IQF 2014 Post 7: Modern Quilts

These are about a third of the quilts that were in the Modern Quilt Guild's exhibition at Festival 2014. They are the ones, like all the quilts in this series, that really caught my eye. For whatever reason. I kept the MQG exhibit quilts to last because I knew QuiltCon would be following soon after and I thought it might be a nice lede (not 100% sure I'm using that word right). There are a lot of pictures this week, and some detail shots of a good few quilts so I will try and keep the writing short and sweet!

Amazonia by Nathalie Bearden

Amazonia by Nathalie Bearden, a minimalist take on the mystical jungle of her childhood dreams. There is different quilting styles in each of the layers. The quilt was machine pieced and free motion quilted. It reminded me of those block diagrams you learn to draw in geography class, I loved those.

Detail of Amazonia by Nathalie Bearden

Anni Albers' Orange Chair by Martha Peterson

Anni Albers' Orange Chair by Martha Peterson was made for the Seattle Modern Quilt Guild's Binary Challenge, a two colour quilting test. An email ad for Anni Albers' designs sparked some exploration and inspiration from Triangulated Intaglio IV. The lone orange chair made its own way in to this red and white quilt using HSTs in a 'non-traditional setting with irregular negative space'.

City Center by Angie Henderson

City Center by Angie Henderson is a medallion quilt, although the design is Modern Log Cabin by Art Gallery Fabric Staff in Generation Q. Magazine Jan-Feb 2014 edition. The tiny little borders make me the happiest, and then the inserts of perpendicular rectangles and squares within some borders come a close second!

Disruption by Barbara Lockwood

Disruption by Barbara Lockwood is here to play with your mind. Seriously, how did she put this together and not go barmy? It's more than a little bit brilliant. My photo has not done justice to the colours. The inspiration was a traditional Chinese porcelain design, and from Barbara's fascination with tessellations and Escher. To disrupt the orderliness of the pattern and create energy Barbara changed the colours and allowed her quilting to flow from that.

Entropy by Elisa Albury

Entropy by Elisa Albury was conceived from the shapes and negative spaces created by dropping a container of ice-cream sprinkles. And from a distance it did indeed make me think of hundreds and thousands! (Is that an Irish term for sprinkles?) This quilt is fun.

Detail of Entropy by Elisa Albury

Funky Junk by Renee Tallman

Funky Junk by Renee Tallman is just great. It's made of drunkard's path blocks and a quilt top that was sewn together and cut apart 7 times. It got thrown in the bin twice out of frustration. But finally, Renee made this beauty inspired by another quilt she saw once 20 years ago. Renee thinks Funky Junk is now acceptable and she quite likes it. There is some beautiful handstitching too! That is some mad-ass tenacity right there, and that's what makes this quilt my favourite.

Detail of Funky Junk by Renee Tallman

Grand Canal by Casey York, quilted by Ann McNew

Grand Canal by Casey York and quilted by Ann McNew is kind of bland I think, not the quilting - that's spectacular, but the perspective use crossed with the total minimalism is new for me so I'm including it here. The perspective play is based on work of garden designers of the 17th century and this vista is from the gardens of Versailles designed by Andre le Notre. In the 17th century apparently they were all into having it look as if their landscaping extended into almost infinity. Casey has a book on using applique to create illusions of depth if you're interested, more details at the link on her name above.

Detail of Grand Canal by Casey York, quilting by Ann McNew

Homage by Jacquie Gering

Homage by Jacquie Gering is based on the colour principles of Josef Albers (nice to have him now and Anni above!). This quilt illustrates the principles of making one colour appear as two. Jacquie has used Albers' book Interaction of Color as a touchstone while she's grown as an artist so this quilt is aptly named. I enjoyed spending time at this quilt and following the different colours around and watching how my perception of them changed. Maybe more fun to do than describe...?

Only three more quilts lads, we can do it!

Off Center by Charlotte Noll

Off Center by Charlotte Noll was an entry into the MQG's Riley Blake Challenge. The front is appliquéd and I love the spiral in the centre of the crazy whirlpool of colour lightning that's happening here. It's like something that pops out of a cartoon characters head after they've been biffed with a mallet.

The White Rainbow by Shruti Dandekar

The White Rainbow by Shruti Dandekar was a quilt I was really looking forward to seeing in person and it didn't disappoint. I love the idea of writing the rainbow in braille on white fabric and then quilting it trapunto style (never quite sure how to use trapunto in a sentence). Shruti also added some coloured quilting lines among her matchstick quilting so when you get up close and personal with the quilt there is a rainbow hiding there, as well as the slightly larger one in the binding.

Detail of The White Rainbow by
Shruti Dandekar

Tune in Next Week by Chawne Kimber, quilted by Pamela Cole

Finally, we have Tune in Next Week by Chawne Kimber, quilted by Pamela Cole. Another MQG fabric challenge, this time from Michael Miller. The fabric reminded Chawne of Sputnik and early TV antennae and so a mid-century mod design was born. Improv log cabins of irregular sizes 'bounce' around the quilt top and elsewhere 'playful deconstructions of architecture' take place. I'm not a fan of mid-century mod design but in this quilt I clearly see the playful television vibe and I really like the changes in line thickness throughout, just like above. It draws me in and makes me want to stay.

That's it, we're done. I've really enjoyed doing this even if it might have been overwhelming to read? Those of us who aren't going to QuiltCon get to wait for the photos of the quilts that are hanging there to start showing up next weekend. I'm interested to see all the directions people have been heading in, though I guess I have to remember it is a curated exhibition of those directions.