We welcome new members. Learn about the benefits of membership, join us by purchasing your membership, or come to our next meeting.
Sew Day April 2026
We’re quilters that love to learn, share, and sew with each other. We’ve been a local guild of The Modern Quilt Guild since 2013. Our hybrid meetings (in-person and online) meet on the second Thursday. LSMQG also offers smaller group opportunities with monthly online Sew-Ins, in-person Color Club, as well as a variety of other learning and collaborative opportunities throughout the year.
LSMQG MEMBERS - The Knife River Outdoor Quilt Show
Knife River Heritage Center
Saturday, August 22, 2026
10:00-4:00
Rain date Sunday, August 23
IMPORTANT DATES
June 3-30: Register your quilt HERE
August 15: Drop off your quilt. Location to be determined. Sew/pin a label with your name and phone number on the back lower left corner. Place your quilt in a labeled pillowcase or a labeled plastic bag.
August 22: SHOWTIME! 7:00 we will start hanging quilts and could use some extra hands. If you are available to help, please sign-up via the Google doc available June 8.
MODERN QUILTS
MODERN is the key! Scandi vibe is a plus!
Smaller, lap-sized quilts around 50”x70” are preferred. However, if your quilt is bigger, we will hang it. (The 70” length is to keep your quilt off the ground. If yours is longer, adjust where you place your hanging sleeve.) Table runners and wall quilts are great, too. All submissions for hanging must be bound—no flimsies, and must have a hanging sleeve attached.
NOTE You do not have to make a new quilt for this show. If you have a modern quilt sitting around, you are good to go.
Hanging sleeve - Cut an 8.5”-9” strip the width of your quilt, measuring from the inside edges of the binding. Secure both long edges by hand stitching or safety pinning to the top back of quilt. Make sure you have allowed room for a hanging rod to slip through. Your sleeve should look like a “D” shape.
ANTIQUE QUILTS
These are 50 years or older. The antique quilts will be placed on a flat surface so no hanging sleeve is required. Please provide a sheet to use as a protective layer for your quilt.
SUBMISSION OF QUILTS
Your name, the name of your quilt, the designer’s name if not your own original design, and whom it was quilted by.
Size of your quilt.
Add any interesting/relevant information about your quilt. This is especially important for the antique quilts.
First and Last Quilt
Members, share the first quilt you made (can be an image if you do not have it) and the most recent quilt you made. We look forward to hearing your story at a meeting in 2026.
2026 Meeting Demos!
Members, do you have a skill, technique, deep knowledge on a quilty topic or a tool that is amazing?
Want to share with the guild during a meeting this year?
LSMQG’s 2026 Sew Along is the Modern Block Sampler Quilt by the MQG!
Login to the MQG website and search in the resources section for the Modern Block Sampler Quilt to join in the fun. We will be sewing along together throughout the year!
January: Plus Up
February: Goody
March: Comet Tails
April: Sparkles
May: Upward
June: Nouvel
As the modern quilting movement started to gain broader recognition, quilters began to expand their knowledge and practice in this craft. Now, with more experienced and curious modern quilters than ever, the boundaries of what can be created with fabric and thread continues to evolve.
Thus, modern quilters often define for themselves what modern quilting is.
The MQG is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support and encourage the growth and development of modern quilting through art, education, and community. In order to serve that mission, we have outlined several characteristics often seen in modern quilting. This definition provides a foundation from which we can begin to educate about modern quilting. While these characteristics can be a common thread among many modern quilts, this list is not comprehensive of every attribute in modern quilting, nor is it a constraint to what can be in a modern quilt.
Bold use of color
High contrast & graphic areas of color
Minimalism
Maximalism
Improvisational piecing
Expansive negative space
Alternate grid work
Modern traditionalism
In modern traditionalism, traditional patchwork quilt blocks, such as a log cabin block, and traditional styles, such as boro and kantha, are often reimagined using modern quilting elements, such as asymmetry, color, and scale.
Similarly, various themes that appeared decades and centuries ago in quilts continue to evolve in quilting today. Pictorial quilts and quilts featuring text tell the stories of what is happening or has happened within society, or one’s own life. These quilts, also referred to as social commentary quilts, are present in modern, traditional, and art quilting styles. In a similar way, the utilization of recycled or upcycled materials, once done out of necessity, is more recently being used for broader environmental impact. This creates an interesting bridge between generations of quilters, with many modern quilters taking the various themes, techniques, and materials of earlier generations and applying different characteristics of modern, traditional, and other styles to create their own unique quilts.
A quilt is typically recognized as multiple layers of fabric threaded together with a finished edge. We have often used the word “functional” when describing modern quilts. This may mean different things to different people: a modern quilt may function as a bed covering, a comfort object, or a piece for visual reflection. In all cases, the use of the quilt does not push it under or pull it out from the umbrella of being a modern quilt, as long as it is perceived by its maker to be useful.
Some quilters yearn for a finite definition of a modern quilt – and some rebel against the idea. We use the above list as our definition, knowing it may be malleable. Art, craft, and quilts are subjective, and modern quilting will always continue to evolve. We look forward to seeing where it goes next!