Party Time!

After spending hours writing and uploading pictures about QuiltCon, in eight blog posts, what I've been doing in my sewing seems mundane.

But since coming home, I am feeling inspired and energized to work on quilts that need making. 

In my End of February blog post, I was sewing down binding on Party Time!

I'm happy now to share this finished improv quilt which has already been to Show and Tell at Central Florida MQG, and Big Cypress Quilters chapter of Quilting Guild of The Villages. 

Party Time! is the result of two workshops with Cindy Grisdella - one in-person in December 2023, and the other virtually in September 2024. The center of this 64" X 69" quilt was pieced during the first workshop called Fearless Curved Piecing. The perimeter was pieced during the second workshop called Fabulous Freehand Curves.

Confetti dots (so-named by Cindy) in the borders were pieced. However, I thought more confetti was needed, so I fused and raw-edge appliquéd more squares. 

The quilt center is walking foot quilted in a sort of diamond-in-the square pattern. 

Borders were ruler quilted and free motion quilted. I added more confetti dots by simply ghost-quilting around a square of masking tape, quilting with about eight different colors of 50-weight Aurifil thread. 

Before adding binding, I did lots of measuring to ensure this quilt is on-the-square. I used my favorite, No Tails Binding: Mitered Corners by Machine binding method. 

Fabrics for a backing came from stashed prints, and a few orphan blocks. My bin of cast-aside orphan blocks seems to be perpetually full! 

It's always worth it, to me, to spend extra time making a large quilt that someone might actually use. Party Time! makes me happy! Linda

QuiltCon in Review: 8

With this blog post, I'm wrapping up reviews about about QuiltCon because I'm pretty sure I could keep posting pictures for days and days... like this picture of the award-winning quilt - MQG's Award of Excellence - Clamshell Jamboree made by Michelle Bartholomew @michellebartholomew of Washington.

Not only do I like her 43" X 58" quilt made for the Windham Ruby & Bee Challenge, but I admire her leaping skill!

Below are more of my favorites - though I've already seen on Instagram many quilts that I managed to completely miss at the show! They might have been favorites too!

A show-stopping quilter at QuiltCon was Lorelai Kuecker @pigs.in.a.blanket.quilting, a 15 year-old from Missouri whose quilt, Magnetized won first place in the youth category. Not only was her quilt beautifully executed, but she (and her mother) wore a different quilt-y outfit each day of the show. 

Here is Lorelai with 72" X 94" Magnetized. She explained that is was foundation paper pieced, and free motion and ruler work quilted entirely by herself. 

On Friday, just outside the quilt show floor I saw Lorelai and asked to take a picture. As I was taking the picture, I asked Lorelai "Who's your friend?" The person on the right is her mother! <forehead-smack> They made their outfits.  

Simply incredible! Though I can't imagine wearing such outfits anywhere except to a quilt show. 

Hundreds of QuiltCon attendees wore quilt-y, self-made clothing - patchwork jackets, appliquéd jackets, patchwork skirts, appliquéd jumpsuits, decorated flight suits, mended jeans... you name it, and someone was wearing it. One day, I wore the selvedge skirt I made in 2014 and last wore to QuiltCon Austin in 2015. I'm happy to say it still fits!

Below are some of the (only) 10 quilts displayed in the low volume exhibit (not judged). 

Whispering Peaks was made by Stephanie Bracelin @srbracelin of the Central Iowa MQG (no, I don't know her). 

The quilt measures 33" X 33", and was improv pieced and domestic machine quilted.

My friend, Susan Skatoff @susan_skatoff, is a new quilter who last year started the Palm Beach MQG chapter. She has in instinct for creating original designs. Here she is with her 41" X 42" Can You Relate? quilt. It was begun in a workshop with Maria Shell with the prompt, "If I were a quilt." Her response: "Dismissed. Over-looked.... Can you relate?" 

Susan is a longarm quilter; she quilted words... "listen, listen, listen."

It should be no surprise that this 30" X 41" Harmony Within quilt was made by Tzitzi Bejarano @tzitzibm of Mexico, whose other bias tape quilt Whispers of the Acacia appeared in the Windham Challenge quilt category. 

Once again I was struck by her simple, effective use of bias tape.

Not to be missed were transparency quilts. This was my favorite among them - Circle of Friends by Erin Case @eksrn2002 of Washington. 

It's 70" X 49" and beautifully executed. 

The description card said it is machine appliquéd, but I sure couldn't see her stitching!

Lectures

I attended five QuiltCon lectures.

Anna Maria Parry

1. David Owen Hastings: "Backing, Binding, Batting, Beauty," a unique way to assemble a quilt
2. Martiza Soto: "Improv Throughout Time"
3. Anna Maria Parry (formerly Horner): "Blueprint Quilting," which was a review of her new book Blueprint Quilting, presenting her process for creating quilts
4. Tara Faughnan: "Quilts As Art: Valuing Our Work"
5. Fiona Johnstone: "Breaking Out of the Quarter Circle." 

By far and away, the best presenters were David Owen Hastings, and Anna Maria Parry.

However, I learned the most from David Owen Hastings of Washington, and Fiona Johnstone of the UK. I didn't take any pictures of David, however, I have lots of pictures from Fiona's lecture. 

She has a mathematical mind that I couldn't keep up with. Hopefully, the many pictures and notes I took will help me create new designs with the Curvelets.

Fiona is the award-winner of this 56" X 48" Ruby Curvelets that earned the People's Choice award at QuiltCon 2023 in Atlanta.

Each block in Ruby Curvelets is 8" square and comprised of 64 ONE INCH blocks! During the lecture, Fiona explained her self-imposed rules for making Ruby Curvelets.

It's amazing to understand how many different shapes can be made with these little templates. Each FINISHED patch is 1" X 1"! 

This little quilt, made by Fiona, was on display (and for sale for $300) in Jen Carlton-Bailey's @bettycrockerass vendor booth. 

I took one workshop, and it was a six-hour one with Libs Elliott - Chaos with a Twist.

Libs, a Canadian, is an excellent instructor who has a fun way to approach quilt design. She assigns a number or letter to traditional blocks, then either draws a number (or alphabet letter) from a bag, or uses a computer random number generator, to select block designs to put together for a quilt. 

This is my result from the workshop - an incomplete section that's one-fourth of a quilt. I have lots more work to do to turn this into a finished quilt. 

Here is another student's progress, using a batik fabric with solids.

One of Libs' Chaos With a Twist quilts was hanging in a vendor booth. If you check out the Instagram hashtag #chaoswithatwist, you'll see more unique designs. 

Libs' workshop was worth my time and money, and I look forward to implementing her design method in a future quilt. 

Well, I think that wraps up my QuiltCon sharing. Thanks very much for putting up with my many posts about it.

Especially for those of you who've never attended QuiltCon, I hope my pictures of quilts and activities gave you a taste of what QuiltCon is like.

There's something about QuiltCon.

Hopefully I'll see you in Raleigh, North Carolina next year: February 19-22, 2026. The keynote speaker will be Hillary Goodwin @entrophyalwayswins.

Previous QuiltCon Review Links

• QuiltCon Review: 1 - general: friends, Waymo
• QuiltCon Review: 2 - handwork
• QuiltCon Review: 3 - appliqué
• QuiltCon Review: 4 - piecing
• QuiltCon Review: 5 - small quilts
• QuiltCon Review: 6 - Windham Fabrics Challenge
• QuiltCon Review: 7 - Community Outreach Challenge quilts
• QuiltCon Review 8  - youth, low volume, lectures, workshop

Linda

QuiltCon in Review: 7

These are some of the Community Outreach Challenge quilts displayed at QuiltCon. Though I don't know exactly how many were shown, the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) originally stated that the first 80 quilts submitted would be accepted. Each MQG chapter had the option of offering their quilt for sale at QuiltCon, with proceeds benefitting Young Arts Arizona. 

Again, these quilts have a color palette and theme. Fabrics used were to be at least four of these eight Moda Bella solids. Similarly-colored prints could also be used. The theme was "Lines and Bars." Size constraints were 60" to 65" X 80" to 85".  

The Oklahoma City MQG @okcmqg made Inspiration Found at Home! Skydance Bridge, Oklahoma City.

Members of the North East Ohio MQG @neomqg made Cleveland: The Roads that Bind.

Collective Madness was made by the Corvallis (Oregon) MQG @corvallismodernqg

Eye of the Tiger was made by members of the Orlando MQG @orlandomqg

The Central Oregon MQG @comqg made Diversitrees.

Rail Lines of Ft. Worth Texas: 1873 was made by members of the Ft. Worth MQG @fortworthmqg.

At the right is our Central Florida MQG @centralfloridamqg quilt called A Pathway Through. 

While numerous members made this quilt, these six members attended QuiltCon.

(L-R) Jennifer G; Sandi K; Lynette K; Anne G; me; and Dawne L.

Our chapter always keeps our quilt to donate to New Life Christian Church in Wildwood, Florida, where we meet, at no charge, for monthly general meeting. The church then sells the quilt to raise monies for their annual contribution to Rapha International.

Previous QuiltCon Review Links

• QuiltCon Review: 1
• QuiltCon Review: 2
• QuiltCon Review: 3
• QuiltCon Review: 4
• QuiltCon Review: 5
• QuiltCon Review: 6

Linda

QuiltCon in Review: 6

Browsing through QuiltCon photos, I see that I have hundreds more pictures! However, I can't begin to share all of them. So today's post is a perusal of some of a whopping 59 quilts in the Windham Ruby & Bee Challenge quilts.

For quilts in this category, a specific palette of colors was selected by QuiltCon keynote speaker, Tara Faughnan. 

Again, a variety of styles and techniques were evident - improv, straight and curved piecing, appliqué, foundation paper piecing, and bias tape.

Also obvious was an abundance of walking foot/straight line quilting!

My friend and Saturday night QuiltCon dinner companion Susan Braverman @wildpoppyprints of San Antonio, Texas made Big Stitch.  

Her recognizable style - always, clean design - is evident in this 63" X 63" quilt. Susan is a longarm quilter. 

Also with a distinctive, clean style is maker Sophie Thomas @softnquilt of Switzerland. This is Seventies.

The quilt is 50" X 70" and is domestic machine and big stitch quilted. 

Marionette was made by Patricia Heath @mysterypoppy of Colorado. 

It's 48" X 47", was improv-pieced, and longarm quilted.

Holly Gatto @hdgatto of California designed Paper Pieced Plaid (Plaid No. 4), a 44" X 44" quilt that was... foundation paper pieced.

I'm impressed that a maker could figure out how to create this beautiful plaid! Perhaps she used the interleave technique?

Blink, a 60" X 60" quilt, was made by Jo Wollschlaeger @jowoquilts. 

It's machine pieced and domestic machine quilted.

Diane Paquin Provost @dianepaquinprovost of the Chicago MQG made Reaching for the Podium. 

This 36" X 37" quilt was inspired by the Paris Olympics, and was created in two sections. 

Christina Arnold @quiltsbychristina made Balance #2, a 55" X 67" quilt.

This is domestic machine quilting. 

Prove It, Chalkboard was made by Christopher Fisher @cfisher110 of Ohio saying that the gray color reminded him of chalkboards used early in his teaching career. 

He must be a math teacher because he described applying the Pythagorean Theorem to this design. It was domestic machine quilted and hand quilted. 

Elaine Cawadias @emcawadias of Canada is the (somewhat crazy :-) maker of Normal is an Illusion, a 55" X 42" quilt that's composed of hundreds of tiny machine-appliquéd blocks. 

It isn't until you view the quilt through a camera lens that you can read "Normal is an Illusion" in the placement of dots. Here I've edited the photo to black and white, so you can see it. 

It's domestic machine quilted.

Compass Star was made by Debbie Schultz of Arizona.

She used multiple techniques to create this 36" X 36" quilt that she domestic machine quilted with 50-weight and 12-weight threads. 

Folk Bloom 2 was made by Canadian Jenn McMillan @jenmcmillan.

This 44" X 53" quilt is domestic machine quilted, and trapuntoed. 

Whispers of the Acacia is 54" X 40" and was made by Tzitzi Bejarano of Mexico. 

After domestic machine quilting, she hand-stitched bias tape.

I think this is my favorite design for its simplicity, and very effective use of bias tape.

Quilts' View is 40" X 35" and was made by Sharon Henderson who explained that this is the diverse crowd of people who shuffle past a quilt displayed at a quilt show. She asks, "Are they enjoying the show?" 

This quilt just made me smile. Linda