Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Fabulous freeform filler strips

Quilter, author, and pattern designer Gail Garber has come up with another winning concept for interpreting traditional quilt patterns in a more contemporary style. She calls her technique Freeform Fillers—they’re basically curved rows filled with a variety of foundation-pieced designs such as Flying Geese and Picket Fence. These colorful pieced fillers can be used to create an entire quilt, or they can simply add a dramatic border or center to your next project. As you can see from these photos, Gail's fillers have a graceful swooping and dipping bird-like quality, not surprising when you learn Gail is also director of Hawks Aloft, a New Mexico non-profit organization that works to protect indigenous wild birds.



Gail outlines her technique and shows you how to design your own fillers in the July 2011 issue of American Quilter magazine, which will be mailed to AQS members the first week of June. If you’re not yet an AQS member or if you joined after May 3, 2011, you can purchase this issue on newsstand in mid-June or order a copy now through our member services department at 800-626-5420. (This issue is supersized to 114 pages and features all the winning quilts from both the Lancaster and Paducah AQS shows. It's always a quick sellout.)


And if you want to explore Gail’s technique even more, check out her book Flying Colors – Design Quilts with Freeform Shapes & Flying Geese (C&T Publishing), available for purchase at http://www.americanquilter.com/books_supplies/item_detail.php?id=8319.

3 comments:

  1. I have the book flying colors and I LOVE it! It really fits the bill for helping an intermediate to advance quilter design her own quilts using some of Gail's great ideas. This one looks interesting too!

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  2. I love the idea of free-form piecing and often employ it in my designs as well. Thanks for sharing!

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  3. hi from a french friend !!
    thanks AQM for giving news from the usa quilters world of life !!

    i came back from Paducah one month ago and enjoyed a big trip from Chicago to NYC, from museum to quilt shop ... wonderful trip ... with always good time with american people so kind with me, poor french quilter crossing midwest !!!

    bye bye and thanks for all news
    Florence Ferré
    french quilter
    french south guild chairman

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