Modern Quilting: What does it mean?

Last week the modern quilt guild blog posted entries about "What does modern quilting mean to you?" I had a post all written in my head and it never got typed out, so I will try to remember my thoughts from last week about "What modern quilting means to me?".

Modern quilting enables me as a sewer/quilter to feel confident enough to create my own patterns and adjust accordingly when they don't come out quite as expected. Modern quilting gives me the freedom to make a quilt with perfectly cut strips but still end up with wonkyish blocks and feel ok about it (because even though I have sewed since I was like 5, I still can't get regular straight lines on my sewing machine). Ultimately modern quilting and the LAMQG gave me enough confidence to call myself a quilter, because until this group existed quilting was always such an intimidating process. The perfectly gorgeous and pink log cabin quilt that resided on my bed growing up, inspired a little bit of fear on my part. My mom is a meticulous quilter and I am not.

The best thing about modern quilting is that it is an expansion of the hand sewn patchwork blankets I have made for years (of which I will try to get some photos of, well the good ones at least). If I think about it I was already modern quilting, because I pick fabric cut out blocks (by hand) and sewed them together (by hand) in the way that felt the most right.

What I appreciate most is the inspiration I get from other quilters blogs, especially those using color combinations I never would have thought of myself, but that look beautiful when finished. My friend Latifah, from LAMQG, always uses colors (and color combinations) that make me a little nervous, but I am always so impressed by the end product.

And although my completed quilts pile is nonexistent (because the only completed one was given away), it turns out I was a modern quilter all along, because the modern quilter aesthetic worked it's way into this years slew of Christmas potholders I made and my current obsession of making project bags, which take such little time. I'll get some photos posted of the potholders and my most recent project bags soon. Free time that was once only spent watching Gossip Girl (ya ya ya, I know), Grey's Anatomy, Big Love and assorted other favorites, is now spent purusing favorite fabrics online (including Heather Ross [her fabric with mermaids makes me want to swim and play in the water even more than normal, which is a lot if you know me], Michael Miller [the zoology fabrics were inspiration for a current hand embroidered baby quilt I am working on] and Joel Dewberry [I literally dream about the jasmine palette of the ginseng line].