RSSFreedom not just another word when making free-form quilts
Terry Lee will teach “Free-Form Quilts” on Saturday at Glenwood Sewing Center in Glenwood Springs.
“Rayna’s Challenge,” a quilt made by Terry Lee of Carbondale, is featured in a book titled “Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts” by Rayna Gillman, a New Jersey fiber artist.
Terry Lee, a Carbondale art quilter, created “Roundabout” from a sketch she developed in a class exercise with instructor Katie Pasquini Masopust at the 2010 Art Quilt Tahoe in California.
QUICKREAD
FREE-FORM QUILT CLASS
■ WHAT: “Free-Form Quilts” taught by Terry Lee, taken from a 2011 book by Rayna Gillman.
■ WHEN: 10:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 25.
■ WHERE: Glenwood Sewing Center, 822 Grand Ave., Glenwood Springs.
■ COST: $43 plus supplies (book required).
■ INFORMATION: 970-945-5900 or http://www.glenwoodsew.com.
Some quilters prefer traditional patterns; others lean toward art quilts. A fair number of us enjoy making both types.
Those who are comfortable with commercial fabrics and patterns may have a hankering to try their hand at more free-form creations, but perhaps feel intimidated or unsure of how to start such a process.
Terry Lee, a quilt artist from Carbondale, remembers how apprehensive she felt when making her first art quilt. During a multiple-day class, Lee’s self-imposed pressure manifested itself as a nervous lump in her throat.
Finally, on the third day, the instructor told her to step back from her work and look at what she had created so far.
“The lump left and I realized ‘I can do this,’ ” Lee says. “And it was terribly exciting.”
That’s exactly what Lee hopes to do for others in a class she’s teaching Saturday, Feb. 25, at Glenwood Sewing Center in Glenwood Springs.
The daylong session on “Free-Form Quilts” will be based on a book titled “Create Your Own Free-Form Quilts” (C&T Publishing) by Rayna Gillman, a New Jersey fiber artist.
Gillman previously has taught in Grand Junction, and Lee was one of her students. In fact, Gillman included a quilt by Lee, and several others of her classmates, in the book, which promises a stress-free journey to original design.
Lee has worked at Glenwood Sewing Center for four years and says she likes to introduce customers to contemporary and more abstract fiber art. Her own quilting journey began in 1993 with traditional styles, then progressed into landscape pieces and finally to designing her own work.
Her free-form quilt class will show students how to sew random strips of fabric together in original designs, a method Gillman finds therapeutic, even meditative. Without patterns or templates or such technicalities as straight edges and matching seams, students can make one-of-kind designs.
The no-rules and no-ruler approach is unpredictable and fun, Gillman writes. One of the author’s goals is to have quilters delete the word “mistake” from their creative vocabulary.
Lee asks her Feb. 25 students to bring scraps, chunks and strips of fabric from other projects, including a wide variety of color values, as well as “some zinger fabrics.”
“If you’re working with subdued fabric, zingers (bright and unexpected) give visual interest” when inserted in bits and pieces, she says.
Even leftover traditional blocks can be cut into segments and incorporated into a fresh and interesting collage, and Gillman devotes a section of her book to reinventing UFOs with strips and bits. UFOs are those unfinished objects we all have tucked in our quilt storage closets.
For Lee, the free-form approach is freeing.
“It’s to help people get comfortable asking ‘what if?’ You sew strips, cut them apart, insert fabric and sew again. There’s no precision about it; you decide what works for you,” she explains.
The quilt Lee has featured in Gillman’s book is titled “Rayna’s Challenge” and measures 12.5 inches by 9.25 inches. The chapter heading is “Case Study of an Ugly Fabric.”
Gillman had hand-dyed and hand-printed a large chunk of fabric, but she wasn’t fond of the pinkish outcome. So she divided it among several students, each piece about 6–8 inches in size, and challenged them to use it however they liked and send her a photo of the result.
“I didn’t think the fabric was ugly at all,” says Lee, who gave her chunk a supportive role in a new design by fusing other elements to it. Seeing her finished quilt in Gillman’s book was rewarding.
Lee finds fulfillment as well in other artistic venues, the performing arts in particular. A pianist by trade, with two degrees in piano performance, she now is preparing for a concert Friday evening at Christ Episcopal Church in Aspen.
But when Lee plays music, she notes that the sound is gone at that moment. Quilting, on the other hand, can be viewed and enjoyed repeatedly.
“The fiber arts world is a delight for me,” Lee says.
She studies often under renowned fabric artists, mentioning Sue Benner and Eleanor Dace, along with Gillman, among those who have influenced her work. Lee looks forward to Art Quilt Tahoe in November, when she’ll learn from art cloth designer Jane Dunnewold. Lee likes to see how other artists approach the creative process, adding that some aspect of their styles “may resonate with me.”
“I hope never to come to the end of my own creative journey,” Lee says. “I hope always to have an opportunity to stretch my brain.”
Her adventures in free-form quilts are sure to do just that.
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