What is a Modern Quilt?

1. A quilt is a warm cover made of two fabric layers and one insulation layer.
2. Quilts are split into three major categories: modern, traditional, and modern traditional.
3. A Modern quilt has some of these design elements: asymmetry, improvisational style, minimalism or negative space. It generally does not have old-fashioned fabric, one repeated pattern, a single uncut sheet of fabric. Find some examples here.

That’s a brief overview. In more detail…

What’s a Quilt?
A quilt is two layers of fabric that sandwich an insulation layer which forms the filling (also called quilting batting). All 3 layers are stitched together with thread to form a warm cover. The batting can vary in thickness. It’s what makes a quilt warm and gives it weight.

Modern Quilts
Quilts are functional art. Wikipedia defines art as something that expresses an artist’s “imaginative, conceptual ideas, or technical skill” and pieces of art are “intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power.” Art is open to interpretation and not surprisingly so are modern quilts.

To start, it’s possible to place quilts into these two categories: modern and traditional – plus the blended category modern traditional.

Modern quilts include some of these design aspects:

• Shape – Modern quilts will generally have unique shapes or block patterns. They may uses repeated blocks but generally not a single repeated block pattern forming the entire quilt.
• Space – Minimalism or more extensive use of negative space is more common in modern quilts.
• Style – either improvisational or spontaneously and inspired by other modern or contemporary art forms such as modern paintings or the Mid-century modern architecture style.
• Symmetry – They are typically asymmetrical – for example, if you split the quilt in half you won’t see mirror images. This is also referred to as “Alternate grid work” in the quilting world. The design isn’t uniform throughout (imagine a checkerboard that had added or missing colors) rather they are improvisational patterns.

I’ve seen some modern quilt definitions reference use of bold colors and high contrast as differentiators. But these seem to blur the lines when I’ve tried to classify quilts. So I don’t think those will help when you search.

You will find examples of modern quilts at either Ramekin Quilts (see the Gallery) or using these online searches: modern quilt handmade or contemporary quilt.

Maybe that helps. But sometimes it’s easier to define what something isn’t. Modern quilts are not traditional, so they are typically not:

• Whole cloth – a single uncut sheet of fabric typically with elaborate stitching that forms the major design element
• Amish – traditional block patterns that can be found through an Internet search (here’s one example of Amish quilts for sale – note: I don’t know the owners nor do I have any affiliation with this website).
• Made with out-of-style designs using old-fashioned vintage or reproduction fabrics (whether from the 1800’s or 1930s).

Modern Traditional Quilts
These traditional quilts are all perfectly fine nice quilts. But just as a Rembrandt isn’t considered modern art, these typically wouldn’t be considered modern quilts. There are always exceptions. Who’s to say that fabric from the 1930’s doesn’t still seem modern today? Some traditional quilts have elements that push them into the modern category. That’s where the in-between category people refer to as Modern traditional quilts comes into play. Modern traditional quilts are modern takes on traditional designs.

Crazy Quilts are a specific subcategory of quilts that can be difficult to classify as modern or traditional. I’ve seen some that feel very modern and others that look traditional. Another subcategory like that is Medallion quilts.

Traditional Quilts
Generally traditional quilts have well-known patchwork quilt block designs. In quilting circles these have familiar names like Log Cabin or Morning Star. The tricky part is you may find updated variations of any of these patterns in modern or modern traditional quilts.

Once I saw enough modern quilts, I felt like I’d know one when I saw it. Even following the suggestions I’ve mentioned, it can be difficult to describe. Nobody can instill absolute rules on modern art or modern quilts. An artist can consider their creation to be a “modern quilt” just as much as an observer can. The irony of making a fence of rules around art can’t be understated.

These are merely observations to help you find what you’re looking for. But this is certain: it really doesn’t matter as long as you find a quilt that you love.