In this new showcase I’m featuring four Modern Quilters that you will love!
Marte Haverkamp
Finally after years of using all kinds of materials i’m back at textiles, using natural dyes to create my own colors taht i cab use in my artworks. My grandmother was a seamstress and I learned how to use the sewing machine from her at a young age, around 9/10. I made little kids hats that I sold at the flea market during kingsday, a big national party in the netherlands. For a long time I thought that working with textiles meant making clothes, so I went to the fashion school in amsterdam. There I discovered that my passion was not fashion but textiles. I wanted more freedom, so I switched to the art academy. Now years later i got into natural dyeing and found my way back into creating with textiles again! Pink and blue are definitely my favorite colors
Ursula Kern
My first encounter with American quilts was at an exhibition (1976 at the museum of ethnology in Basel.) with great traditional quilts and additional well explaining step-by-steps models in showcases.
I was amazed and fascinated and knew at once what I will do with all my collected fabric scraps from garment an home decoration sewing.
(special feature.: in the seventies patchwork and quilts were not known in central Europe. So we had no books, no shops, no guilds etc. Patchwork was considered as «poor peoples stuff» compared to other textile artinasal handicrafts like tapestry weaving, embroidery, and lace creations).
From the beginning I used traditional piecing techniques and combined it with contemporary ideas of color designs and compositions. Most existing patterns I use are modified. My guideline is a small fabric-collage (mock-up, about 6 inches). where the color design and the composition is determinded. I enlarge the design by means of a grid (6 to 10 times). For each block I use multiplied simmilar colors shades in order to follow the mock-up accurately. The division oft he blocks can be indipendant or follow the mock-up roughly too.
Inspiration cames from nature, lived experience, moods, music, pictures and fotos.
Claire Campion
I am based in Stratford Upon Avon in the UK and I am a quilt maker and designer who loves to express all her makes with a fab #quiltsinthewild pic!
My quilting story really began a few years ago. I was a new Mum and had given up my career as a Biomedical Scientist to focus on my family when my first daughter decided to arrive 11 weeks early! A year into motherhood I got the itch to do ‘something’ which turned out to be sewing. With the help of You Tube, I taught myself to sew. This led me to make things for my daughter, which led to making Keepsake Bears and Quilts from her old baby clothes and from that I started a little business making Keepsakes. It was the perfect thing to work around my growing family, but as they grew so did my love for quilts.
A few years later and the pandemic hits, I didn’t take on any orders for Keepsakes as I was juggling home-schooling. Instead, in-between Zoom-school lessons I wrote my first quilt pattern – #retrometroquilt. Fast forward a year and I am about to release my 4th quilt pattern #starlinkquilt. I love the whole process – designing gives me the same rush as physically making the quilts.
I definitely get drawn towards bright modern design. I really try to be less bold sometimes, but somehow, they always have to have that pop of colour somewhere. Maybe this will change with time, I like to keep an open mind and try different techniques as you never know how that will influence any future designs. I’ve had a lot of fun recently pairing colours that just shouldn’t go together – but somehow do! – Like Kona Peapod and Baby Pink, try it, they go so well together!
I love a repeated design that draws the eye in like a ‘Magic Eye’ picture, seeing more shapes evolve the more you stare at it. My #colliderquilt pattern is a great example of this and still to this day I see different shapes form depending on the angle I look at it from.
There are so many things that inspire me in my quilty world – mainly the incredible community of fellow quilt designers and quilters. Just following them on Instagram and seeing peoples work is so encouraging. I have learnt so much from reaching out and asking how they did something or what they used and then have formed great friendships along the way! I know there is so much more to learn and I can’t wait to see where it takes me!
Casey Cometti
My name is Casey. I am a dentist turned mother and quilt designer. I create modern, minimalist quilts that compliment a contemporary home. Four years ago, I was given a sewing machine by my mother-in-law, and one year later made my first quilt. Guided by a patchwork pattern and YouTube videos, I bumbled through it and fell in love with quilting. The lack of formal sewing training has been a blessing in disguise, because it provides the freedom to turn unexpected designs into quilts. I feel grounded to the quilters of the past who didn’t sew with rules and techniques, but patched together what was available to create beautiful, functional art for their households. My favorite colors are earth tones and I gravitate toward softer shapes seen in nature.
