Hilde Morin’s quilts aren’t based on traditional patterns with repetition and symmetry. “My work is very improvised,” she says. “I have a general idea of what I want, but it changes quite a bit while I’m working.” Morin, 51, a native of Venezuela, has lived in the U.S. for 20 years. The owner of a fabric store introduced her to quilting 10 years ago. Her quilts begin with a palette. “I make pieces and when I have about half the pieces, I lay out the quilt on my design wall,” she says. “The first half of the process is random and free. The second half is when I make the composition and fill it in.” The quilts are machine-pieced and have a textured surface design.
The piece of fabric in the left corner of the 62-inch by 29-inch Blue Africa (below) inspired the quilt. “What I saw in the fabric was Africa in blue,” she says. “African fabric tends to come in earthy tones such as mustard with brown and black and green. My challenge was to work with that palette and blend what I was building around the fabric.”
The original fabric yielded the hut design. “The fabric had people walking, trees and a few huts in the background,” she says. “I made the huts bigger and make it seem as if the people are away—walking or going about their business.”
Since 2006, Morin has traveled to her homeland, which doesn’t have a quilting tradition, to conduct quilting workshops. “My students in Venezuela don’t have all of our tools, but they make beautiful quilts working with what they have,” she says. Morin’s quilts range from $800 to $7,000.
Contact quiltmaker Hilde Morin via her website at hildemorin.com. 
