Modern quilting, with its bold new contemporary style marked by graphic designs made from bright fabrics, is attracting young and old, new and experienced quilters.

When I first laid eyes on Dijanne Cevaal's "Blue Travelers' Blanket," a rich example of appliqué quilting, I fell in love with it.

During almost a year of sharing quilting ideas with you via the Quilting Daily blog, I've noticed something interesting: circles are popular. Whether the circles are sewn with hand stitching or machine quilting doesn't matter. Every time I write about circle motifs, the post gets a big response.

One really has to marvel at the talent of our quilting foremothers. With basic geometric shapes and materials they had at hand, these (mostly) women made quilt block patterns. Then they made them their own, taking the traditional quilt blocks and putting their own spin on the design.

Ever since 2009, artists Jamie Fingal and Leslie Tucker Jenison have curated an annual juried invitational exhibit for a group of artists they call Dinner at Eight. This year's exhibit, with the theme "Rituals," debuted at the 2012 International Quilt Festival in Long Beach, California. Rituals is the fourth installment in a series of quilt art exhibitions from the Dinner at Eight Artists.

Maybe the most important lesson I've learned from Rayna is that rules and perfection are overrated—at least when it comes to surface design and art quilting. In fact, I think it's her laid-back attitude, coupled with a keen eye for color and design, that makes her such a brilliant artist.

One of the differences between art quilting and traditional quilting as that in art quilting, thread is almost always part of the design. The choice of thread in machine embroidery, in particular, can affect the look of the quilt.

I have a long history of finding, buying, hoarding, and using Japanese fabric. I can't bear to part with even the tiniest scrap. I am always looking to incorporate a piece in my patchwork projects.