In this new showcase I’m featuring four Modern Quilters that you will love!
Giovanna Nicolai
My name is Giovanna Nicolai, I am italian, born and raised in Venice, where I still live.I’m a kindergarden teacher, when I was in my twenties I worked as a decorator of typical Venetian masks, this brought me to love bright colors with strong contrasts and to learn how to mix them. I have always had a passion for decoration and tried many techniques on different surfaces.
Entering the 30 I started to love fabrics and to make furnishing accessories for my home with the old grandma’s sewing machine. I fell in love with patchwork during a trip in the USA. I was in Michigan and, inside a specialized magazine, I saw an amazing Amish quilt. So a friend of mine bring me to a Jo Ann’s store, and helped me to buy all the tools and fabrics needed to realize it. I bought also my first book to learn how to make patchwork!
I am essentially self-taught, I learned a lot through books, the web and through workshops both in presence and online. I started some “sew-a-long” but I quickly realized that I don’t like following patterns or standardized works, even if I admire them. I’m curious, so I love learning new things and experimenting them.
My works are abstract, improvised, usually inspired by feelings or emotions that I try to convey, through fabrics, to other people. Inspiration comes from the emotions that nature, architecture, or a mood makes me feel in a specific moment.
The choice of colors in a quilt is fundamental. I really like blue because of my love for the sea, but I also like to make two colors quilts with black as main color.
Even if I suddenly cut and sew, I then look for an orderly layout, using design elements such as lines, shapes and repetitions. I piece and quilt with my domestic sewing machine and sometimes I like to add some touches of hand quilting, which I find very relaxing to do.
I have been using social networks for years, I like the idea of a virtual community that breaks down distances and barriers. In 2020, with @thecultofquilt and @falcolupo, decided to set up @quiltimprovstudio, a virtual space where to play with improv quilters from everywhere in the world. Our little contribute to the online quilting community.
Adamandia Kapsalis
I went to art school with a focus in photography and what was then called ‘art & technology’ (digital image collage). After some years later, I found I wanted to work in media that had more immediate results.
I started with collage and painting. Added embroidery to painted canvas and made hand sewn assemblage with found objects. This collage work led to quilting. I find quilting and collage very similar ways to work. Hand stitching is very meditative.
I am drawn to abstract patterns and graphic symbols or image words. I find that most of the time inspiration starts with the materials first: color, shape and pattern. I make drawings in a sketchbook for research and then improvise in the process of making. Other peoples scraps or second-hand fabrics is also part of my process.
Low relief and layering are a current fascination and thinking about the background, middle-ground and foreground. I want to develop this into more three dimensional sculptural work. Also stencil printing with contact paper with my own designs on fabric..
I am a member of the Chicago Modern Quilt Guild. This community has been very important during these pandemic times. Inspiration and learning techniques from my quilting community have allowed my work to grow. I am thankful for this connection to the creative world through Zoom and Instagram.
Patrick Johnson
I found my way to quilting about a year ago. I heard a profile of the awesome artist/quilter Michael Thorpe (@iversondurag) on the radio; he was talking about his influences and highlighted the quilters of Gees Bend. I had never heard of them, so I googled and was straight blown away by what I saw. The quilts were unreal. The bright colors, the patterns, the fabrics, the shapes – I couldn’t stop thinking about them. That obsession led me to try out quilting.
My wife gifted me a little domestic machine, and I made my first quilt using a pattern based on Louisiana Bendolph’s incredible quilt, Blocks-And-Strips Medallion. After I finished that one up, I decided to start quilting like those who inspired me to start: Using an improvisational style, bold colors, simple shapes, and upcycling fabrics as much as possible.
Every quilt I make uses worn fabrics because they bring an emotion and feeling to a quilt that new fabrics just can’t achieve. When I start quilting, I have only a rough plan of what the finished product will be. Often plans change. While quilting, I like to make decisions on shape, color, design quickly. I actively seek to not overthink; Quilting is fun! Everything I know about making a quilt, I learned through trial and error. I try to push myself to try new things and see what happens. I’ve picked up some less intuitive but requires technical skills through books and youtube but otherwise, I’ve learned by doing.
I like to use my quilts. They are on all of the beds in my house now, and my son uses one for tummy time. I love that my daughters can sleep under their great grandmother’s tablecloth and that my wife and I can sleep under our new son’s newborn swaddles. I really enjoy the process of quilting. The energy I can put into it. The joy gifting a quilt can bring. I will keep making quilts until this gets old but I don’t think that will be any time soon.