In October 2020 The International Quilt Museum,Nebraska announced a mini quilt challenge, open to all. The challenge was to do with the Modern Meets Modern exhibition of selected Modern Quilt Movement quilts from the Museum's collection representing the past 15+ years to be juxtaposed with groups of quilts made over 150 years ago. These antique quilts display cutting edge qualities for their time and can still look modern in the present day.
The museum chose four quilts to serve as catalysts for new work. I chose the four patch quilt as the catalyst for my mini quilt which I called Fusion. It has elements of quilt making taken from the western tradition of quilt making such as the Engish Paper Piecing technique and the four patch block as well.
I then used techniques such as the Kantha technique of quilting ,the use of embroidery in the quilts made in India and like the quilts made in India, the mini quilt was not bound but I used a faggoting stitch to hold the top of the quilt and the back of the quilt together.
The tradition of making quilts was a thrift craft, whether in the east or the west. So all the fabric used to make the quilt top are garment off cuts. Layering two pieces of an old bed sheet made the batting for the quilt, inspiration for this came from the Kanthas of West Bengal which are made by stitching together layers of old cotton sarees.
The kantha style of quilting which I did on the white patches give the surface a soft dimpled texture.
The finished mini quilt - Fusion - 16 inches x 16 inches. Handmade and handquilted.
There were 116 entries for this challenge. Ten finalists which I didn't make it to, but it was an interesting challenge.
To see the ten finalists' quilts and all the mini quilts submitted click
here.
