What (and Who?) Is the Future of Quilting?

In your opinion and expertise, what’s the future of quilting?

My slice of the quilting world, improv and flexible patterning, seems to be growing, and, in my opinion, is the dynamic edge of a movement towards liberation, diversity, more sustainability and a palpable desire for quilting as an intentional means of truth telling and healing. The pandemic has shifted our life patterns dramatically, and quilt makers are turning towards their craft as a joyful vehicle for learning how to navigate fluid relationships in more flexible ways. People are awake to the deeper connections between how they create and how they live their lives as agents of change in their communities.

We will be seeing more diverse colors, patterns and techniques–old/new, abstract/representational, minimal/maximal, fixed/flexible, raw/finished, acrylics/silks, English floral/fairytale princess–mashed up in a single quilt (#sewglitch) to tell personal and cultural stories that reflect the sometimes messy, awkward and uncomfortable conversations of life. For many, the satisfaction of making a quilt comes from speaking truth from the inside out and collaborating with what is, and less from executing an external fixed ideal of harmony with perfection and efficiency from pristine storebought quilters cotton and someone else’s templates. The systems of white privilege consumerism embedded in so-called “Traditional” quilting with a capital “T” (actually, it’s a white euro-centric tradition, one tradition with a lowercase “t” among many) are becoming less tenable, and less fulfilling for many quilters, although not for all.

Sherri’s Picks for Quilters of the Future

In your opinion and expertise, what’s the future of quilting?

What’s the future of quilting? I am going to speak on this subject in terms of modern quilting as seen through my lens.

Today’s quilters often come into quilting in unexpected ways. Historically, quilting methods and traditional patterns were usually passed down through familial generations; however, many modern quilters are learning their craft from friends, guilds, books, and are self-taught using social media outlets such as Instagram, Facebook and YouTube, to name a few.

Modern quilters are using traditional patterns such as Log Cabin and Irish Chain and giving them a fresh and new emphasis on rich, deep colors that are more saturated than older quilt styles. This is the future of quilting. It combines different fabric substrates and materials in ways that weren’t possible a few decades ago.

Keyana’s Picks for Quilters of the Future

In your opinion and expertise, what’s the future of quilting?

In my fantasy, the future of quilting is an inclusive utopia of diversity and acceptance. The largest barrier for most non-quilters, considering the medium, is the perception that it’s just for older conservative white women. And the Mister Domestic community is full of humans who’ve had bad experiences of feeling excluded or unwelcome while trying to join existing meetings or going into fabric stores. But the beautiful part of the internet is that it’s connected so many of us together that we’re now all realizing how many of us there are, which is amazing because so many of us are starting to create truly inclusive spaces for quilters who share the values of inclusion and acceptance.

Now that these quilting spaces and brands are becoming more popular and present, different types of humans are going to be drawn to the medium. And with new humans, comes new forms and styles of expression and new applications of quilting into other niches like apparel. A$AP Rocky’s Met Gala Quilt [a quilt originally made by Mary Ann Beshers and repurposed by Zak Foster] brought quilting into so many homes that the sky is really the limit. And there’s no telling where it’s going to go because we are living it now. I get messages all the time from folks that are now quilters who never thought it was for them until they met me.

Mathew’s Picks for Quilters of the Future