Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Baton Rouge Modern Guild Meeting

We shared some great quilts last night.  Not all were modern, but hopefully we are working on that.

One of my pet peeves is when there are more Traditional quilts at the meeting than there are Modern quilts.   There really needs to be a separation of modern and traditional, everything in its place.

When we started the Modern Guild we wanted to separate ourselves from traditional quilting found at the other 6 or so guilds in the area; we wanted a place for the Modern quilting ideas.

I happen to do quilting in both Modern and Traditional methods but share membership in both Modern and Traditional Guilds.  Sometimes the two lines cross, I do admit that.  And there are times when you can "modern up" a traditional pattern quite nicely.

It really concerns me that the Modern Guild is going to swing into the typical "Traditional with Some Modern Quilts" I see in all the other guilds now.

If the work that is being done by the members is anything indicative of the show and tell last night, this is exactly the way it is going.  And don't get me wrong, it was beautiful.  And most of the members share Modern roots with me and have done many Modern Quilts over the years  Perhaps there are new members who are unaware of what makes a Modern Quilt modern as opposed to traditional.  Maybe the answer is education.

I wonder how other modern guilds deal with this issue.

Anyone out there in a Modern Guild who has seen this phenomenon and worked through it?




I understand too, that the quilts themselves have changed over the few years Modern Quilting has been around and defined.  In the early days, it was easy to decide what was Modern and everything else was Traditional.
 But now there is no clear cut look to a Modern quilt. Right?

So how do we always know?  I guess we need to decide that through informative education and decision making.

And deciding what we are willing to look at as Modern, Traditional and Art Quilting.

Something to think about, since I personally saw both of these quilts at QuiltCon.









7 comments:

  1. Education would be a great idea. Or at least a definition as to what constitutes a modern quilt. I get confused sometimes. Are contemporary quilts modern or traditional?

    ReplyDelete
  2. HMMMMMMMM Not sure on the two last quilt pics......so many modern quilts still use 'traditional' quilt patterns (e.g. flying geese)...guess it's a matter of using brighter colors in the 'modern' quilt and just being more freedom when creating a modern quilt. Perhaps, if you have a 'mission' statement for your modern quilt guild that might help to go over at a meeting or even having someone come in to discuss "what is a modern quilt". Just sayin!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am a woman whose child is dead? What the hell is that?

    ReplyDelete
  4. I can understand your frustration with the group. The modern quilt group that I was in had the same type issues, but eventually fell apart and not longer exists.

    ReplyDelete
  5. This post was so interesting for me. I'd like to know what makes a quilt modern. I took a class when I first started thinking about quilting that taught the basics and then taught the construction of several traditional blocks. I KNEW I was not going to be making quilts with tiny pieced pieces. Nor do I want to make art quilts. I agree with Robbie, that you might want to mention to the guild to form a mission statement. Perhaps it will refresh members focus on what the guild wants to be. A speaker/presentation is a great idea. Hopefully the members would be open to it. I know some quilters might be put off by the approach. It's a thin line.
    xx, Carol

    ReplyDelete
  6. I understand why you want one group to be one way and the other group to be the other way - but honestly, isn't it more important to celebrate the MAKER in each of us and the accomplishments or other makers? Labels have their place but too much rigidity makes me unhappy.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Early on in MQG days, I went to a meeting of the AUstin MQG where Heather Grant gave a presentation on what makes a modern quilt. At the end, I asked where Gwen Marston's Liberated Quilting fit into her story ... she didn't know who I was talking about and basically said it wasn't relevant. Fast forward a couple years and Gwen is the featured artist at Quilt Con. I tell this story to illustrate that any definition of "Modern Quilting" hasn't endured, perhaps because it has been more of a movement (and perhaps a culture) than a well-defined quilting style. Of course, your mileage (definitions and observations) may differ :-)

    ReplyDelete

I love to hear from friends! Thanks for leaving a message!