Modern Quilt

Here is the whole process showing how this Modern Quilt was made for my son's 18th birthday.

Front

Back

To create this modern quilt I started with small amounts of 4 different prints. Then I found Kona solid fabrics that matched, a light grey and black. I decided on the darker grey to become the main fabric for the sashing - the fabric between the main squares.

Without prewashing the fabrics, I began to cut strips to make blocks. To build each square, as I sewed together 2 strips of fabric on my machine, I then ironed it and squared the edges with my ruler, mat and cutter before connecting the next piece. It is alot of up and down from the machine to the ironing board, then the cutting mat, but it really didn't take too long.

There are 4 blocks with light grey as the background, and 6 more with black as the background. I made the 4 squares with the light grey background first, then tried to make the next 6 squares with the black background in varying shapes.


I just laid them out as you see here. No measuring, really. I just made a guess at each piece, arranging them quite at a whim.

I then added the darker grey sashing forming them into the bigger shapes you see below. I essentially ended up with one long rectangle (farthest left strip), 2 smaller rectangles (top middle and top right strips) and one other rectangle (bottom right strip).

I tried to place the black & grey squares in different places in an effort to create negative space. I didn't want everything centered.

Notice that all this is laid on top of a previous quilt I had made that was the size I was aiming for. You probably also found that I am not the most precise person. No measuring or planning ahead for me on this project.

I then sewed all the strips together to complete the front piece of my modern quilt!

Next, I used remaining scraps to make a long strip the width of the quilt. I sewed solid pieces of the same dark grey as used for the sashing to this strip to make the back of the quilt, then basted the quilt sandwich with safety pins on my kitchen floor - while watching a good movie with the family, of course.

Next came the free-motion quilting. I used a basic stippling design.

This is where I learned about free-motion quilting.

Next, the binding.

This is a great tutorial for binding.

I had a hard time deciding on the binding. I usually prefer to use remaining scraps, but I felt this quilt was so random that it almost needed one solid binding to frame it. What do you think?

I do hope this tutorial helps you get out the fabric and start cutting & sewing

your own modern quilt without a pattern!

And please please please show me what you create as a result!

One thing you have to know about me is that I do all my projects around the house in the midst of my family. No special room. Just the kitchen table, the bed, and the kitchen floor. (Don't let a small home discourage you from being creative!) Since we have a pretty small house, that keeps me in the middle of all the family action. And it inspires my kids to do their own projects, too. Since we are a homeschool family, that means that sometimes I drill my elementary kids on their Latin or spelling between stitches. It also can mean that we all will ditch the academics to pull out the paint or fabrics. Here is a picture of our Creative Kitchen Table today. This was a Nerf gun modification project taken from youtube.

Ok. So it wasn't a pretty project. But I love that they do such things!