Create your own Improv Quilts- Modern Quilting with No Rules and No Rulers by Rayna Gillman Book Review

CREATE YOUR OWN IMPROV QUILTS: MODERN QUILTS WITH NO RULES ; NO RULERS – RAYNA GILLMAN

Create Your Own Improv Quilts: Modern Quilts with No Rules & No Rulers

Rayna Gillman 

C&T Publishing: 

96 pages, softcover

Print version, $27.95; e-book: $22.99

Rayna Gillman just released her newest book called "Create your Own Improv Quilts: Modern Quilts with No Rules & No Rulers by C&T Publishing. I had the wonderful opportunity to be able to catch up with her at The International Quilt Market in Houston this year and get a hold of one of the books! I have been drooling over it ever since.    

If you don't know Rayna yet she is the queen of Improvisational Quilting or quilting by the seat of your pants. I love how she states in her new book that "you wont find patterns here, you will find possibilities!"

I have long been an admirer of Rayna's free style approach to quilting and her encouraging and confident teaching style. It wasn't until 2015 that I was fortunate enough to get the chance to work with her on my online project, The Fiber Art Connection. Rayna jumped in to teach her first online class to a bunch of excited students.  I was drawn to Rayna immediately and we became fast friends. Being a part of that online class was so much fun! I couldn't help but play along with Rayna as she helped everyone overcome their own self doubts and jump into creating blocks with her no ruler, no rules method. 

In her newest book, Create your own Improv Quilts, Rayna steps the reader through the fear of not following a pattern but learning to trust their own intuition and creativity. She does a wonderful job of walking us through the mystery of both Modern Quilting and Improv Quilting.  Rayna encourages each quilter to start by taking small steps and then helps us step into more complicated and complex designs by asking them to push the limits. She encourages us to cut, turn, move and be willing to look at our designs with a new and fresh eye. 

Tilting at Windmills by Rayna Gillman

Going through the book makes you feel like you are creating with a friend, being able to ask questions, use your stash and explore new direction for your quilt design. She continually provides us little nuggets of knowledge  throughout the book in the form of Tips! I love reading the tips throughout the book! 

Rayna is always encouraging us to dig into our stash and use what we have available! With her guidance and wonderful examples of fabric, shapes, color, value, alternative assembly techniques etc your efforts will be rewarded. It takes a good teacher to make us feel comfortable in the design process. Allowing us to fail and redo until we get it right. She shares her successes as well as some less successful pieces to teach us as she helps us grow and stretch our designer eye. Learning how to evaluate your designs just moves you to becoming a better quilter. 

With Rayna's skills as a teacher and her guidance you will be able to create endless quilts using her techniques in this book. Its a must have for every quilters library.  

Win a copy for your Quilting Library!

You have a chance to win a e-copy of Rayna’s book (e-book). Simply share in comments on this post about your favorite quilt style, do you prefer traditional quilts, modern quilts, art quilts, paper piecing, foundation piecing etc, and how might this method book help you improve your quilts? We’ll choose a winner on Sunday, Nov. 26 so make sure you leave a good way to get a hold of you!

Be sure to visit our friends on the tour:

Nov. 10—C&T Publishing

Nov. 13—Cindy Grisdela

Nov. 15—Teri Lucas at Generation Q

Nov. 21—Desiree Habicht at The Clothesline

Nov. 22 – Angie Wilson

Nov. 28—Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Nov. 30—Trisch Price at Hadley Street Quilts

Dec. 5—Melissa Shields at The Quilting Room with Mel

Dec. 7—Patty Altier at Patty the Quilt Lady

Be Happy, Design, Create, Quilt
Desiree Habicht
www.desireehabicht.com (fine art and fiber art site)
www.desireesdesigns.com (quilt pattern, fabric, embroidery site)

The Long Road Home

Its been a crazy few months with trade shows, classes and then Quilt Market in Houston. Market, as its known, is the wholesale side of Quilt Festival. Basically this is where the shops come to look for new goodies for you and their shops. It is also a venue where the fabric companies can show their newest lines of fabric etc. We try and go every year, we have been doing this for about 12 years. Its just so exciting and we get to go in and look at all the amazing quilts before the public has access and its very crowded.

This year market was a bit more exciting with the tail end of Patricia, the hurricane that hit Mexico, making its way through downtown Houston. Everyone was ordered off the streets and there was lots of flooding since 24" of rain fell in 24 hours! We had the luxury of just watching it all from the comfort of our room. Luckily the hotel has a enclosed walkway to the hotel so we could get Jenn across without having to deal with the wheelchair in the rain. But taking Chloe out to go potty was a bit different. Randy braved the elements and always returned soaked, no umbrella works when the rain and wind drive in horizontally.

Our little table at Sample Spree!

My new fabric Lazy Little Lady Bugs displayed at Quilting Treasures Booth

I had a booth next to Quilting Treasures which is my fabric company. It was great for everyone to be together. Here are some of the pictures from my amazing time at market and with some of the artists that will be involved in The Fiber Art Connection! A new online Fiber Art Community that connects the best of the best to students from around the world. Check it out at www.fiberartconnection.com

Me and Cheryl Sleboda

Me and LesleyRiley

Me and Liz Kettle

Me, Rayna Gilman, Jamie Fingal

Me, Lyric Montgomery Kinard and Sue Bleiweiss a big winner this year with her new book out and a winning quilt at Houston!

Leslie Jenison, Lyric Kinard, Jamie Fingal, Deborah Boschert, Me, Kathy York (another winner) and Sue Bleiweiss

Yeah Morna Golletz

Victoria Wolfe and more

We are all coming together to bring you a totally new and exciting online learning experience!!
Check it out at www. fiberartconnection.com