On the day the museum opened in 1991, the entire collection included 85 quilts that were on loan from the founders, Bill and Meredith Schroeder. Over time, the collection has expanded both in quantity and diversity and today the museum’s collection exceeds 600 works of art and continues to grow.

This exhibition, of collection quilts representing 30 years, celebrates the significant impact of The National Quilt Museum on the quilting and arts community since its founding.

Modern quilting has existed in many forms for much of the 20th century. It wasn’t until the 2000’s that quilts with a modern aesthetic, the use of bold colors and prints, high contrast and graphic areas of solid color, improvisational piecing, minimalism, expansive negative space, and alternate grid work began to appear in greater numbers and quilters began to describe themselves as modern.

This exhibition is a collection of quilts made by members of The Modern Quilt Guild over the first ten years of the organization.