No Rules

I have been considering making a free-style quilt. I like to think that I'm not bound by quilting 'RULES', but I know I am--because I never just grab my fabric and start slashing and cutting unless I have a pattern right smack in front of me. I'm not afraid to alter a pattern, change colors, add a little make-do look to a quilt etc., but when it comes to leaving my ruler in the drawer or locking up the patterns? blerk! I start getting a little queasy.:) What struck me today, is the fact that I have two quilt books in my possession that actually advocate this 'No Rules' method AND THEY WERE PUBLISHED 19 YEARS APART! The Roberta Horton book was published in 1990 and her method was geared toward making an African-American quilt. (Way before Gee's Bend influence!) She says this process would help 'a quilter unused to working within the the freedom of variation, asymmetry, improvisation, and movement'. (That's me--spot on.) Then I found my Piece O' Cake book which was published in 2009. In this book they cheerfully push the quilter toward 'the process of working in a freer and more organic manner' citing the fact that this process is Hard to do at first. I spent so many years learning how to do things correctly (and ofttimes failing miserably) that I find it a bit ironic that now I want to go back to the 'I don't have a clue what I'm doing' look!