Creative Ways To Make Your Quilt Design More Modern

What do you think of when you imagine a quilt? Many people think of the beautiful, traditional quilts they’ve seen in magazines and museums. While there’s nothing wrong with this style of quilting, some people think it’s old-fashioned.

However, quilting is still an important part of our modern world. Quilting allows for creative expression as we make necessary household items, such as blankets. If you want to start quilting but want to keep your hobby and your quilt in the modern world, you can. Keep reading to learn about some creative ways to make your quilt design more modern.

Follow a Modern Quilt Pattern

If you’re new to quilting and don’t know how to create your own modern pattern, you can follow a pre-made one. There are many books available that contain different quilt patterns and designs. Some of these books offer a mishmash of styles, from traditional to modern, while others focus on one theme. Find a book for your experience level and pick a modern design that you love. Then, follow the pattern and any color suggestions they have. You’ll have an amazing, modern quilt in no time.

Add a New Twist to Traditional Quilting Practices

Experienced quilters can follow a modern quilt pattern from someone else or challenge themselves in other ways. If you already know how to create traditional quilts, you can use those skills and try your hand at creating a modern quilt.

For example, the friendship star is a popular traditional quilt block. You can use this quilt block in a modern quilt if you change it up. Instead of sewing friendship stars in a traditional grid pattern, you could place them randomly like giant polka dots across your quilt. Or you could make the friendship star out of multiple pieces of solid-colored fabric instead of only one fabric. If that doesn’t interest you, you could combine the friendship star with another traditional quilt block, such as placing it in the center of a shoe fly. The opportunities are endless.

Lose the Binding and the Borders

Bindings and borders are important parts of traditional quilts. While these design elements can frame larger designs and patterns, modern quilters are leaving them off. This is partially because modern quilts are minimalistic and don’t need a visual frame for intricate designs. Another reason for this choice is to differentiate modern quilts from traditional ones. If you want someone to look at your quilt and immediately recognize that it’s modern, lose the bonding and borders.

Choose an Asymmetrical or Minimalist Design—Or Both

Many modern quilt designs are minimalistic. Others are also asymmetrical, diverting from the traditional symmetry of classic quilts. Some modern quilts combine both styles. You can choose any of these options as you design your modern quilt.

Turning traditional quilt blocks into asymmetrical, minimalist designs is one way you can transition into crafting modern quilts. We mentioned the friendship star and the shoe fly quilt blocks when discussing traditional quilting practices. You can make both designs, as well as others, asymmetrical or minimalistic.

Place a single friendship star in the center of your quilt. Use bold-colored fabric for the star and a contrasting color for the rest of the quilt. Then, you can surround it with asymmetrical walking foot quilting lines.

Another option is to spread a shoe fly pattern out across your entire quilt. Place a square in the center of your quilt and then add the half squares wherever you desire. Choose a different bold, complementary color for each half square. Do not play the half squares symmetrically.

Use Geometric Shapes

Geometric shapes are popular in traditional quilts, and you can use them in modern quilts as well. The squares and half squares in a shoe fly quilt block are the perfect examples of this. Triangles, circles, squares, and rectangles are also great geometric shapes that you can use in a modern quilt.

For example, you could layer three triangles on top of each other. Make a large triangle for the bottom layer, a medium-sized triangle for the middle layer, and a small triangle for the top layer. Choose a different color for each triangle, keeping them in simple colors that complement each other. Then, place these triangle layers asymmetrically across your quilt.

Prioritize Solid, Bold Colors

You’ve probably noticed that we’ve emphasized solid, bold colors with each quilt description. Solid colors are minimalistic, which is an important part of modern designs. The bold colors help these minimal designs stand out on your quilt. Prioritize these solid, bold colors as you build your quilt design.

However, if you love printed fabric, you can still include it in your modern quilt. Choose a fabric print that has geometric designs, such as our Line Work Batik quilting fabric by Banyan Batiks. The geometric pattern is still modern, even if the fabric isn’t solid.

Leave Negative Space

Modern, minimalistic quilts leave lots of negative space between design elements. Leaving this negative space can feel wrong to traditional quilters who love embellishments and borders. However, the beauty of modern quilts is their simplicity. As you design your quilt, separate your design elements, and leave more negative space between them. Just make sure that this negative space is a solid color.

While the geometric prints we mentioned above can look great in a modern quilt, a pattern is too much for negative space. Ideally, you should choose a neutral solid color for this space. While modern designs look great in bold colors, this space is the background of your quilt. Bold colors are not background colors. Shades of brown are an excellent choice for negative space on a warm-toned quilt. However, if you want a cool-toned quilt, opt for shades of gray.

Quilting is a timeless hobby. However, sometimes we want to give our quilts a timely design. You can use the creative ways we listed above to make your quilt design more modern. Experiment with these modern designs if you’re still looking for your quilting sweet spot. Everyone enjoys different designs, from traditional to modern and everything in between, so find the one that suits you.