In this new showcase I’m featuring four Modern Quilters that you will love!
Laura Shaw
I’m Laura, originally from the New York area, now living in Portland, Oregon. I grew up in a very creative family where we were always drawing and making things, but I didn’t learn to sew until recently.
My first exposure to quilt making was when I was at the School for the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston studying photography and film. One day a teacher brought to class a quilt she’d just finished—an unusual thing to show a bunch of photography students. She’d found a dead bat, taken a photo of it with its wings outstretched, printed the 8 x 10 negative onto cloth using a process called Vandyke brown printing (this was long before digital), and stitched it up. It made a very deep impression on me—my first clue that quilts could be so much more than the traditional designs I was familiar with.
After art school, I became a book designer—a creative job I loved—and an avid knitter. But I never forgot that bat quilt. It hung there in my mind, a message from the future.
I finally learned to sew in 2017 and spent the first few years making both clothing and quilts. In 2020, I broke free from patterns and began working from both heart and mind, focusing solely on quilting.
My pieces usually start as improv with only a rough idea of what I want to express. At some point, an innate sense of order usually kicks in, honed from years of working as a graphic designer. I work with both recycled and new fabrics, being dedicated to saving and reusing as much of my scraps as possible. I try not to keep a huge stash but rather work with what I have on hand. My first quilts were more muted because I was focused on utility—how they would work on a bed—but recently I’ve been using much more color, and my focus has expanded to making wall quilts.
I’m still finding my voice, still very much a beginner. Sherri Lynn Wood and Tara Faughnan have both been big influences. I’m so excited to continue my education with workshops from all the amazing teachers out there; there is so much to learn! I feel lucky to live in a time when we can connect so easily with other quilters all over the world.
Jo Allbutt
I began quilting about 15 years ago with the sole intention of making a single quilt I saw in a book. Having no sewing experience and desiring the improvisational aesthetic and freedom, I quickly deviated from the pattern. I realized that it was the use of colours that attracted me rather than the pattern itself.
I never again tried to follow a quilt pattern but instead found myself most comfortable with the spontaneity of creating without preconceived ideas. This process reduces my limitations and allows my creative juices to flow.
Beginning early in my quilting journey I had the fortunate experience of attending several of Joe Cunningham quilt retreats. Joe’s improv style spoke to me and has greatly influenced my work. Social justice and local community issues have also strongly influenced my pieces. The boldness of my art represents my voice on many issues.
I am a co-founder of the Victoria Modern Quilt Guild and enjoy doing trunk shows. I have had quilts juried in the Festival of Quilts (UK), Quilt Con (US), Road to California, and successfully placing at Quilt Canada.
As my quilts have evolved from a utilitarian purpose to art, I felt it important to expand my horizons from the quilt world to the art world. I was elated to have two pieces juried in to the prestigious 2022 Sooke Fine Arts Sale and Show with one of them winning their highest award, the Award of Excellence. I also have a quilt that was selected by Grand National Fibre Arts to travel across Canada from 2020 -2022 as part of their exhibition.
Sydney Zester
I began working with textiles over 20 years ago as I apprenticed under my aunt, a master seamstress. We would spend every Saturday together in her Baltimore row home piecing together projects. Together, we made quilts, dresses, blouses, jackets–anything I wanted to make, she taught me. In these years, I learned how to take dreamy dreams that lived in my imagination and translate them into something I could hold. Without fully understanding, I was developing my process that I now use every day.
My current art practice developed after I was diagnosed with a chronic illness. To cope, I turned to two things that have held me my whole life: sewing and running. I began to notice how the colors that I saw while I was outside running made me feel. I wanted to create something that mimicked the feeling of content calm and bubbling energy that long runs under canopies of green trees provide. I wanted to communicate the joy I was witnessing inside myself, in spite of the sorrow I was feeling as I adjusted to a new normal. I loved that I found inspiration in movement and executed it in stillness.
The idea of duality—fast and slow, joy and sorrow, gusto and grief, giddy and grim—is now the focus in my work. I am constantly trying to strike a balance, through playful color and wonky shapes, that tugs those feelings out of a person viewing my work. I’m fascinated how color, when organized in a particular way, can elicit universal feelings from people. My hope is that when someone sees my work they feel bursts of joy and energy or a wash of peace and calm.
My work is very intuitive–the colors really dictate what I make and how it’s constructed. Right now I’m feeling really drawn to cobalt and cornflower blue. These colors are showing up a lot in my current body of work. It just makes me happy!
