2 - QuiltCon 2022

As I scrolled through 268 photos I took at QuiltCon, it occurred to me that most of you probably aren't interested in knowing which category a quilt appeared. Whether the category was assigned to: minimalism; improv; piecing; use of negative space; modern traditionalism; appliqué; group or bee quilts; small quilts; or challenge quilts, most of the 481 quilts displayed in the show were beautifully modern. 

In addition to those (above) judged categories, special, non-judged exhibits included: youth; a temperature quilt exhibit; Community Outreach quilts (made by chapters to either sell at QC to support Navajo Indian crafters, or  donate at home); Latifah Saafir (keynote speaker) quilts; and Suzanne Woods quilts (owner/editor of Lucky Spool Media who passed away).

Here are some of my favorites, with detail pictures, and credit given to each maker.

First up is "Tiny Bubbles," by Marla Varner @pennylanequilts. It was my vote for People's Choice, which sadly it did not win.

These tiny patches were hand-pieced.

"Sealights" was made by Paola Machetta of Italy. Those colors!

Narrow insertion strips pieced into this improv design are minuscule.

"Escape from Alignment," by Sharon Swanson of Kansas City MQG just makes me happy. 

Many quilts were simply walking foot quilted.

It's color that first draws me to a quilt, and Nancy Lambert did it with "Surf's Up."

Refreshing orange colors are in Cassandra Beaver's @cassandra.beaver "Emergence" quilt. 

You can always count on Cassandra's quilting to be beautiful, and the addition of hand stitches makes it perfection. 

Kathy Cook @kathycookquilts had five quilts accepted into QuiltCon (the maximum allowed per person). "Planet Triangle" is 47" X 47". See the pink rocket ship in the upper left?  

As in many modern quilts, hand quilting complements machine quilting. 

If you've been following my blog for a few years, you may remember that in 2017 my friend Di @darlingdi came to visit for a month from Sydney, Australia. We attended QuiltCon in Savannah, where some of you likely met her. Well, Di had a quilt in this show, and I'm happy to share it here. Di's work is stunning. 

"City Lights" is entirely hand stitched with size 8 perle cotton. 

I connected with my friend Connie @gynconnie who I first met at QuiltCon Nashville. This is her "Where's the Cheese?" quilt that sold! Each entrant has the option of making a quilt "NFS" - not for sale - or have a price indicated on the description card beside the quilt.

It's always fun to meet someone on Instagram, especially when we've been following one another. Such was the case when I met Clara from New York, whose Instagram handle is @bimbambuki_blog. This is her blog. Together, we walked to each of her quilts so I could take pictures.

This quilt has a story. Block were made by quilters in Russia - each block is pieced with the name of a quilter - who sent them to Clara to join them. She explained that after piecing the top, it looked so bad that she cut it up and sewed it back together again. 

Clara is a hand quilter, and as you can see, she quilts very densely.

Clara said she made "Lemon Quilt" on a day when she needed a little color in her life, spent piecing a lemon. 

She densely hand quilted it with X stitches and straight lines. The texture seemed like a lemon peel!

This quilt is pieced from blocks made by Clara's bee mates who each used Kona colors she selected, and sewed into their interpretation of the Henri Matisse painting La Danse. 

Clara earned a third place ribbon in Bee Quilts. 

She hand quilted a spiral using six-strand embroidery floss. 

Being a garment sewist too, I'm pretty sure Clara will hang this pieced denim quilt in her sewing room. 

The "make something" text is her handwriting appliquéd using yellow elastic. 

Clara has just written about her favorite QuiltCon quilts, so take a peek at her blog so you can see which quilts she liked best.

Though my own entry into the Artisan Fabric Challenge, sponsored by Windham, wasn't accepted into the show, I was just as happy to see my friend, Maureen's @maydecemberquilts quilt in that category. It has lots of detailed hand stitching. 

Phoenix has some pretty cool murals scattered in the downtown area. Karen (also of Central Florida MQG) and I took advantage of this smashing backdrop.

More pictures to come! 

In the meantime, if you haven't seen the award-winning quilts, go here. Linda