Music City Modern Quilters Guild

Modern quilting is a new and rapidly growing movement in the quilting world. A group of quilters applied their current tastes and points of view to this traditional craft and shared their work online.  Their fresh approach and new designs attracted sewers and quilters and the modern quilting movement was born.

Modern quilting, like all art, changes, grows and adapts from quilter to quilter as they find their own voice. Modern quilts reflect each quilter’s personality and personal style, and as the movement has grown, a modern quilt aesthetic, a set of principles that define and guide the movement, is beginning to emerge.

Modern quilts and quilters:

• Make primarily functional rather than decorative quilts
  
• Use asymmetry in quilt design
  
• Rely less on repetition and on the interaction of quilt block motifs
  
• Contain reinterpreted traditional blocks
  
• Embrace simplicity and minimalism
  
• Utilize alternative block structures or lack of visible block structure
  
• Incorporate increased use of negative space
  
• Are inspired by modern art and architecture
  
• Frequently use improvisational piecing
  
• Contain bold colors, on trend color combinations and graphic prints
  
• Often use gray and white as neutrals
  
• Reflect an increased use of solid fabrics
  
• Focus on finishing quilts on home sewing machines

Modern quilters have embraced the new options available in textiles: bold colors, graphic prints, larger scale prints, and Japanese fabrics.  Much like the Amish quilting tradition, many modern quilters are also exploring quilt designs made exclusively with solid fabrics or with just a hint of print.

The Internet has played an integral role in the development of modern quilting.  Through blogs, online tutorials and social media the modern quilting community interacts, providing inspiration and friendship for each other.  This has helped the community grow at an astounding pace, providing feedback and support at a moment’s notice.

In many ways, modern quilting has taken us back to the basics of the early quilters, when women of the day used the colors and styles of their time to express themselves creatively while finding friendship and community along the way.  Welcome to modern quilting!

The MCMQG was founded in October 2010 by Leah Albertsen, Royce Vaughn and Stefanie Williams to serve the greater Nashville area. The guild is open to persons age 16 or older who have an interest in the modern quilting movement.

We meet monthly at the First Presbyterian Church in Franklin, Tennessee unless noted otherwise.

View our Bylaws.

View our Standing Rules.