Modern Quilts – Mary Vaneecke

Category: Modern Quilts

(White) Silence is Violence

Posted on January 9, 2018September 15, 2019 by Mary Vaneecke

While this work is a modern quilt with a contemporary theme, it stands firmly in the tradition of subversive stitching in quilts.

When officers of the law become judge, jury, and executioners, killing unarmed black citizens, we all have a problem. The police act on our behalf. This slogan from the Black Lives Matter movement challenges our complicity in the face of these injustices. It demands our attention. We must find a way to hold our police officers close, and still hold them accountable. This piece is included in the Studio Art Quilt Associates Loaded Conversations exhibition.

The work is silk dupion, hand-painted fabrics, layered and stitched. Embellished with hand-painted, frayed twine.

letters on white quilted silk — (White) Silence is Violence, by Mary Vaneecke

text on densely quilted white sillk — detail, (White) Silence is Violence by Mary Vaneecke

Chopsticks and Udon

Posted on November 30, 2014August 31, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

Another improvisationally pieced ‘modern quilt’ to go with a dining theme. Its sister quilt, Chopsticks and Edamame is here. The digitized quilting design is based on a traditional sachiko design called steam or fishing net.

Chopsticks and Udon, 2014, 44'' x 27'' — Chopsticks and Udon, 2014, 44” x 27”

Coin Toss

Posted on November 30, 2014August 31, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

This quilt is inspired by the wonderful fabrics (a shot cotton in burnt orange, and a navy New Aged Muslin by Marcus Brothers) and the traditional quilt pattern Chinese Coins. A link to a 1940s Amish version is here. I call it Coin Toss, and every time I think of the name, I want to ask, What’s the most you ever lost on a coin toss?

The use of negative space and plain fabrics just begs for fabulous quilting, and I tried to keep the tension of the perilously stacked coins going with the navy-on-navy background quilting.

Coin Toss, 2014, 44'' x 27'' — Coin Toss, 2014, 44” x 27”

Sonaran Arts Network reviews ‘Journeys’ show and my piece, ‘Modern Love’

Posted on November 20, 2014 by Mary Vaneecke

A link to the thoughtful and perceptive review of the SAQA-AZ Journeys show by CJ Shane is here. The show runs through December 10 at the Tucson Jewish Community Center.

Modern Love, 2014, 64'' x 40'' — Modern Love, 2014, 64” x 40”

Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame

Posted on September 30, 2014August 31, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

detail, Dining Destinations: Chopsticks and Edamame

This piece is another of my ‘Modern’ quilts. It features commercial fabrics and improvisational piecing. The digitized quilt design in the black areas is based on a traditional Japanese sachiko pattern called ‘steam.’ Edamame are steamed fresh soybeans. I think there is a Pad Thai quilt in my future!

Chopsticks and Edamame will be part of the Studio Art Quilt Assciates’ Food for Thought exhibition. The show will debut at the National Quilt Museum, Paducah, Kentucky, in April 2015 and will then travel to the Festival of Quilts in Birmingham, England, in August, 2015.

Modern Love

Posted on May 8, 2014August 31, 2016 by Mary Vaneecke

I love the so-called ‘Modern Quilt’ aesthetic: clean design lines, simple fabrics, negative space (=quilting space, IMHO). This is my first attempt at such a piece. It is raw-edge fusible applique on a field of gray muslin. Yes, I cut a hole in it. I call it Modern Love.