QuilTrio - Who are we?

We're 3 good friends – Liat Engler, Orit Modiano and Leeanne Shilo – who share a strong love of quilting. We've known each other and have been creating together for years.

 

We meet weekly in Orit's living room, nicknamed "The Studio".  From the start, Fridays became an institution in the studio, dedicated entirely to our creative efforts. Occasionally, we allow ourselves sewing "marathons" that stretch over several days; these sessions drive our work forward and motivate us as we work at the daily jobs which provide our income.

 

Each of us has come a long and significant way in her journey, learning and experimenting with different styles, work techniques and materials. The progress made from the start of our acquaintance finds expression in the range of works we produce and exhibit today.

 

We've developed our own language, a private kind of humor, and very much enjoy our time together. Each of us creates her quilts in her own style and taste, drawing inspiration from journals, books, the Internet, exhibitions, the world around us, other friends and, of course, from each other. The connection between us is bold, loving, inspiring and the common muse leaves room for the individual muse. Because of – and thanks to – the differences between us, each one of us makes her own contribution to what the trio has built.

 

In the past, Leeanne produced traditional quilts pieced with hundreds or thousands of tiny pieces. Today she focuses on modern quilts, often integrating additional materials in her work.

 

Liat creates modern art quilts of many types. She enjoys learning one thing and quickly changing it, translating, calculating and transforming it while creating her own language.

 

Orit focused on traditional quilts in the past, but today far prefers creating art quilts, enjoying the translation of images from another medium to fabric while returning frequently to a favorite technique – paper foundation piecing.

 

QuilTrio is defined by our coordinated efforts in producing joint works of art, whether projects of one subject to which each one gives her own interpretation, or projects in which a single picture is cut into separate pieces, translated by each artist, and then remerged into a divided-but-single whole. "San Gimignano" and "Reflection" represent this style.

 

Our work has been shown in various group and solo exhibitions in Israel as well as in group exhbitions in Europe and the United States, in some cases winning prizes.  Our 4 solo exhibitions have won praise, with visitors and reviewers describing the togetherness they see and experience in our work. We've started a tradition of publishing a calendar each year, presenting a collection of quilts produced during the previous year.

 

A longtime friend recently described us by quoting Ecclesiastes 4:12, “the threefold cord is not quickly broken”. We each hope to grow, develop and spread our wings in the world of quilting. As we do this, separately and together, our common studio serves as a retreat from the pressures and routine of the world around us; the studio – and the friendship it cradles – is our safe haven.