It’s hard to believe it’s been almost a year since QuiltCon 2024 in Raleigh presented by The Modern Quilt Guild! The past year has been a whirlwind, and I realized I never got around to sharing some of my favorite quilts from the show. As I recently looked through my photos, I noticed a recurring theme—so many of the quilts that caught my eye were from the Modern Traditionalism category.
If you love classic quilt designs with a modern twist, you’re going to love this! I’m sharing 9 amazing quilts from the Modern Traditionalism category at QuiltCon 2024. These quilts put a fresh spin on traditional styles, showing off incredible creativity and craftsmanship!
The Modern Traditionalism category at QuiltCon holds a special place in my heart. I’ve been fortunate to have two quilts juried into this category in past QuiltCon shows. I’m sharing photos of both at the end of this blog post along with links for more highlights from QuiltCon 2024, as well as past shows.
Get ready to be inspired! Here are 9 of my favorite Modern Traditionalism quilts from QuiltCon 2024:
All descriptions were written by the quilters/makers.
Kiwi Peel Quilt
Kiwi Peel Quilt
by Ben Darby
1st place — Modern Traditionalism Category
Quilter Statement: “Based on inspiration seen in an upholstery fabric, I used computer drawing software to draft overlapping distorted circles, and had templates made for the resulting shapes. The fabrics are all Alison Glass Kaleidoscope yarn dyes. This is the second of what may become a series of quilts using these shapes.”
Starbound Quilt
Starbound Quilt
by Caroline Hadley
Quilter Statement: “Using only two colours for two block types created four possible combinations, each of which is used twice in this design. Each quadrant contains two block types, and they are arranged so that each pair of adjacent quadrants shares one block type—resulting in each block type appearing in one half of the quilt, either vertically or horizontally. Common features of traditional quilting—basic shapes, eight-pointed stars, a grid layout, symmetry—are modernized through this arrangment and the use of vivid, saturated colours with little contrast. The original desig for Starbound is #369 in my Sunday sketch series of quilt designs.”
Shattered Sunset Quilt
Shattered Sunset Quilt
by Colleen Kesterson
Quilter Statement: “This quilt was inspired by the color palette and a 1958 art exhibition book cover. The stark design featured columns of elongated triangles that looked like asymmetrical Flying Geese Blocks. I love looking at motifs from new angles and in new ways so I tucked this idea away for later. When putting this composition together the combination of the colors, the shapes and the mirroring of the color gradation reminded me of a sunset over the Pacific Ocean where the light seems to be a thousand different shards of color this is reflected from the setting sun over the water.”
Dazzle Camouflage Quilt
Dazzle Camouflage Quilt
by Gretchen Carder
Quilter Statement: “Using custom, screen-printed fabric, Gretchen Carder (quilter) and Alyssa Solomon (printer/fabric designer) embarked on a collaborative quilt project. Alyssa’s large-scale patterns and fluorscent colors fueled our vision to transform 14” Japanese kimono cotton info a modern-traditional snowball quilt. This project features four different custom-printed fabric patterns. The graphic design is reminiscent of the unbelieveably bold Dazzle Camouflage (or razzle dazzle painting) used on WWI battleships. Notably, the quilt glows under black light, thanks to the fluorescent orange ink. Our collaboration challenges the constraints of commercially available quilting cottons. We aim to inspire fellow quilters to craft their own fabric in order to play with pattern scale and color. Our quilt is a testament to the power of creative colloaboration.
Marine Layer Quilt
Marine Layer Quilt
by Susan Braverman
Quilter Statement: “This classic snowball block goes to the beach. I used a color palette inspired by morning costal cloud cover over the ocean that gives way to sunshine. This quilt continues my series of exploring inset grid layouts. Snowball blocks vary slightly in size to add interest and provide an inset appearance.”
Cloudy Night Sky Quilt
by Yvonne Fuchs
Ribbon Winner: Best Machine Quilting
Quilter Statement: “Cloudy Night Sky is a study in how atmospheric and lighting conditions are important in order to see the stars at night. Clouds and light pollution often obscure from view the stars that we know are shining down. With just a slight shift in conditions and lighting, the stars pop out to greet us. Quilt as desired can be some of the most intimidating instructions in a quilt pattern, and quilts with lots of negative space can increase the anxiety and pressure to “get it right”. I creating this design in order to write an article sharing the process I use to develop a quilting plan that transforms the negative space into a secondary design element. I could not wait to turn the quilt and quilting plan I created as a process demonstration into reality.”
A Cup of Cubist Coffee and a Chocolate Chip Cookie Quilt
A Cup of Cubist Coffee and a Chocolate Chip Cookie Quilt
by Ann Feitelson
Quilter Statement: “I adopted aspects of cubism in the playful variety of shapes atop the cups. Some are circular, as if the cup is seen from above, some are elliptical, some are seen dead-on. The half-ellipses and half-circles represent coffee, or the interior of the cup, or a reflection or a shadow. The polka-dotted circles represent cookies. Color is of the utmost importance to me. The cups, cookies, coffee and background make stair-steps of flowing color.”
Intersections Quilt
Intersections Quilt
by Sandy Gregg
Quilter Statement: “Bullseyes intersected with ovals, a pattern taught by Jenny Haynes in one of her online workshops.”
Into The Wind Quilt
Into The Wind Quilt
by Michelle Bartholomew
Quilter Statement: “One of my favorite things to do when photographing a quilt is watching it get caught by the wind… noticing how it ripples, warps, bends and flows in the breeze. I wanted to explore how it would look if I were to distort some of my favorite traditional quilt blocks in a similar manner. I started with my favorite block, the Sawtooth Star, and played around with how a static design would look pushed and pulled and stretched as if it were blowing in the wind.”
Check out these additional Modern Traditionalism Quilts:
Sun Salutations Quilt
by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Whole Circle Studio
featured in the Modern Traditionalism category at QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena, California
Inspiration for Sun Salutations came from the first trip I took to Hawaii. I visited Hilo, located on the east coast of the Big Island. The room I stayed in faced east and had a balcony that overlooked the ocean. It was impossible to sleep through the spectacular sunrises. My intent was to represent the amazing sunrise gradation using only solid fabrics and traditional half square triangle blocks. I wanted to accentuate the gradation and shapes to the edges of the quilt, so I matched the colors and lines in the perimeter blocks to the binding.
Big Island Sunset Quilt
by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Whole Circle Studio
featured in the Modern Traditionalism category at QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville, Tennessee
Inspiration for Big Island Sunset came from one of my most favorite places in the world—the Big Island of Hawaii. This modern interpretation of the spectacular sunsets on the west coast of Hawaii is entirely pieced from two blocks—a traditional Drunkard’s Path and an elongated Drunkard’s Path—using all solid fabrics. Kona Sunset was then quilted on a domestic machine using a walking foot.
Get inspired by more modern quilts!
See more of my highlights from QuiltCon 2024 and previous QuiltCon shows here.
