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-   -   What is your take on 'modern' quilts? (https://www.quiltingboard.com/main-f1/what-your-take-modern-quilts-t236659.html)

oksewglad 12-16-2013 12:10 PM


Originally Posted by stillclock (Post 6459394)
i wanted to add something about long arm and/or heavy, ornate free motion quilting. i remember the first time i saw a quilt with a complicated over all pattern and i didn't understand how it was made. now i do, but i increasingly find the quilting overwhelming. far too often it takes precedence over the piecing and composition of the quilt and frankly i find the machined precision cold and mechanistic, often in terrible collision with the harmony of the colour and pattern choices. this is not to say the artistry is less, or the skill somehow less than handquilting or anything of the sort. it's just one aspect of the evolution of quilting that i don't find at all alluring.

aileen

Well said.

justflyingin 12-16-2013 12:39 PM

What's the difference again between "modern" and "contemporary" quilting? Maybe we can start a new thread...

RST 12-16-2013 12:54 PM

I'd say that batiks fall into the realm of contemporary. Solids and specific large scale prints are prevalent in modern. Contemporary is often traditional designs done in updated fabrics or colorways. Modern is more likely to be innovative or improvisational. Contemporary will go with stitch in a ditch or pantographs, and is more likely to be minimal. Modern is most likely to be straight line quilting or improv free motion, and fairly heavy.

For starters.

ghostrider 12-16-2013 02:16 PM


Originally Posted by RST
I'd say that batiks fall into the realm of contemporary. Solids and specific large scale prints are prevalent in modern. Contemporary is often traditional designs done in updated fabrics or colorways. Modern is more likely to be innovative or improvisational. Contemporary will go with stitch in a ditch or pantographs, and is more likely to be minimal. Modern is most likely to be straight line quilting or improv free motion, and fairly heavy.

I think you are being far too limiting in every case with such narrow parameters. For instance, modern traditionalism, the updating of classic quilt blocks and designs, is very often used by modern quilters. Two examples from the 2012 Boston Modern Quilt Guild show in Lowell, MA.

Dreaming in Color, by Jen Boucher (an Elizabeth Harman pattern)

http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/13/49/59/13/dreami10.jpg

Not Your Mother's Sampler, by Jane Fitzpatrick (a Laurie Smith pattern)

http://i39.servimg.com/u/f39/13/49/59/13/not_yo10.jpg

There is much overlap between modern and contemporary, and with good reason. Modern grew out of contemporary, to the extent that the main 'parents' of the modern movement, contemporary quilters/designers Denyse Schmidt and Weeks and Ringle, now call themselves modern, no longer contemporary.

The Modern Quilt Movement (and therefore the modern quilts produced) is intentionally very loosely defined. To do otherwise would limit the innovation, the improvisation, and the freedom of the design style...the very things at its heart.

RST 12-16-2013 02:41 PM

Ghostrider -- was not trying to be definitive but rather broad strokes tendencies as I've observed them. I think that looking through a flickr stream of Modern Quilts gives a good sense of the variety, but also of the prevailing flavor. And I'll stand by my comment about batiks being a contemporary choice, but largely shunned by modern quilters. Doubtless someone will pull up tons of examples of modern batik quilts to prove me wrong. But it's my observation that batiks are not used by the modern quilters who I follow.

JNCT14 12-17-2013 01:54 AM

I found a couple of mistakes in the measurements but fortunately on the larger side so I could trim off the excess. I did not use the kit, just the directions. I don't buy kits - they are expensive and I generally buy more to add to my collection.

Originally Posted by MeLuvQuilts (Post 6459181)
I do like this design, but did you have problems with the instructions? I made a quilt by the same designers a while back, and I was really disappointed. It was also a kit, and there wasn't enough yardage. But, I wasn't sure if I cut it incorrectly. As far as the modern, I am pretty eclectic - I just love textiles and the beautiful art that women (mostly but not always) make with them.


Sandygirl 12-17-2013 03:37 AM


Originally Posted by Holice (Post 6458906)
It appears to me that the style has evolved somewhat over the past two or three years and has become more mainstream.

I agree! Walk into a "modern" quilt shop and you will see mid-life ladies shopping there. Some of the formerly "dark" shops have brightened up the last few years. One shop near me used to be the Kansas Troubles capital in the area....is now the Kaffe Fassett headquarters.

sandy

Sandygirl 12-17-2013 03:44 AM


Originally Posted by RST (Post 6458092)
Quite honestly, I've never once seen zippers or really any dimensional applique or "Stuff" on modern quilts. I do recall when it was all exciting to put beads, ribbons, lace, trinkets, recycling, bangles, sequins, etc. on quilts, usually wallhangings. That was one trend I had to step far away from. Shudder.

the History Museum in St Louis, MO has (or had) a crazy quilt made in the 1800's, hanging in their textile room. It had a dead bird embellishing it. (Maybe it was a squirrel, been a few years!)! Also other creepy embellishments. It was fascinating; pieced with velvets and silks.
Modern in its day!

GailG 12-17-2013 03:54 AM

I think of a quilt as a comfortable pair of pajamas. Pajamas can be made of traditional type fabrics and designs as well as with more modern types of fabrics and design. They should all be comfortable.

maminstl 12-17-2013 08:40 AM

1 Attachment(s)
I'm just now trying to decide how to quilt this - will definitely be straight lines of some kind. I'm showing it [ATTACH=CONFIG]452125[/ATTACH]as an example of what I consider contemporary. The fabric and white space make it that, however the block itself and the way it's put together is, in my mind, traditional. It is the Swoon pattern.


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