Dec 10, 2010

Liberated and Improvisational Quilting


What is Liberated, Wonky, and Improvisational Quilting?

The term was first introduced when Gwen Marston published her iconic Liberated Quiltmaking and opened up the world of quilting to the ideas of process quilting. Unlike traditional quilting where one simply followed patterns and used templates, liberated quilting is more about the free piecing of non-traditional elements without sacrificing our quilting roots of the patterns we have loved in the past.

So whether you are looking for wonky houses, stars, asterisks, barns, baskets,birds, butterflies, fish, hearts, nine patches, crosses or pluses, flowers, letters, space ships, spools, strings, or wonky and liberated ideas and patterns of all kinds. You've come to the right place!


As an ardent liberated quilter, I am sharing my own collection of ideas, links, and process 'patterns' and tutorials to give you a jump start into the world of Liberated Quilting, as is opening up and continuing today. Thanks to a whole new generation of quilters, as well as the wonderful world of the utilitarian quilts as demonstrated by the Quilters of Gee's Bend and others...ideas and techniques abound and books and other forms of tutelage are coming into free play.

So, whether you love Gwen Marston, or you're just a free spirited or modern quilter, today, Gwen led the way by showing all of us the the process she was using to create her non-traditional quilts. In that process, she discovered a variety of new quilting ideas involving piecing. The idea of liberated or wonky, free-pieced houses and liberated stars was born...and it has only continued to grow in leaps and bounds since that day.

Welcome to the Wonky World of Liberated Quilting!

wonky: adjective
1) rickety, shaky, wobbly, wonky; inclined to shake as from weakness or defect;
"a rickety table"; "a wobbly chair with shaky legs"; "the ladder felt a little wobbly"; "the bridge still stands though one of the arches is wonky"
2) askew, awry(p), cockeyed, lopsided, wonky, skew-whiffturned or twisted toward one side;

Great List of Wonky, Free-Pieced, or Liberated Quilt Block Patterns, Techniques or Ideas:...use these to understand the liberated process and jump start your own ideas!

Asterisks by Tonya Ricucci
Baskets from Basket Full of Scraps by Sujata
Birds, Free Piecing Tutorial by Lynne of Patchery Menagerie
Butterflies, Wonky Free Piecing Tutorial by Lynne
Butterfly BlockTutorial by Mrs. Schmenkman Quilts
Charming Butterfly Blocks by Ferne
Crazy Nine-Patch Lattice Quilt by Oh! Fransson
Cross or Plus Quilt from Sew Mama Sew
Crumb Chaos from Patti at Quilting... is Still My Passion
Curved strip piecing tutorial by Brenda of Strips and Strings
Disappearing 9-Patch with Pieced Hearts by Block'n Swaps
Free Pieced Flower by Sarah (Kromama)
Free Pieced Letters by Brenda of Scraps and Strings
Free Pieced Rose Tutorial shared With Heart and Hands
Free-style Tree from Sophie Junction
Fungly Challenge from Tonya Ricucci
Hand Quilting without a Hoop
houses (Wonky Houses) by Tonya Ricucci, the Unruly Quilter
Liberated Rose: Free-Piecing Roses by Michele from With Heart and Hands
Orphans Blocks Tutorial by Finn, Pieces from My Scrapbag
Red Cross Block Tutorial by Camp Follower Bags
Scrappy Heart (6 inch) Quiltingabout.com
Scrappy Pieced Heart into a Liberated logs quilt
String Fish Aquarium by Ruthie
Strings ~ Hearts from Mary at MaryQuilts.com
Letters. . . We've Got Letters by Sharon of Indigo Threads
Strip Pieced Letters by Brenda of Strips and Strings
Liberated Amish 2010 Get Together
Liberated Basket from Blocks n Swaps
Liberated Spiderweb block - no paper
Mary Quilts Wonky Rails from Maryquilts.com
Sarah London's Selvage Star tutorial is a 28 page PDF
Slash and Stack Wonky Blocks from Blocks n Swaps
Strip Pieced Letters by Brenda of Strips and Strings
Strings ~ Marys Patriotic Star from Maryquilts.com
String Quilting:Tutorial and Free Patterns
Taking the Leap Challenge from Tonya Ricucci
Tic-Tac-Toe (8 inch) from Sophie at Sophie's Junction
Tiny Wonky (Maverick) Stars by Bonnie Hunter
Twinkle, Twinkle, Wonky Star from Sew Take a Hike
Waverunner by Victoria at Bumble Beans
Wavy Seams Log Cabin from Pink Chalk Studio
Wonky butterfly by Lynn at the Patcherie Menagerie
Wonky Scrappy I Spy log cabin by Sarah, Kromama
Wonky Drunkard's Path from Quilting About.com
Wonky Houses by Tonya, the Unruly Quilter pdf
Wonky/improvisational log cabins from Jenny at Blempgorf
Wonky log cabin by Jacquie at Tallgrass Prairie
Wonky or Maverick Star by Victoria The Silly Boo Dilly
Wonky RWB Rails (PDF file) by Maryquilts
Wonky Seams block from Pink Chalk Studio
Wonky Star Block from The Silly Boo Dilly
Wonky Star Ring Tutorial by Zonnah
Wonky Shoo Fly from Sophie's Junction
Wonky Spools from Quilter's Cache
Wonky Squares-in-Squares Block from Quilt Dad
Wonkytown from Tonya Ricucci


Liberated Links:
Liberated Quilting Blog
Liberated Quilters Yahoo Chat Group
Liberated Quilters Blog & Liberated Quilters Message Board Quilt for AAQI
Tonya Ricucci, the Unruly Quilter
Bonnie K. Hunter, Quiltville: Strings and Crumbs
HeartStrings Quilt Project
Wonky Tidbits:
Advice from Tonya Riccuci, The Unruly Quilter:
UnRuly Piecing Basics - UnRuly Basics Pdf


Strip Piecing Letters: Learn by watching the Progress:
Letters. . . We've Got Letters by Sharon of Indigo Threads
Strip Pieced Letters by Brenda of Strips and Strings
Letters by Lynne of the Patchery Menagerie
Wonky Alphabet Letters Lynne's fabulous work...check her letters in progress

Photos and ideas:

Flickr: Free Pieced Quilting Pool
Liberated Amish Challenge 2010
Tonya Riccuci's Fall/Winter Class of 2007
House, Home and Pantry - Fall 2008

Books of Interest:

Liberated String Quilts
Liberated String Quilts
Gwen Marston

Liberated Quiltmaking
Liberated Quiltmaking
Gwen Marston

Collaborative Quilting
Collaborative Quilting
Freddy Moran, Gwen Marston

Ideas and Inspirations: Abstract Quilts in Solids
The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place
The Quilts of Gee's Bend: Masterpieces from a Lost Place
William Arnett, Alvia Wardlaw, Jane Livingston, John Beardsley

Product Details
Word Play
Tonya Ricucci

Shown at top:
Liberated Rose:Free Piecing Tutorial
My little "Liberated Rose"art quilt may be only 9" x 12". On display this fall at the 2010 Houston International Quilt Festival,it was part of the:Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative and my own Liberated Quilting Challenge.

AAQI links of note:
Art Quilters Finance New Alzheimer's Discovery
AAQI For Sale page and ongoing QUILT AUCTION
Ami Simms and AAQI Quilts onThe Quilt Show
http://www.alzquilts.org/loatallqu.html

Liberated Quilters make 16 quilts to fight Alzheimer's: http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/2010/03/liberated-quilting-challenge.html
Liberated Quilting... | Facebook
Liberated Quilting Blog shares news of AAQI-funded research! Liberated Quilting Challenge: Unraveling Alzheimer's: Simple small molecules could untangle ...
www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid...id... - Cached
Twitter / Alzheimer's Art Quil: Liberated Quilting Blog sh ...
Liberated Quilting Blog shares news of AAQI-funded research! http://fb.me/FNzoBHSF.
twitter.com/AAQIUpdate/status/14367857865400321 - Cached


Follow the AAQI on TwitterMichele Bilyeu quilts for AAQI..the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative. Won't you please join us? :)

5 comments:

Shelina (formerly known as Shasta) said...

That was a good show. I saw your last name a couple of times, and Paula, of course. Amazing that I know both of you through blogging.

Clare said...

Hey you over there.

I can't watch the video as it will take up my quota.

However, why not keep this Challenge going? Not just for 2010, but for as long as it will run. Nancie and I have got a lot planned for 2011 on the Yahoo group (I didn't say that!), but there is no reason why this shouldn't keep running pn in the background.

Hugs
xxxx

Clare said...

Oh poo - that dratted French keyboard again. I meant "on in the background". Is there such a word as pn?
xx

Finn said...

I'm with Clare(not in France, but in spirit)why not just continue on.> With such success, why stop? Think about it my goal setting friend! Hugs, Finn

Kathleen C said...

I'm with all of you, too.
I came here today in order to send a link of your blog, Michele, and this post to a friend of mine who is learning to quilt. I'll introduce her to liberation and AAQI at the same time.