Creative Block Quilts

A quilt block I designed is featured as the Modern Quilt Guild's Block of the Month. You can find the pattern and an article on utilizing foreground/background in quilt design to give your quilts movement for MQG members only,  here .  The block is called "Mod economy square" and it has a ton of versatility! Playing with color placement can bring several different areas to the foreground. Just a few of the different quilt layouts you can make using this block:

Inspired by the angular lines of the Maryland flag, the design of which is based on the Calvert family's 17th century heraldic crest, I created this small wall hanging/crib quilt. The quilt uses solid fabrics in shades of yellow and white with black and red accents, and is finished with straight-line quilting. The finished piece will be donated to a local child through Baltimore Early Headstart.

As part of the  Quilted Prayer Rugs  initiative, I designed and made this small piece, using traditional shapes from Colonial American quilts and Islamic tile to create a prayer rug that's infused with elements of two cultures. It's finished with interlocking diamond-shaped quilting and backed with a linen blend material. The finished piece has been donated to my neighbor's mosque, where it is displayed as a wall hanging.

Two of my quilts were included in the "Quilt Design a Day" show at QuiltCon 2017, sponsored by the Modern Quilt Guild. One of the quilts included were "Reflective Windows," which uses a simple repeating block with a transparency illusion. The quilt is finished with straight line quilting in black, white and teal blue. The second quilt included is "High Line Medallion," which uses geometric forms to re-imagine traditional Medallion quilts. I added hand quilting to keep the texture soft and emphasize the angular shapes. Quilting:

My quilt "Star at Sea" is included in the exhibition  Modern Quilts: Redesigning Tradition   at the Ontario Museum of Art. The show highlights the ways that "modern quilters consider traditional patterns in new and exciting ways." My asymmetrical interpretation of the traditional "Storm at Sea" pattern is an excellent example of this type of modern traditionalism.

I designed this quilt with a low-contrast background and geometric flowers as a gift for my mother, a master gardener. The shape of the flowers is reminiscent of the birds of paradise that grow in my mom's garden.