Freestyle Quilting

Mar 10

Written By admin

I'm not one for rules. Or lines. Or patterns. When I was growing up, my mom, an excellent and precise seamstress, would sew all of my dresses for dances, many of my clothes growing up, window treatments....you name it. She's onto baby clothes, of course - and from patterns. Naturally, she would say. Not so natural to me. I always wanted to take the sleeves from one pattern, the skirt from another pattern and the bodice from another pattern and put them together to make the perfect dress for the perfect occasion. Why not? What's the big deal? (My mom is surely smiling right now.)

I've got a messier, not-so-precise approach. Unless I really want to be precise. But that's not often.

Anyway - quilts. My sister-in-law loves fabric, as I do. She went through a quilting stage and made several beautiful, hip quilts. She shared with me the array of quilting philosophy out there: there are some with precise patterns, or no patterns, or the sew-patches-on-top-of-a-sheet idea, or just sew until you get a funky shape and finish it however you want - Freestyle. I had no idea! I virtually ignored the idea of quilting because I could only think of precision and tedious work - no thanks. We need organized mess.

So, I gathered my favorite leftovers and pieced them together. Have a look. What's your quilting style?

May this free you up to quilt how your heart would quilt.....may your unlined-journaling- love spill out into interesting freestyle quilts.....may you not feel strangled by patterns ever again! And whaddya know, it turned out into a pretty close rectangle after all.

And may Amy Butler fabrics make you swoon.