At the last meeting in February, Jennifer T-Z shared her knowledge about Modern quilting with a fantastic slide show. Jennifer told us that while modern quilting has much in common with traditional quilting, it has a slightly different design aesthetic involving technique, style and colour.

Its beginnings owe a lot to the Gee’s Bend quilt exhibit in 2002 and the books of modern quilters like Denys Schmidt.

In a nutshell, the key to modern quilting is its flexibility; its reliance on simple shapes; asymmetry; improvisational piecing; use of grey and white as neutrals; use of solid colours; on-trend colour combinations; negative space; and a lack of visible block formation.

Modern quilting has a strong online community. Its driving organizational force is the Modern Quilt Guild. The community uses online tools such as Facebook, blogs and Pinterest to share creations and keep up to date with new ideas and products.

There are numerous blogs devoted to modern quilting. Jennifer share some of her favourites:

Oh Fransson!
Handmade by Alissa
Stitched in Color
Canoe Ridge Creations
A Quarter Inch from the Edge