QuiltCon Minimalism

Continuing to view quilts at QuiltCon, this next batch focuses on the Minimalism categories. These are a few that caught my eye as I wandered the dozens of aisles that made-up the 680-quilt show.

Aura No.1 by Audrey Esarey @cottonandbourbon, won first place in Minimalism. 

She hand-dyed the fabrics, and quilted this precise grid on a longarm. Not only did Audrey win a monetary award for her quilts, but the quilt sold at QuiltCon for $5,000.

Even before seeing who had made this quilt, I recognized Carson Converse's @carsonconverse distinctive dark style. Untitled 1-2022 won second place in Minimalism.

It too was precisely matchstick quilted on a longarm. 

Also by Carson, who lives in Massachusetts, is Double Arc.

I was intrigued by the way the light hit the quilting thread, and made it glow. This too was longarm quilted.

Sylvan was made by Riane Menardi Morrison @riane.elise who lives in Colorado. She is from Des Moines, Iowa, and is a Drake University grad like me. Though I don't have a close-up of this quilt, it has been entirely hand-pieced and hand-quilted. Riane had the Material Goods vendor booth at QuiltCon where I bought a skein of Sashiko thread; Riane uses it for her hand-quilting. 

Milky Opals was made by Lorena Uriarte @lorena_in_syd of Australia. 

Interestingly, Lorena has used pieces of embroidery to create the round, opal shapes. The quilt was longarm quilted by Katherine Jones, who some of you may recall, won Best in Show in 2017 for her quilt Bling. 

Clara Stoikow @bimbambuki_blog made this quilt called: [........] The design makes a statement about a Russian woman protesting the war in Ukraine by tattooing dots on her arm. 

Velvet dots have been hand-appliquéd to the background. Its domestic machine quilted, with hand-quilted circles using metallic thread.

Clara is the quilter I connected with at QuiltCon to give her my appliquéd ukulele block, and she gave me the adorable hand-stitched "L" embroidery. (See February 27 blog post.)

I've always admired the strong graphic appearance of quilts made by Swiss quilter, Sophie Zaugg @lunalovequilts and Impact is no exception. This quilt sold at QuiltCon for $1,500.

Sophie domestic machine quilted and added neon Sashiko (I didn't know there was such a thing) and perle cotton hand quilting stitches. 

Kelly Spell @kellyspell of Tennessee made Celestial Swirl. The simplicity of this design is striking because of the monochromatic color palette. 

It was longarm quilted using metallic thread.

This quilt, actually appeared in the Small Quilts category, but its minimalist nature makes me share it here. Clara Stroikow @bimbambuki_blog (again) made The Poetry of Denim that placed third in Small Quilts.

Clara says she used her husbands old jeans, and some pieces of new denim fabric, along with Pickle Kona to create the design. It's domestic machine and hand quilted. 

Glow was made by Liz Kuny (no handle) of New Jersey. It too was in the Small Quilts category. 

It's machine pieced with hand-dyed fabrics, and domestic machine and hand quilted.

Gosh, I nearly forgot to share my own entry in the Minimalism category! 

Elemental is a design based on the architecture of the Miami Children's Museum, a picture of which I took when we went on a cruise - our first and only cruise - in 2019.

Elemental is on the left.

I domestic machine quilted it with a walking foot and ruler quilting. Elemental did not sell at QuiltCon.

Pictures of all QuiltCon winning quilts, and the awards they were given, are on the MQG website, here.

Linda