Modern Quilt Group - Gallery

Embers beneath the Blue - Alison Mayall

I delved into my scrap boxes and started sewing pieces together, and before long I had the start of this quilt. There is no grid, alternative or otherwise - just slabs of improv pieced fabric scraps - stitched together with flashes of orange. The quilting is simple straight lines.

Skinny Strips - Anne Connor

A challenge is a nice opportunity to try something new. I hadn't pieced skinny strips before, and now I'm hooked.

Break Out - Cat Brown

I've always wanted to see if I could make a quilt with a hole in the middle, and the "off the grid" prompt felt like a good chance to try it!

Lola lost the plot in the parking lot - Catherine Hunter

I was inspired by the black asphalt of an underground car park with its lines in white, red and yellow. Influenced by the workshop with Irene Roderick, I focused on using limited bold contrasting colours. Hence, the red and black like a Lula Guinness' handbag. I also love the artist & photographer, Ester Stocker, with her grids, often broken, in black and white. It all started with a little railway track and a few skinny lines, without a preconceived plan. Finally, the few curved quilted lines, adding a little more texture and movement are inspired by David Owen Hastings.

The Green Green Grass of Wimbledon - Catherine Waterson

I played tennis from the age of 8 but 21 years ago I had a spectacular fall on court and wrecked my wrist and haven't been able to play since. I am therefore off that particular grid.

Neapolitan at 25 Degrees - Charlie Morton

What started off as a traditional log cabin has become disrupted with prairie points, and thing have taken a slight turn "off the grid". The colour palette reminds me of Neapolitan ice cream, inspiring the title. Shot cottons, 80/20 wadding, machine pieced and quilted.

Turned out - Connie Wheeler

Off the Grid to me was empty space and how to reflect this. I thought an Ostrich in the typical pose that we all enjoy really reflects what my Off the Grid thinking was.

Twisted Navigation - Danielle Hodge

Inspired by old black and white coastal navigation charts - reimagined into bright colours and quilting, with the twist of off-centre grid.

Shards of light - Diane Smyth

My inspiration came from flashes of light in a thunderstorm when rain hits transformers creating a short cut to earth for the power. All cotton fabrics used with Warm and Natural wadding and quilted using Aurifil threads.

Sacred Stones - Elinor Sadowska

The quilt is inspired by the stacked structure of the Neolithic temple site of Ha?ar Qim on Malta, where the layered walls and tall stones form irregular grids and organic patterns. The quilt is English Paper Pieced using cotton fabric with embroidered details to highlight the mysterious prehistoric features found at the ancient site.

Unmade, Remade - Francesca Jeffes

This piece explores how identity is formed and re-formed over time. Constructed using templates, the initial shapes reflect the systems we are born into - family, culture and early experience - which begins to shape us.

Playful Abstraction - Fiona Burrows

Inspired by sculptures of Barbara Hepworth on a gallery visit.

Grid Gone Wonky - Gill Clark

Sone left over blocks from a very very regular grid like block put together in a traditional way were transformed by slicing into them and adding strips of background fabric. More slicing and inserting, lots of orange quilting and my grid has gone wonky! No new fabric was purchased in the making of this quilt ???? and no my stash has not reduced in size!

Got bored and left - Gill Grimshaw

The quilt wanted to start as a traditionally pieced, and very geometrically aligned quilt. The journey was planned, setting off on the "Road to Tennessee", a conventional block. Somehow, though, the pieces got bored with the journey, became quite sassy and staged an escape.

Outside of My Comfort Zone - Gill Howes

Just inspired by the 2026 Challenge Title. My plains stash needs reducing too!

Finding the way to happiness - Ginny Gibson

Using a mixture of scrap pieces and new material, I played with creating the square and found happiness. The end project has jelly roll off cuts, plaiting, folding, layering and applique. The piece is made of cotton/batik material, found in my scrap basket and from shops both in the UK and Spain.

Gridfallen - Glenys Davies

I imagined improv curve blocks falling from their allotted spaces in the grid. I used cotton fabrics from my stash in bold and contrasting colours, and modern quilting patterns.

Off the Grid - Glynne Blaik

I recently did a workshop and the sample lent itself to the challenge.

Ripple Effect - Gudrun Jensen

I decided to use the logo of the Modern Quilt Group and chose the colours yellow-green, orange, blue, pink, white and black accordingly. I used mainly damask fabrics hand dyed with cold resist Procion dyes. Slightly off centre there is the logo framed in black and white. I surrounded it with improvised piecing sewn in the stacks technique I learnt in Nicholas Ball's book "Inspiring Improv". I hand quilted concentric circles around the Modern Quilt Groups logo, trying to create a ripple effect. The idea behind this is that the Modern Quilt Group is a very inspiring source of motivation with meetings, talks, workshops, tips and tricks. Sometimes even a single piece of information, an encouraging remark, a nudge towards a new technique can have a great effect on the groups members and their work: the ripple effect.

Fractured - Grace Cheney-Law

This is foundation pieced.

Going Off Grid - Helen Clark

If we are going off the grid, we are remote, probably without electricity - so we don't have bright lights like those on the grid. In these times, there is also a reminder that we should be more careful with our resources (and turn off those lights!) Wholecloth, machine quilted.

Dancing off the grid or This way to the Greek temple - Helen Gray

Made during a MODQG workshop with Irene Roderick, Dancing with the wall.A

The Norfolk Broads - Helen Anne Jones

This design was inspired by views of boats sailing on the Broads, seen from the window of the train from Lowestoft to Norwich. Glimpses of the sails just above the reeds on a sunny day created interesting shades and shapes. Cotton fabrics, glide thread for quilting.

Uneven Bars - Jackie Smith

I saw something similar to my quilt in a magazine and liked the colours, which I generally used, as well as the format and thought it would fit the challenge bill. Fabrics from stash, machine pieced and quilted with close together straight lines.

Grid interrupted - James Neilson

I was inspired by a traditional economy block and wanted to explore how I could use this shape in conjunction with alternative grid work and colour to interrupt the grid. Pieced in cotton using inserts to create the shapes. Quilted in teal Aurifil 50 wt thread to tie the clashing colours together.

Bento - Jane Hawkes

Curiosity piqued when reading the novel Butter took me down a Google rabbit hole from the origin of Bento boxes, traditional Japanese, single-portion packed meals, usually served in a container with dividers to keep food separated, to Bento grids. Inspired by the Bento box the grids are commonly used in website design. It consists of different sized boxes arranged in a visual and dynamic layout. Each box is clearly defined and serves as a space to showcase a specific highlight or feature. I googled examples and the idea for a modern quilt took shape. My quilt has the manual design layout as the background and the finished design as the feature block. It is machine pieced, has needle turned applique shapes and is machine and hand quilted.

My parallelogram falls off the grid and splits repeatedly as it falls - Jane Johnson

I was a maths teacher so I wanted to use a mathematical shape. I used trapunto adding padding from the back. My fabrics are mainly Art Gallery which have a rich colour. My quilting followed the parallelogram and with some spreading out in a fan shape.

The Blue Grid - Jane Neal

Slightly influenced by the powerful colour blocks of Mondrian, this is my take on an asymmetrical grid design. Background was split repeatedly to insert a blue grid. Irregular quilting lines to extend the detail of the brief.

Wonky Log Cabin - Jane O'Leary

Improvised log cabin block using lots of tiny scraps sorted by colour and made up into strips. The block is made using stitch and flip with a little added quilting.

Beyond the Grid - Jane Sheldon

I have woven fabric strips of different widths to make a grid and then I have purposely redirected some to be off grid. Three shapes have been inserted in or on top to stretch the imagination. Solid colours of cotton, thin line machine quilting.

Energy Sources - Janice Donaldson

While experimenting with narrow lines this seemed a perfect project. Materials are Kona solids, machine quilted with a small amount of hand stitching. "Off the Grid" makes me think of energy, so a loose interpretation is overhead cables at the top, middle the sun and bottom solar panels.

Grids, anyway - Jayne Emsden

Made with 100% cotton.

They all fell off - Jenny Bealing

Remembering what happened when someone knocked the table.

North London Derby - Jo Rycroft

Like most of my work, I wasn't entirely sure where this one was heading when I started! The composition of the piecing was inspired by the brilliant Cindy Grisdela whose improv style often takes over my thoughts, and the colour choice of largely reds and blues started life as a scrap busting exercise... I added the black strips hoping to create the perspective to almost lift the four blocks off the fabric, or indeed, off the grid. The four red outlines was an afterthought, and born from some work I loved when I visited the European Patchwork Meeting in Alsace two years ago. This also helps to pop those four blocks off their grid. All fabrics were Art Gallery Fabrics which are so lovely to work with, and lay flatter than most cottons, particularly with this amount of detailed piecing and quilting. For the red frames, I quilted the outlines and simply filled them in with fabric paint. The colour choice of largely blues and reds, and being a North London girl, the famous Derby between Spurs and Arsenal came to mind, interesting as I hide from all the football in my house!

Not Completely Round - Judith Davy

I saw a picture of a round grid in a book called Elements of Design along with a picture of a distorted round grid by Anne Westerduin. I decided to combine both images. Made with bondaweb and machine quilting. I've made a second hanging using the fabric cut out from this one.

Are we nearly there yet? - Judith Dursley

Very basic grid, but hoping to wander off. Pieced and heavily quilted, hopefully.

Asymmetric Arcs - Juliet West

I rejected the grid completely and explored asymmetry and curves in this machine pieced and quilted work.

Rainy day - Karen Burrage

I used colours that represented the sky sun and vegetation. Which was suddenly interrupted by a sudden summer shower.

It's Alimentary - Kathryn Davidson

I used the human body as inspiration. Ribs, veins, intestines, idea came from a relative having gallstones in 2025. The yellow signifies the jaundice. Cotton fabric, appliqued and quilted. They are completely fine now and the NHS is marvellous.

Smart Casual - Kathy Moore

Fabric bought on impulse and left over blue background fabric provided a starting point. I joined recut and re-joined to highlight both the subtle colour gradation and the contrast in the ombre fabric. Straight line quilting is used to emphasise the changes in direction.

Rules? What rules! - Leah Cameron

My inspiration was the concept of life laying down "The Rules" and underneath our compliance we all break them just a little! Using random, hand pieced patches overlaid with a traditional grid of quilting stitches I hope to illustrate that both breaking and obeying the rules can work together.

Space Debris - Lesley Gibbs

My design represents broken pieces of satellite floating in space. The piecing method is influenced by Angela Madden's book "Pieceful Scenes". I used Moda Grunge fabric.

Spidergrid - Linda Herd

Extended and altered lines from a starting point of a small grid.

Lost at Sea - Margaret Bradly

Each star is a wonky Mariners Compass. The black background represents the middle of the night and the Mariners are lost as the compasses are pointing in different directions.

Off the Grid - Margaret Logan

Design from looking through many books and magazines plus the beautiful piece of background fabric which I received from a dear friend.

Memories of Australia III - Michaela Knight

Again I used my aboriginal fabric and made lots of 'Flying Geese'. Daddy Goose at the front, Mummy Geese next, lots of Baby Geese at the back - and one is really struggling at the back...

Memories of Australia II: Uluru - Michaela Knight

On our trip to Australia I brought fantastic aboriginal fabric. I love the earthy colours and took Uluru (Ayres Rock) as my inspiration.

What's the Point? - Muriel Markland

A large pieced triangle points down from the top left hand corner. The binding is made up from prairie points.

Radiance - Muriel Markland

A checkerboard is distorted as it radiates from one corner. All cotton fabric and thread. Machine pieced and quilted.

Forests of Colour - Norah Stocker

I used Love from Beth fabrics in purples, pinks, patterns and navy linen. I wanted the power of colour as if walking through a forest. Using different widths, spaces and heights, I switched directional quilting to give depth. I walk daily through woodlands so created a directional sketch layout beforehand, which gave me my inspiration.

But the Grid - Pam Stanier

Barcodes - Rachel Lickiss

This design developed from work done at a workshop at my local quilt group focussing on 'till roll' piecing i.e using supermarket receipts as the template for 'stitch and flip' piecing. I devised the overall layout to showcase these feature panels, experimenting with negative space and an irregular grid. The quilting design reflects the strip basis of the piecing - again in an irregular grid format. Pieced in cotton - both commercial and home dyed.

Powerline - Rosemary Muntus

Using cut and butt techniques developed over the last 30 years plus some new improv ideas. Inspired by powerlines and pylons. Landscape fabrics. Machine and hand quilted.

The view from my window - Sally Barclay

Started off as blocks from a Fundamentally Circles workshop by Brenda Gael Smith, which languished on my grid of 'projects to finish', sliced and rearranged. Made from commercial fabrics, and machine quilted with straight lines and variegated thread.

Off the grid - Sarah Cornelius

In rural Scotland named storms frequently damage power lines and leave individual and communities off the grid for days. This machine pieced/appliqued quilt with hand quilting uses cotton fabrics and felt to honour those who walk the lines and fix the faults.

Wandering Ratio of Triangles - Sarah Williams

After researching asymmetrical ideas and playing with the golden ratio rule, I use the concept of a meandering grid which disrupted its symmetry. The wandering triangles we added to further distort the grid. It was constructed using foundation paper piecing. The fabric is cotton and it is machine quilted using 50 weight cotton.

'Qoliqoli' - Sophia Smith

Communal fishing net used by Fijian women.

Go West - Sophie Claire

I drew inspiration from maps with their lines of longitude and latitude, and blocks of bright colours. I also wanted to give a sense of movement generated by direction of travel, intersections and journeys plotted. The quilt is machine pieced and machine quilted with some hand quilting using invisible thread.

Churn Dash off the Grid - Sue Battley

I took a traditional Churn Dash block and drew it without any straight lines. Three raw-edged sizes of these were fused and machine applied to fit the prequilted 20 inch square. The quilting lines, although parallel, also avoided the use of straight lines. Cotton fabric, bamboo wadding, mistyfuse and variegated thread.

Cabin in the Woods - Sue Cox

A wonky log cabin style block. Thinking about sustainability and being 'Off the Grid' I used a sample set of fabrics, the type that's sent to shops on a piece of card, this block used all the fabric from that set.

Broken Grid - Sue Tovey

I enjoy improv piecing so to a square and randomly cut it into 3, then pieced in different width and colour strips. Then I recut randomly and added 2 more strips. I recut a third time and added a strip in the background colour. I tried out spiral quilting for the first time. I used Moda Grunge fabrics.

Down the Rabbit Hole - Susan Brown

Having thought about this topic for ages now, I have decided to construct my quilt from some blocks I made in Jo Cunningham's excellent workshop "Rock the Block" using the David Owen Hastings methodology "Backing, Binding, Batting, Beauty: designing a quilt from back to front". The end result will be original and off the grid! I have used quilting cottons and batiks from my stash, pieced with Aurifil 50 wt and quilted with Isacord/Mettler polysheen.

Lost in Liberty - Suzanne Pass

Toothy the Pirate - Ted Francis (age 12)

My toothy Pirate sails off the grid on high seas adventures.

Hashtag 3 - Valerie Schmidt

A machine quilted grid distorts and slips down over a patched quilt top of own dyed fabrics.

Happenstance - Valarie Huggins

I was so struck by a random, totally accidental arrangement of my coloured collage papers that I photographed it for future reference. Three months later, I found the ideal challenge theme: the design and colours virtually unchanged apart from the addition of grid borders. Cotton fabric, machine applique and quilting.

The untethered grid - Wendy Camm

My inspiration is taken from complicated technical solar cell power off the grid systems. My aim is to untether the components and links in these diagrams and create a modern interpretation of my own design. I used a variety of improvised techniques including curves and diagonals to make shapes inspired by the off grid diagrams. As the quilt is pieced and the shapes irregular there were several engineering issues!

Solitude - Sarah Coggon

Inspired by camping in remote places a dark background is free-pieced with tiny floating inserts to portray a night sky above a single tent. Cotton fabrics. Free motion quilting.

This is my first fairy tale, bubbling softly off the grid - Maria White

Very loose association led me to this depiction. "Off the Grid" means outside the norm, unusual, also sideways thinking. Fairy tales are for these modern times somewhat off the grid. The golden ball fell in the well, not to be seen any more. Hopeful bubbles are rising up, waiting for the outcome of the scene. I used gridded fabric for the background. The hand quilting emphasises the grid and its devolving into spheres. I used dark lines going off grid, appliqued bubbles and hand stitching in the foreground, to get an upward motion.