mea12

I expect a blend of old with new also. I never dreamed anyone would mix batiks with civil war era prints but I'm seeing more and more of that and it works! so what we used to call gingham "country" prints might be used w/ modern patterns and fabrics mixed in or maybe the reverse of that. i think we already see quite a lot of traditional patterns made w/ modern prints. there will be another "new" trend in quilts and it'll be interesting to see what that might be. In home decor, the salvage/industrial look is popular mixed with modern and i for one, really like rooms that have that unique balance going on.

feline fanatic

Not to hijack the thread, but hand quilting is alive and well. I used to hand quilt but I have too many quilts inside of me that need to get out. I may still do a hand quilted quilt again but I love quilting on my LA. Hand quilting is still appreciated and winning ribbons. The Japanese have totally embraced the art and are taking all the top ribbons for it in bed size quilts. AQS shows have a separate hand quilted category for bed size quilts and wall quilts. IMHO hand vs machine is like comparing oranges and apples, they are both fruits but entirely different. Smaller shows usually don't have the resources to award prizes for many different categories so the judges must take into consideration every single aspect of both quilts and the one that has the most points win. A quilt could be exquisitely hand quilted but the judges have take into consideration more than just the quilting when awarding the best of show. There is visual impact, precision of piecing, binding and even if quilted straight lines are indeed straight. For all you know, only one point could have made the difference between the whole cloth and the BOS machine quilted quilt.

Thankfully the bigger shows do have separate categories for hand and machine (as it should be IMHO) and they offer hand quilting as a separate category with big prizes. Big thanks to the sponsors who donate the prize money for these categories because otherwise it wouldn't be a category of its own. So fear not Illinois, hand quilting is not a dieing art, heck it isn't even in intensive care. Go to an AQS show and you will see hand quilting with ribbons.

nanna-up-north

Count me in as another Primitive/Civil War era quilt lover. The colors are "ME" and the styles are to die for. I do see a lot of the '60's' modern look more and more often when I shop or look through quilt books. That's fine, but I lived in the 60's, and I'm kinda done with it. I'm staying in my comfort zone with my style. I once took lessons from a tailor that told me, you know what you like, stick with it.

So, my only magazine at the moment is the Primitive Quilts.... just love all their stuff.

scrapnut

I LOVE the traditional quilts, but I must confess I am guilty of creating more of the modern quilts for one reason...SPEED. I can complete a modern quilt so much quicker than the traditional quilts. I still work full time and quilting is my therapy. I love seeing finished results. My plan is to go back to the traditional quilt styles once I retire.
I am purchasing all the fabric and toys I will need to complete these quilts now while I'm employed. HEY!!! Stop laughing. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

msrosecooks

Also,Love your quilting!!!! I will always love the look of prim, country quilts. For me, this just says quilting to me......

crafty pat

I feel a lot of new quilters start with modern because they are easy to make and they can be finished fast but once they have been at it awhile they want to move on and try new and more difficult patterns. That is where the traditional patterns come in. As an older quilter I love traditional and art quilts. Some quilters I know love to look at art quilts but never wanted to make one. I guess it has to do with taste and how much one wants to put unto a quilt. When I do a painting a lot of times I don't have any idea of what I want to paint until I get started. I am that way with quilting I find fabrics I love and let it lead me to what pattern to use for it. I don't pay much attention to trends, I just make what I like.

MargeD

While some trends may come and go, I think there will always be quilters who are traditionalist, contemporary, modern, country, etc., etc. I tend to go with what strikes my fancy at the time, as I can't classify myself either a traditionalist or contemporary quilter.

HouseDragon

One of the reasons I love Log Cabin quilts is that they look fantastic no matter what they are made from: Country, Civil Way Repros, Feed Sacks and Thirties Repros, Tula Pink or Kaffe Fasset, or Batiks, or even a mix.

As for hand quilting, I learned ~ long, long ago, my friends ~ to hand piece and hand quilt back when machine quilting was forbidden from being entered in a show. It was a long year of BOM: I reached the stage where we'd sandwiched our quilts and I think I'd quilted maybe seven or eight of the blocks. Disaster struck when our male cat got locked in the linen closet where I kept my quilt "safe" when I wasn't working on it. You can see where this is going. You cannot work on a quilt with male cat pee! I followed the instructions from the LQS owner/teacher to carefully soak the quilt. We had been told to use our fabric "as is" and, you guessed it, the fabrics ran all over each other. The end of the story, the unfinished quilt disappeared at some point and I never made another one until forty years later when rotary cutters, etc., etc. etc., arrived on the scene. Those wonderful tools are the reason quiltmaking became my passion!

This sad story is also the reason I pre-wash.

I admire those who hand quilt and believe they deserve to be judged separately in shows.

Bree123

Hmmm... around here in Illinois they actually are judged separately. Part of me struggles a bit with that because there are usually only one or two entries in that category versus other categories where there are dozens. But I guess, on the other hand, just finishing a large quilt by hand is prize-worthy. We had someone at our LQS Quilt Show last year that just finished a Queen-size Bargello Lone Star quilt that was pieced & quilted by hand. I was kind of sad there was nothing else in that category, but I'm sure she would have won regardless; it was a truly beautiful quilt.

oksewglad

Always interesting to hear discussion on this topic...
Traditional quilts will be made in my house. Why? Because I have to use up my stash....But I like the symmetry that traditional designs exemplify and the warmth the colors exhibit.
Just as in any genre of quilting styles there is good design decisions to go along with the bad. I do get a little frustrated when quilts are made of more modern fabrics using traditional patterns and they are "sold" as being "new". Tula Pink's City Scape sampler is just one example of using a more "modern" approach to quilt block design and quilt settings. Recently my sister was surprised to see that I have her book as I am very symmetrical thinking in my design process using traditional fabrics, but her "out of the traditional block box" appealed to my desire to stretch my creativity. (I have all 100 blocks cut from scraps of batiks waiting to be sewn, as well as working on both Farmer's Wife samplers using CW fabrics in one and KT and JoM type fabrics in the other.)
As previously mentioned, the simpler techniques will spur on the desire to try something more difficult. After all how many of us started on the lowly 9P or 4P before we started on more complex designs.