What I’ll Never Tell You

There’s one bit of information that I can guarantee I’m never going to tell you on this blog: that I’m a Traditional quilter. Or a Modern quilter. Or an Art quilter. Or a Contemporary quilter. Or even a modern quilter (at least without qualifying it with “mostly” or “lean towards”).

I’m just a Quilter.

I make things that I like. Sometimes they are distinctly one thing or another—an 1812 reproduction is pretty Traditional in my book. Most of the time, I say “I lean mostly toward little-‘m’ modern”, because I make things out of mostly current fabric in styles that are mostly current to the more-or-less generic 2010s aesthetic in design, fashion, and home furnishing. In other words, modern because it’s made in the current era.

I think that makes me “just a Quilter” just like all the men and women of the past who were making things out of what fabrics and patterns they could buy at the time.

But, there seems to be a push for labels in our global quilting community. Multiple times in the past week alone, I’ve (or we’ve) been asked what kind of quilter I am (we are). So, why do I have to label myself as little-‘m’ modern to get the point across? I doubt the woman making a double wedding ring out of bleached muslin and pastel calicoes in 1930s called herself modern, even though she was by my definition.

So, I’m just a Quilter.

I might make modern quilts sometimes. I’m sure I’ll make a Modern quilt, if I haven’t already. Some day, I want to make a Civil War repro. And one of those crazy-intricate applique quilts full of flowers and vines and birds. Mostly, I just want to try things. I want to try new techniques in old ways and new ways and in whatever way I find myself leaning toward at the time.

There’s no label for my quilting, it’s just Quilting.

I don’t think that means that I don’t have a voice, either. Everything I make is something that is me expressing myself at that point in time. And I have themes that appear in most of my projects. For instance, almost all of my quilts have a non-quilting cotton thrown in (or more). I’m in a grey period right now where I’m really into pairing colors with greys of various shades.

I don’t mean to say that there aren’t quilters out there who don’t deserve a label if they want to claim it. And that they aren’t happy with it. But personally, I’m just a quilter, and I think I’ll always be just a quilter (well, and costumer, and sewer, and sewist, and fiber artist, and crafter, and any other number of things because I don’t just quilt, but I am a Quilter).

What are you? Are you something? Are you many things?

(A lot of this was inspired by Lynne from Lily’s Quilts asking about guild membership and modern vs. traditional. We’re a varied bunch in the quilting community!)