New Quilt made to be a table cloths

This "modern" quilt was  inspired by Thomas Kearns in his book about modern quilting.  His background was white and he had more circles, but then it was bigger too.  This was made to be  a table "throw" or table cloth and is now on my table. I really like the backing fabric.

What does "modern" mean?  Lots of things if you go through the literature about it.  In most cases it means quite a lot of negative space and relatively uncomplicated patchwork pattern. Often it also means plain fabrics, not prints. However the possibilities are enormous. To me the negative space and the general "Unfussyness" is appealling after looking in the quilt magazines I receive, especially those with quilts that win prizes in the big shows, which are usually complex to the point of being rococco -- although usually very lovely and beautifully quilted.  I think I'm on a bit of a modern kick although I have two not-Modern quilts started. My mind keeps going to modern designs I've seen lately.

The ABC quilt

The alphabet panel with Dr. Seuss illustrations for each letter was a purchase at the Quilter's Gathering show in November. I finished it in time to be a Christmas present for "the kids"-- my three great-grandchildren: Finn, 4, Cole, 3 and Stella 2 in ten days. I wasn't sure whether it would be another  "ho-hum, Grand and her quirks". It was brought from a bedroom so I could photograph it last night and then it was spread on the living room floor. Then a 15 minute session of "can you find B" etc. followed. Both Finn and Cole know all the alphabet and the only problem with finding letters was that sometimes Stella was laying on top of it.

And then Rachel pointed out -- as I had not noticed -- that the alphabet her ends with WXZY.  Well, what can I say? I really have no fear that it's going to fatally mess up their way of saying the alphabet when they get to school

I was happy that they had used the quilt the way it was intended. I read in the current New Yorker magazine about the Mayor of Providence, RI who has instituted a plan to encourage lower income families to talk more to their children because studies showed that the children know many fewer words when they get to kindergarten than kids from more affluent families and it seems to be because the parents converse less with their children and that parental interactions are more likely to be utilitarian and often negative, "don't do that.  Stop shouting," etc. Rarely are the childred read to and they spend more time in front of the TV. 

These children have been read to and talked to almost from day one. They will arrive at kindergarten with large vocabularies -- and probably not thinking the alphabet song ends with WXZY.