According to the national Modern Quilt Guild, modern quilts have certain characteristics that classify it as a modern quilt. A modern quilt usually has several of these characteristics, but may have just one.
From their website, these include, but are not limited to:
• the use of bold colors and prints
• high contrast and graphic areas of solid color
• improvisational piecing
• minimalism
• expansive negative space
• alternate grid work
• "Modern traditionalism" or the updating of classic quilt designs
Here are a few photos of quilts that I took at QuiltCon 2015 in Austin, TX.
This quilt is "Shapes" an original design by Linda Hungerford. It was displayed at QuiltCon 2015 as part of the Bias Tape Quilting Challenge. Her blog is here. It's modern quilting characteristics are:
- the use of bold colors and prints
- high contrast and graphic areas of solid color
- expansive negative space
This is "Modern Mojo 2" an original design by Linda Thielfoldt of The Quilted Goose. It was displayed at QuiltCon 2015 in the Minimalist Design category. Her facebook page is here. It's modern characteristics are:
- improvisational piecing
- minimalism
- expansive negative space
This quilt is an original design by Judy Durant. A post about this quilt can be found here. It was displayed at QuiltCon 2015 in the Small Quilts category. It's modern characteristics are:
This quilt is an original design by Kristy Daum using the traditional flying geese and Ohio star patterns. She has updated these classic designs by having them in an irregular layout (alternate grid), lots of background space without quilt blocks, and using bright colors/prints. It was displayed at QuiltCon 2015 in the Use of Negative Space category. Her blog is here. It's modern characteristics are:
Interest in modern quilting has really grown in the last decade. It began when quilters started making quilts that didn't fit into the accepted definition of quilts at that time. They were making quilts using styles, colors, fabrics and patterns that hadn't been seen recently, if ever. People across the country, and throughout the world started finding each other through the internet's social media resources, and sharing their non-traditional ideas and creations with each other. Quilters began blogs to document what they were making, and a whole new generation of quilters were inspired. Quilters began using solid color fabrics, bright colors, irregular layouts and piecing their quilts without patterns and templates. Because of this, what we now call "the modern quilt movement" was born.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the characteristics of modern quilts!
-Becky
- the use of bold colors and prints
- alternate grid work
This quilt is an original design by Kristy Daum using the traditional flying geese and Ohio star patterns. She has updated these classic designs by having them in an irregular layout (alternate grid), lots of background space without quilt blocks, and using bright colors/prints. It was displayed at QuiltCon 2015 in the Use of Negative Space category. Her blog is here. It's modern characteristics are:
- use of bold colors and prints
- expansive negative space
- alternate gridwork
- modern traditionalism
Interest in modern quilting has really grown in the last decade. It began when quilters started making quilts that didn't fit into the accepted definition of quilts at that time. They were making quilts using styles, colors, fabrics and patterns that hadn't been seen recently, if ever. People across the country, and throughout the world started finding each other through the internet's social media resources, and sharing their non-traditional ideas and creations with each other. Quilters began blogs to document what they were making, and a whole new generation of quilters were inspired. Quilters began using solid color fabrics, bright colors, irregular layouts and piecing their quilts without patterns and templates. Because of this, what we now call "the modern quilt movement" was born.
I hope you have enjoyed reading about the characteristics of modern quilts!
-Becky
