Making it up as you go along.

(p 51 of Signs and Symbols: African Images in African-American Quilts - Maude Southwell Wahlman, Penguin: 1993

There is an African-American tradition of quilting that is rather different from the mainstream. In mainstream quilting one tries for tangram perfection; getting the squares square and the triangles to have points. Often one is repeating the same square several times. In this other tradition one is trying to get the colours to sing and solve the geometrical problems as one goes along, often squares are variations rather than repeats. I have an unusual colour sense and I enjoy making design decisions as late in the making as possible so doing this kind of quilting appeals to me very much. What I like about the end result is complexity and intimacy: having some access to the theory of the making.