Quilts gone mod: Moderns give quilters an edge

Nothing says homespun like a quilt.

But the beautiful soft coverlets that traditionally display blocks of flowers, leaves, birds and buildings are taking a harder edge, driven by modern design.

Negative space, bold colors, off-center placement, clean lines, single motifs and abstract designs can now be found on quilts, offering a sharp contrast to the homey textiles of yesteryear.

When the Common Threads Quilt Show opens Thursday, June 16, at Century II, modern quilts will have a category of their own for the first time. They will be among the 600 quilts by Wichita area quilters and beyond that will be displayed at the show, which the Prairie Quilt Guild based in Wichita puts on every other year. It will run 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. June 16-18 in Expo Hall, 225 W. Douglas.

The quilt show, which drew about 3,000 people in 2014, will also feature a record 60-plus vendors, traveling exhibits, door prizes, raffles, daily demonstrations, quilt appraisals, and a miniature-quilt auction at noon June 18 with proceeds benefiting quilt education.

You’ll be able to shop for machines, fabric, thread, notions, baskets, jewelry, furniture to display quilts and work tables for sewing.

And, new this year: Guild members are allowed to sell their show quilts if they want (prices will range from $200 to several thousand dollars; check the show book), children of any age also will be allowed into the show this year and will have a place take to part in activities. Other area guilds have been invited to enter quilts to make it a regional show.

The Prairie Quilt Guild, which has 640 members, has seen attendance at the last two shows decrease from the previous two. Additions to the show are all part of trying to bring more people to quilting. Trends include not only modern quilting but computerized quilting machines that produce quicker, more accurate and easier-to-make quilts.

“A lot of younger quilters are interested” in modern quilting, said Jan Hutchison, a Sedgwick quilter who will have some of her quilts on display at next week’s show.

Becca Keimig, 31, is a knitter and crocheter who wanted to come out of her comfort zone and teach herself quilting. She gets her inspiration from following Latifah Saafir, Sherri Lynn Wood and Jacquie Gering on Instagram. “That seems to be the best way of following trends,” she said.

But it’s not simply a matter of age, said long-time quilter Cheryl Nordstedt, who belongs to both the Prairie Quilt Guild and the newer Wichita Modern Quilt Guild. The modern quilt guild has about 40 members, growing all the time, said its vice president, Jo Oliver. (Its website is wichitamodernquiltguild.blogspot.com.) Like the Prairie Quilt Guild, it makes quilts for charity as well.

Nordstedt compares traditional vs. modern quilting to Laura Ashley vs. West Elm.

“It’s a matter of aesthetic and the kinds of things you like to look at. … I just kept making the things that were appealing to me more and more, and then someone said to me, ‘You’re into modern quilting, aren’t you?’ ” Norsdstedt said.

“It’s clean lines, the use of bold colors and solid colors, an emphasis on geometrics as opposed to decorations and embellishment. You won’t find a lot of cute critters and fuzzy flowers on modern quilt works.”

Oliver compares the look of modern quilting to business logos that are being updated. “Graphic arts are getting very modern in their look. … Anyone who is being impressed with it is being drawn” to modern quilting and its brightness, she said.

“I like the fabrics that are used on modern quilts. I like the solid colors. I like the bold patterns. I like the asymmetrical part of modern quilts.

Oliver said that the modern-quilt category in the show is for improvisational piecing in which there is no pattern. “That’s a small percentage of what modern quilting is,” Oliver said. “It’s going to be interesting. We are going to learn with this show.”

While people still hand-quilt, and some send their quilts off to be finished by someone who has a long-arm machine, “one of the things modern quilting has done has sort of allowed people to do more on their home machines than they did before,” Nordstedt said. And even queen-size quilts of any type can be done on a regular machine.

But for those who use a long-arm machine with its frame of usually 10 to 14 feet, “there’s more of a trend toward computerized quilting machines – the long-arm that you program, and they do the work,” Hutchison said. There will be some at the show, she said.

“They’re amazing machines. The kind of quilting I like is drawing, and I don’t want a machine to do it for me. They can do perfect designs, and that appeals to a lot of people. Quite a few people have them.”

Wichita quilter Susan McMillan says she isn’t very good at sewing on a regular machine, or directing a free-motion long-arm machine as Hutchison does, so she decided to invest in a computerized long-arm machine. She can even do custom designs, tracing her finger on the computer screen, and her machine will reproduce it on a quilt.

Another option is a laser that produces an outline on fabric for quilters to follow with a long-arm machine, she said.

“I like the accuracy of a computerized machine … that everything looks perfect,” McMillan said. It also saves her wrists and back from strain. She bought her machine with a 14-foot table and 22-inch throat length, refurbished, for $22,000 in 2011; today it would cost $38,000, she said. She quilts not only for herself but for others on the machine.

“Hand quilting is not really a lost art, but for most of us, we like speed, and we like to see the product, and we have busier lives,” she said of the appeal of computerized machines.

But free-motion quilting, moving the long-arm machine herself, still has its appeal, and she wants to learn to do it better, she said.

“I think most of us would agree the real artists are those who do free-motion quilting,” the kind that Hutchison does, Nordstedt said.

This story was originally published June 9, 2016 at 10:24 PM with the headline "Quilts gone mod: Moderns give quilters an edge."