In this new showcase I’m featuring four Modern Quilters that you will love!
MJ Kinman
’ve been making quilts inspired by faceted gemstones for nearly 25 years. My obsession with gem quilts started in 1991. When a piece of direct mail landed in my mailbox, the round brilliant-cut gem on the front of the flyer caught my eye. I loved the way the light flowed across its surface, and I wondered whether it would be possible to transform the image into a quilt design. I’d only been quilting for a few years and knew nothing about gemology, so I spent the next few years experimenting until I made my first gem quilt in 1997. I’ve been hooked ever since.
A few years ago, I received the green light from the wonderful people at the Mineral & Gem Department at the National Museum of Natural History to create a series inspired by the National Gem Collection. When I saw the spectacular Whitney Flame Topaz – one of the Museum’s most recent acquisitions – I knew it would be the first piece in the series. “Torch Song” is 10 feet tall and 4 feet wide. She’s made with 20 different hues of KONA Cotton Solids in oranges, reds, and purples and quilted with 20 shades of Sulky’s delicious 40-weight rayon thread.
It’s a joy and a privilege to create this work. I love everything about making these quilts: searching for gems that inspire me, charting their facets, piecing them together, and finally finishing them with free-motion quilting using my BERNINA 770 QE. In addition to making art quilts, I design gem block patterns, host an online community of other gem-loving quiltmakers, write about gems (my book “Gemstone Quilts” was released by C&T Publishing in 2020), and teach throughout North America and on Zoom.
If you have a chance to visit the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, Nebraska, either this spring or summer, I’d love for you to see my solo exhibit that runs from April 12 through August 6. “Torch Song” will be part of the show, as well as the other Smithsonian-inspired quilt “Victoria’s Song” and 8 other gem quilts.
Clara Stoikow
My name is Clara, I am half German and half Korean, and I live in New York. My profession is architecture.
I had been sewing clothes for my kids and myself before I started my first quilt ten years ago. It was during my time in St. Petersburg (2015-2020) that I really got into quilting. The members of a Russian improv bee (a dozen or so Russian women based in several countries) invited me – the barely Russian speaking German – to join them. That was my first contact with improv piecing, and I fell in love with it.
Last year I was a member of a fun American improv bee – you may have seen our quilt Dance (III) at QuiltCon 2022.
I absolutely love working with other people. I am fascinated by the unexpected and the unplannable, and always challenge myself to transform all the small pieces into one coherent picture. I often use bright blues, greens, turquoise and a bit of yellow but I also love grey, black and white. My quilts are pieced by machine or by hand and I often hand quilt.
I have never attended any quilting classes or lectures. My inspiration comes from museums, modern art (Matisse, Kandinsky, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Calder), Bauhaus, Scandinavian design, the architecture and street art of NYC – and, for a big part, my fellow quilters’ work.
Victoria
I began quilting in 2019, shortly after my 40th birthday. Learning to sew on a sewing machine had been a dream of mine as long as I could remember. Nobody in my immediately family could sew or quilt, but we had family friends who did and I was always enthralled by watching them make quilts or garments.
When I turned 40, I realized this was something that I really wanted to do. So I bought a sewing machine off Amazon, purchased a book, and with the help of books and YouTube, I learned to sew. I discovered it was not only something I enjoyed, but it was the first “hobby” I ever showed actual promise in. I took to quilting like a fish to water.
When I had first been learning to quilt, I had often been overwhelmed with the vast amount of choices available. I would go on fabric buying sprees, but then get home and realized nothing went together to make a cohesive, harmonious quilt.
I was intent to “crack the code” and I began to apply the principles of my Art History degree. With time, I developed my own style and focused on how to combine fabrics to enhance the quilt patterns. I promised myself that I would help other new quilters feel more confident in fabric selections if I ever had the chance. When more and more people reached out to tell me they loved my “eye”, I finally got the courage to take my quilting to the next level.
In September 2020, I opened an online fabric shop with curated bundles. I named it Midlife Quilter after my Instagram handle.
My goal was to create a boutique style shop where quilters can buy with confidence that the fabrics will coordinate. Instead of buying lots and lots of collections, I focus on buying fabrics that tell a color story and coordinate well together.
Although my shop is small, I do my best to provide stellar service and focus on quality fabrics that I love. Everything is my shop is vetted by me and I only carry brands I have used and recommend.
I couldn’t have possibly imagined where quilting would take me. It has helped me so much mentally. It made me dare to trust myself and my choices. At a sewing machine with a pile of fabrics, I learn about patience, forgiveness (when I make a mistake) and the joy of creating. I hope others can be inspired that it is never too late to learn something new or to follow a passion.
Louise Wackerman
started sewing about 20 years ago. My mom influenced me to start sewing. I wanted to sew a cushion. She found a pattern for a cushion with a pleated skirt that she thought would be perfect for my first sewing project! A plain cushion wasn’t enough! She helped figure out the pattern, but from there I learned more basics from blogs and other sewing friends. I’d say I’m more self taught that anything.
When I started sewing I was sewing purses and pillows and things like that. Not quilts. Quilts scared me. I didn’t really understand how they went together. I’m an architect by trade and part of being an architect is figuring out puzzles of how spaces go together, right? So I started putting that into figuring out quilts. About that same time I found the Gee’s Bend quilters and Modern quilting blogs and was like, this is inspiring! And once I started piecing together fabric, I was sold. My first quilt was about 12 years ago making baby shower quilts.
People brought small pieces of fabric and then I took them and made them into quilts for the babies/moms! And from there I started on my modern quilting journey. I’ve never been much about quilting from patterns and more about creating from my own doodles and inspiration. I do enjoy a good pattern every now and then, but my focus is on making my own way. I do a lot of doodling in meetings. People first think I’m not listening, but doodling very much helps me focus on the meeting. Doodles typically start from something said in the meeting and go from there.
I’m also very inspired by the world around us and doodles also come from things I’ve seen. I love paper piecing, but I really love improv. The yin and yang of quilting! ha! Super precise to let’s make it work as we go. My work is all about bright, solid colors and I love a good white background.