Mavericks

How does one determine if they are a Maverick quilter, if they color outside the lines? Is it in how we put our quilts together, the blocks we scatter helter skelter, the colors we choose or are we "mavericks" because we don't conform to the standard of what a quilter should be? Is it because we act independently, we do our own thing?

Everyone has a different definition of what makes them a "maverick". Mine is in the colors I choose rather than how the pattern is set. My imagination lays in color rather than pattern. You and I could take the same block and by the very fabrics we choose we imprint our quilts with our own signature and originality. How many times do we take a pattern and choose the color of fabric making it different and not what the pattern called for?

What is a style?? Is it the fact we choose the bright vivid yellows, the turquoise, the oranges or the browns, grays and tans? Is it how we set our chosen blocks to the quilt top? Are we Mavericks only because our imagination allows us to see something different than anybody else, to "color outside the lines"?


Autumn leaves blowing in the wind. Scattered over this quilt with no rhyme or reason, with thoughts of leaves falling and rising in the wind.



My son is a free spirit. I called his quilt "Birds in the Air" I spent days laying these blocks out and shifting them around until I made it his. This was the second quilt I ever stitched all by hand with hand quilting. It's one of my favorites quilts. That's me standing by my handiwork. VBG






My favorite niece was graduating from HS, she wanted a quilt. As a beginning quilter I chose a log cabin block, it was easy. I didn't like the standard log cabins. She wanted black and green, I wanted different, something that would grab your eye. It did and I still like the effect.


This is a closeup of the handquilting.








I remember my grandson when he was a little itty bitty boy. He was a clone of his father. He's now a 6'7" handsome young man. He grew out of his young child's quilt and wanted granny to make him a bigger one. He wanted a blue and white, his favorite color is blue. I had these "drunkards path" blocks. I think they look like flower blossoms, I didn't tell him. He's grown out of it again.




When it all comes together, we are mavericks because we do our own thing, be it a "style" or being able to adapt what your vision is to the fabrics you have at hand or take your vision to a higher level of design.

I want to belong to the "Mavericks" but if I don't qualify, I can live with it, it wasn't meant to be.
I'm not a traditional, art, scrap quilter or designer. I do what peeks my interest changing that to be my own. I don't belong in a catagory, I have my visions. I am a "Maverick" in my own mind.