“While quilts that can be considered works of art have been made throughout the course of quilt history, the involvement of academically trained artists with the medium is a relatively new phenomenon.” [2]

Starting in the late 1960’s there emerged a persistent and widespread group of quilt makers, museum curators and art critics and collectors who were determined to open the doors and windows of the “historic” quilting tradition to let in, or perhaps to let free the increasing waves of quilting energy that seemed poised to flood the quilting world as it existed back forty years ago.

Facing considerable resistance, some of it quite strident and even malicious, this growing shift towards freedom and experimentation in quilting methods, mediums, attitudes, standards and viewpoints gathered a lot of momentum. Coupled with the changing social landscape of 70’s and 80’s, in retrospect we now see it was inevitable that liberal ideas could not bypass the treasured and deeply rooted traditions of quilts and quilt making.

This infectious trend of freedom to be creative in whatever ways they want has helped countless people discover the artist within. In the quilt making sphere, some of the results of complete artistic freedom are quilts that are truly works of art. The terms contemporary art quilts and contemporary or modern quilt art are now quite broadly used to describe unprecedented innovations in permanently connecting 2 or more layers of product.  Like many other words in our dictionaries, the word quilt is evolving. Broader definitions and usages are normal growth in any language. Why should the word quilt be any different.

Having described the standard explanation of the evolution of traditional quilt making  into art quilts and the concept of quilts as art, I personally feel it is very important also to keep in mind that the past 35 years of innovation is not really a “new” thing. If one studies the well documented history of the north American quilt tradition, (Canada was not at all different from young America) a definite pattern of risk taking, experimenting with new materials, techniques and styles repeatedly and consistently  demonstrates that each quilting generation has also wanted to make a statement to set themselves apart from what everyone else was doing. I’m sure it was often quite a challenge to alter basic traditions when one considers how women were restricted socially and economically in the 18th,19th even 20th centuries. Trends such as Baltimore Album quilts, Civil War quilts, crazy quilts, “color fads” such as combining acid orange and puce sometimes came and went in a decade or two. Imagine suggesting machine quilting a utilitarian quilt on an early treadle sewing machine. Someone had to have been the first brave soul. Then as now, necessity and short supplies very often catapult a quilt designer into having  to get creative. Yes, our American quilting forebears were designers. Men and women alike were prolific designers. They dared to use imaginative names to announce their work special and different.

“Americans have always known quilt makers, openly embraced their creations, and applauded their achievements Quilt makers have always been seen as our peers, not our betters. These biases and attitudes have been a double edged sword for quilts, until recently keeping them from being taken seriously by historians and scholars and from receiving the recognition they have deserved as artistic works of considerable merit and cultural importance. Today’s studio art quilters also struggle against the hoary and homey notion of the quilt as domestic artifact rather than object of art. This struggle is often compounded by prejudices of those who do not recognize quilts as art or women as artists.” [2]


Many influential art quilt makers from the 1970’s are still reinventing their personal styles in their latest series of art quilts, such as fiber art luminaries Michael James, Nancy Crow and Jean Ray Laury. These artists/catalysts are still respected because through experience and by example they still impact the ongoing art quilt dialogue of reviewing and redefining what’s good quilt art and what’s not.

“Quilt making is the art of democracy, a simple, powerful ad empowering idea that has spread across the world at the grassroots level, passing in the folk tradition from one person to the next, changing sightly with each movement.” [2]

“No other craft or art form is more closely identified with the values that define this country than quilting. Like jazz, like the cowboy, like baseball, the simple idea of quilt making has reached seemingly every corner of the world, taking a vision of America and American way of life with it. Quilts represent American possibilities and opportunities: of freedom, democracy, equality, home, community and individual expression.” [2]

“Always remember that quilts are three dimensional objects and that there is a vast difference between a flat photographic image on a printed page and the real thing. In person, you will discover that some pieces have real presence and that others are not at all what you expected.” [1]


Quilts4U fits into the long continuum of the quilting tradition as one of the many talented interpreters drawn to the emotional source driving this universal community.

Quilts4U remains rooted in the quilt making tradition’s core qualities while finding new  personal ways to push the boundaries. Our interpretations are spectacular; sometimes powerful, sometimes playfully restful.

Careful attention to all details of the construction process further enhances each quilt. In keeping with the modern design process, our “fabric expressions” are quilted on our Bernina sewing machines or a professional long arm quilting machine.