I make my art quilts using a variety of design processes.
I do make some quilts free form, working on my design wall and making choices as I go along. I'm not sure that I can say much more on this.
It is very intuitive.
I enjoy working with others to create a piece. I've done a variety of block exchanges with people. I've done works where you add
one stacked row on top of or below another person's work. I've also done a number of round robin quilts. If you haven't tried a round robin, it is a very good way
to expand your own design sense. You can read more about one specific round robin experience I had and what the group learned from it.
With a number of quilts, I have used a "recipe approach" that I initially learned about through a book by Judy Hopkins.
I like the ability to work with the design wall and
still have some specific guidelines to follow.
For many of my commission pieces, I use the computer to do a lot of the design work. It is a time intensive process, but the time
is well spent in the end. The client gets a pretty realistic sense of what the final piece will look like and I have an easier job during the actual physical construction of the piece. You can read more about
how that process works in my design section called "computer assisted".