Modern Quilt Month 2022 (4)

We really enjoy modern quilts and examining the design elements that make the finished pieces come alive. Summer seems like the perfect time to feature contemporary quilts, so it's become an annual tradition at Quilt Inspiration. Here is part 1 of Modern Quilt Month for 2022!

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Time On My Hands by Richard Kupferer

 

Time On My Hands is an original design, made and quilted by Richard Kupferer. It won a ribbon for second place in the Modern-Solo category at the 2022 Quilt Arizona show.  Richard says that the pandemic provided "Time On My Hands".  "I used the time to sort fabric scraps and learn software on my spouse’s longarm machine.  My original design addresses pandemic broken plans (piecing) and confusion (mixed quilting)." The interesting quilting really brings this modern quilt to life.

 

 Objective 2020 by Laura Nisi

Laura Nisi turned the Single Girl quilt pattern into a “temperature quilt”,  representing temperature variations in quilted form. The twelve rings in this quilt represent the temperatures of twelve months in quiltmaker Laura Nisi’s home in Minnesota.  “There were no days over 100 degrees or below zero that year, which was a pleasant change from the extremes we often experience,” she said.

The rings show the high temperatures for each day, month by month, with the first day of each month at the “twelve o’clock” position of the block.  Laura Nisi says, "Denyse Schmidt’s Free Wheeling Single Girl pattern had been on my “to do” list for years and it lent itself beautifully to tracking temperatures.  At one point I had considered incorporating some of the news events of the year 2020 into the quilt but ultimately chose to let it stand as an objective look at the temperatures." The clever quilting creates the subtle impression of a double wedding ring block.

 We Freaking Made It by Bridget Vian @BridgetJaneCreates

We Freaking Made It is a very creative quilt that uses thin strips of solid colors to represent a year of temperature variations. Bridget Vian says, "This quilt is a representation of the first year my husband and I were married... The highs are in the center and are shorter or longer depending on how many daylight hours there were that day.  Each color depicts 10 degrees: dark red is temperatures between 90-99 F going all the way down to -1 to -10 degrees shown in purple.  The quilt is machine pieced on a longarm machine using the quilt-as-you-go technique." Bridget can be found at BridgetJaneCreates.

Countdown by Sarah Ruiz @saroy

Sarah Ruiz created Countdown during the first 50 days of #quiltingthecountdown. She says, "The design was driven by a desire to explore a monochromatic palette and improve my hand quilting.  But as 2020 wound down, I also craved a project that would let me simply sit and stitch, and find solace and enjoyment in the act of methodically piecing and quilting fabric... I was happy to join others in counting towards something fun and hopeful." We loved seeing Sarah's hand quilting and her engaging, monochromatic design.  You can see more of her work at Sarah's website, saroy.

Pandemic Reflections by Victoria Nelson & Group

Pandemic Reflections is a large original quilt made by a group of quilters from the US, Canada and Australia.  There is so much interest and texture in the finished quilt! Victoria Nelson says, "We each made an improvisational section and shipped our sections for assembly and quilting [by Victoria Nelson, who used hand guided quilting]."  We loved the improvisational design and the use of quilted words to represent the pandemic. See how many words you can find in the closeup photo below.

Pandemic Reflections was created by M. Baker, F. Briggs, L. Buck, D. Cope, R. Craig, J. Davies, K. Duling, L. Engelson, B. Holland, A. Hudson, A. Kinney, M. Landon, C. Marisco, L. Pilquist, L. Schulz, and Victoria Nelson, who also did the quilting.

Wasabi Tango by Bonnie Bobman @fabrications2b

Bonnie Bobman said she had a really fun time creating Wasabi Tango with two colors! This piece was made with "Improvisational cutting and piecing without a plan except to love it.  Quilting was simply filling in the spaces one by one." The piece, which won a ribbon at the 2022 Quilt Arizona show, was inspired by Irene Roderick’s workshop. Bonnie Bobman is a member of the Arizona Quilters Hall of Fame, and you can see more of Bonnie's work at Bonnie Bobman.com.

Image credits: Photos were taken by Quilt Inspiration at the 2022 Quilt Arizona show (Wasabi Tango, Time On My Hands, Pandemic Reflections) and the 2022 QuiltCon show (Objective 2020, We Freaking Made It, Countdown).