting for some inspiration. If you too need inspiration you'll find it here. I can joyously and heartily recommend this book. Many, many other quiltmakers will love it too.

I think I skimmed every book in the fabric store and online before I purchased this book.Traditional quilting both intimidated and bored me a little with its predictable symmetry. With this type of quilting, each "block" is totally different-an original piece of art. You don't have to know anything about quilting in order to enjoy this book. You can put any color combination together that you want ands the more they seem to clash, the better the design. Basically, you cut fabric into varying widths, throw all of them in a pile and then pull out strips and sew them together lengthwise. After you have made a block of any sort, you slice it in half, diagonally, etc. and keep adding more strips until you are satisfied with the way it looks. The "blocks" appear very intricate, colorful and artistic. Rayna has very basic directions that go step-by-step and encourage you to exercise your creativity. It's great to have a new hobby and this one is freeing and fun

I’m sorry quilting world this book just didn’t offer me what I expected. It was repetitive and the examples were dark and uninteresting. It reminded me of taking old clothing or reject dying scraps and trying to make something of it. I found very little inspiration.

You can tell Rayna has great taste and design ability. I am sad to be late to the show as it appears she's no longer teaching live anymore. I wish she'd offer this as an online class. I ordered on Kindle and it was hard to see the images well without a lot of extra clicking to enlarge. In retrospect, I wish I'd ordered the book. But I would highly recommend this to anyone who wants to be inspired to quilt in a non-traditional way.

I ordered this book from Amazon site unseen and am thrilled with it. Rayna gives multiple examples of different free-form piecing methods and how to work with the fabric in your stash. She also presents a theory on color which is unique but agreeable. The instructions are simple and clear and the idea quilts are inspiring. I have about 50 art quilt books in my library, some of which are not very inspiring. This book is quickly becoming one of my favorites. I also have Rayna's book Creating your Own Hand Printed Cloth and found the two books compliment each other. If you like making art quilts or just want to have fun while working with fabric, get this book.

I love this book. It has such great instructions and photos.

An excellent book, full of wonderful ideas of how to use your scraps.

Found it very inspiring. Perhaps more for beginners (which I am), gave me plenty of inspiration and encouraged me to explore more unconventional methods. I liked the use of explosive colours. You basically get the idea very early on in the book, and begin using the techniques straight away. Worth buying and having in your collection.

I am a reasonably proficient 'traditional quilter' and had just finished a large sampler quilt (using Lynne Edwards book) and was looking for some inspiration to do something less prescriptive. Rayna's book hit the nail on the head for me. It paces you through freeing up your techniques and as my quilt grew I was slicing and dicing with alacrity, using up scraps and incorparating my less than favourite fabrics. The later chapters of the book give you confidence in bringing your reformed scraps together into a quilt. I've now made a quilt, it really got me going on free form quilting with confidence, I may need to buy another book to help me expand my free form techniques.

As I read through this book I felt that it was a good list of ways to make the quilts, but at the end of the day, these are the sort of ideas that would be familiar to those used to working creatively.It was well illustrated and written.