Strips and Squares with Rayna Gillman

One of the workshops Sue took at Celebration was on improvisational piecing with Rayna Gillman.  We learned her methods for creating strips and squares to create building blocks for a quilt based on her book, Create Your Own Free Form Quilts.

Strips of varying widths are cut free form (without a ruler) and stitched together. Then sometimes cut crosswise and inserted between other strips.  Or built out as a square in a square.  Solids and prints are needed.  Curvy and uneven are more interesting than straight.  Following your instincts is more important than planning. Repetition is important to unify the whole.

Above are examples of units made by Rayna - strips and squares - that can be the foundation of a quilt.

Below are some of Sue's building blocks.

 Here, everyone is hard at work playing with their fabrics.

Once you've got enough pieces, you can start working with them on your design wall to find a pleasing arrangement, and figure out what else you need to fill in.

Here are Sue's pieces stitched together.

Below are some of the other class participants with their creations.

 Sue says it was a fun, low-stress class and process and looks forward to more improvisational piecing.

Free Form Process

Sue shares a bit more about her free form piecing:

I took only a few process photos from piecing the rail fence block.  But the process I used is Rayna Gillman's in her book, Create Your Own Free Form Quilts.  I cut random width strips and did some wonky seams (meaning slightly angled) and gentle curves.  The process for cutting and stitching gentle curves is in her book.

 

Free Form Blocks

A few weeks ago, Sue set about making some blocks to donate for a raffle quilt.  The occasion is her sorority's 50th anniversary coming up next March, so of course the blocks had to be in the sorority colors of pink and green.  While Sue was reorganizing her batiks, she pulled out the pinks and greens that seemed most suitable for this project.  The blocks were to be 10 inches square.  She decided to do some free form/wonky piecing rather than precisely cut pieces.  The 2 blocks she chose to make were a rail fence and a wonky log cabin.  The rail fence block pieces have some gentle curves and random width strips.  Likewise, the wonky log cabin has randomly cut strips.  Sue says it was fun and freeing to piece these free form blocks without having to aim for precision and matched points, and looks forward to doing more!