Modern Quilts have their roots in rebellion, in our desire to do something different, but simultaneously their designs are firmly planted in the field of tradition.  Contemporary Quilts are a response to what has come before, embracing the new options available in textiles: bold colors, graphic prints, larger scale prints, and foreign fabrics.  Much like the Amish quilting tradition, many Modern Quilts explore quilt designs made exclusively with solid fabrics or with just a hint of print. Urban Quilts are often functional as well as decorative and make use of asymmetry in design, relying less on repetition or the interaction of quilt block motifs. Many Modern Quilt styles reinterpret traditional blocks in a whole new way or embrace simplicity and minimalism utilizing alternative block structures or even a lack of visible structure.  Contemporary Quilt pieces incorporate the use of negative space and are inspired by modern art and architecture, frequently using improvisation, bold colors or color combinations and graphic prints. Often, Urban Quilts incorporate gray and white as neutrals and show an increase in solid fabrics. In many ways, Modern Quilts have taken us back to the basics of the early quilters, when women of the day used the colors and styles of their time to express themselves creatively while finding friendship and community along the way.  Contemporary Quilts also give us this sense of community but in a modern or urban setting.