Wednesday Emails

For those of us who enter quilts into QuiltCon, the annual modern quilt show hosted in February by The Modern Quilt Guild (MQG), early December means a little anxiousness about receiving an email for each entry. Did three jurors accept my entry? Or was it "rejected"? - a term that isn't used in the email, but one that quilters have adopted as a hashtag for Instagram posts: #quiltconreject a fabulous online quilt show.

The reason #quiltconreject is a great quilt show is that 1,571 entered quilts were not accepted! Only 470 of the 2,041 quilts entered made it into the show. 

I received four emails Wednesday. Two of my quilts were not accepted; two quilts were accepted. I'm delighted and honored. 

QuiltCon "Rejects"

Party Time! was not accepted. No reason is ever given, so I can only begin to guess what jurors didn't like about this one. 

I made it during two different improv workshops with Cindy Grisdela @cindygrisdelaquilts. The first workshop was in-person, through Quilting Guild of The Villages. The second workshop was online through Central Florida MQG. 

My quilt reflects aspects of both workshops.

In fact, Cindy saw my Instagram posts about this quilt last year. When we were at QuiltCon (Phoenix) last February, Cindy asked if she could include pictures of my quilt in her book!

You'll see Party Time! in FreeHand Curve Quilts: Improv Techniques for Creative Play & Bold Expression.

Alternate Route, also an improv quilt, was not accepted... for the second time. I entered it into QuiltCon previously without success. 

I made Alternate Route during a virtual improv workshop with Irene Roderick @hixonir. It's one of my favorite improv quilts, and earned two ribbons - Honorable Mention and Judges Choice - at the local quilt show in January. 

It's both domestic machine and big stitch hand quilted.

QuiltCon Acceptances

Turnabout is the result of a paint chip challenge organized by my local chapter, Big Cypress Quilters. Mauve and purple were my two blindly-selected paint chips. I could add one more color. While at QuiltCon, my friend Candi pulled out a Painter's Palette color card and pointed at Lemon Ice as my third color. Lemon Ice wasn't even on my radar, but when I found it being sold by the yard at the String & Story vendor booth, I bought it. The color combo has panache, doesn't it?

Besides being machine appliquéd - it will be displayed in the Appliqué category - I thoroughly enjoyed big stitch quilting with perle cotton. 

Infrastructure is a RE-entry that was accepted in the second go-'round. It was a QuiltCon 2025 reject, and means that this is my first time having a reentry accepted. 

I began making this quilt in a minimalism workshop with Ashlyn Downs at QuiltCon 2024. It doesn't look minimal, does it?

It's funny that I could not master minimalism.... instead, adding bits of color (orange), and texture (with linens and denim), and a combo of machine and hand quilting. I couldn't help myself, and kept messing with it!

Infrastructure will be displayed in the Modern Traditionalism category. 

QuiltCon 2026 is in Raleigh, North Carolina starting Thursday, February 19, for four days, ending Sunday, February 22. It's my favorite quilt show. Ever. And I've attended many national shows.

Turnabout and Infrastructure are quilts #18 and #19 of mine that have appeared in nine QuiltCons that I've attended. Where does the time go?!

Since yesterday, I've realized two secrets to achieving QuiltCon acceptance: 

1. Have your friends name your quilts. Turnabout was named by Karen E. @sunrayatplay and Infrastructure was named by Amy Friend @duringquiettime
2. Make sure your friends give your quilt a name that's one word. 

😀  Linda

Messy Making, and Confetti Pouches

Since finishing two Diagonal Scrap Quilts (pictures coming soon), I've dug into a new, must-do quilt project.

In January, Central Florida MQG announced the Pick-a-Decade Challenge, due in November. We're to choose a decade - any from 1900 to 2000 - to make a quilt inspired by that decade's color palette and design aesthetic. I've procrastinated about getting started.

The decade I selected is the 1950s because: 1) it's the decade I was born; and, 2) I like the designs popular during that era - starbursts, boomerangs, and atomic-looking shapes.

So off I go, trying to use a few of these colors and the above designs to make a big quilt.

 

Attempting to create the upper right design - a large circle surrounded by spokes with 12 smaller circles. I started by making ¼"-wide bias tape to appliqué around a small circle. What a fail! After consulting with a Central Florida MQG friend about alternate methods for achieving the look I want, I got down to work. What a mess.

The method I'm going with uses white interfacing to back, sew, and "pillowcase" a pink circle (turn it right side out), then fade and machine appliqué the pink circle to a black background. The process is repeated using black interfacing to back, sew, and pillowcase a second circle (turn it right side out) that's then machine appliquéd to the oyster-colored (Painter's Palette) background. It worked!

However, when it was time to appliqué the black circle, I was frustrated to discover I was out of black thread! I appliquéd with charcoal-colored thread instead, and itt doesn't look good.

Today I picked up two spools of black cotton thread from two different local shops. One is Wonderfil Konfetti (50-weight), and the other is Wonderfil Efina 60-weight. Good grief thread is expensive! I paid a little more than $21 for these two spools!

Anyway, I'm ready to make progress on this I-don't-know-where-it's-going, Pick a Decade Challenge.

At Big Cypress Quilters this week, those who participated two weeks ago in making confetti fabric, and turning their 11" X 14" piece into a zipper pouch, were asked to bring their finished pieces for a group photo.

It's great to see what everyone sewed using different pouch patterns.

Cindy couldn't join us, so sent a picture. I know for a fact that Cindy did a little "dumpster diving" at retreat to come up with the black and white piano keyboard print snippets.

Betty covered her confetti with tulle, rather than mesh. It look good too!

If you'd like to make confetti fabric, go here to my blog post to learn how to create it. Then follow one of these three patterns to turn it into a zipper pouch:

1) Simple, envelope-style Zipper Pouch tutorial by MellySews

2) Open Wide Zipper Pouch tutorial by Noodlehead

3) Zipper Pouch with Flat Bottom tutorial by Polkadotchair

On my June 13 blog post, Kara Kwilts suggested using BLACK mesh rather than white mesh on top of fabric snippets, I tried it. And I like it!

Did you note that I used twined fabric to make the zipper pull?

Everyone who saw the black mesh version of the pouch liked it. We all agreed that the mesh color choice may also depend on colors of your fabric snippets. Red mesh on Christmas scraps would be great! In any case, thanks Kara for your suggestion. We like black mesh too!

I finished the black mesh confetti fabric into a Wide Open Zipper Pouch by Noodlehead. 

Oh, and this week I made another round loom knitted cap. I can't help myself! 

This one was knitted on a 41-peg loom, following the Seersucker pattern, here on YouTube.

I hope you've had a productive week! Linda

QuiltCon in Review: 3

Twenty quilts were displayed in the appliqué category at QuiltCon.

It strikes me that modern appliqué designs are few-and-far-between. Most of the photos I took at QuiltCon are of quilts that did not win awards. I figure everyone can view the winning quilts on the QuiltCon website. These are just a few of the appliquéd quilts I liked. 

A-Mazing Circuit impressed me because of the movement it evokes. Made by Lori Tourscher @stipplequeen of Canada, it's 63" X 83."  

According to Lori, the design is based on Truchet's tiles. It's machine appliquéd and longarm quilted.

One of my favorite people, Clara Stoikow @bim_bam_buki_blog has been a frequent award-winner at QuiltCon. She made blocks for our group quilt, Pot Luck.

Until recently Clara lived in the US; she now lives and works in Berlin, Germany. But before moving, she made Harrison Map, a 45" X 28" quilt based on a US place.

Clara includes lots of hand-piecing and hand stitching in her pieces, often using appliquéd elastic in the design. Her attention to detail is exquisite.

Ba Da...What?! was made by Iva Steiner @schnigschnagquiltsandmore of Switzerland.

This 38" X 38" quilt was hand pieced, hand appliquéd, and longarm quilted.

Karen Burns @warpedspinster of Council Bluffs, Iowa made Glyphs. It's a 40" X 38" and machine appli-pieced in the style of Sheila Frampton Cooper.

It was longarm quilted with ruler work and free motion quilting.

This colorful quilt, Temari, was made by Nancy Lambert.

It's  51" X 52" and was machine pieced, machine appliquéd and domestic machine quilted. I like the visual dimension she achieved.

Catherine Butterworth @ccbutterworth of Australia, made this 52" X 54" quilt called The Early 90's. It's pieced with scarves made by an Italian fabric company. 

Domestic machine quilting is enhanced with hand embroidery and hand quilting. Check out the colorful stitch made in the center of each X. Love that idea!

Unblocked was also made by an Australian - Caroline Hadley @geometricquilt. 

Her 60" X 60" design was machine appliquéd and quilted on a longarm.  

As I observed at QuiltCon 2024, many QuiltCon 2025 quilts were straight line quilted. When QuiltCon judges focus more on design than technique, straight line quilting is the most popular quilting option. 

This year, I'd like to made a modern, hand-appliquéd quilt, and I'm thinking to do so when I create a quilt for our 2025 Central Florida MQG "Pick a Decade" challenge. I'm choosing the decade of the 1950s, and have selected an inspiration design. Now to get started. Linda

Playin' Around

Back in April, in an Instagram giveaway I won a large box of fat quarters - all 100 colors of Benartex Superior Solids. When they arrived, I began cutting (using the Classic Curves Ruler) and piecing set-in circles. For months I've continued to play, somewhat listlessly, without any clear direction. 

The last time I share a picture of my design wall, blocks looked like this. 

For two reasons, I needed to get moving on this project! It's my entry in the South Florida MQG "Curve Around Challenge," and I want to enter this into QuiltCon (entry deadline is October 31). For those who don't know, QuiltCon is the Modern Quilt Guild's annual show (February 2022 in Phoenix, Arizona), and to have a quilt in the show it must be accepted first - juried in.

One morning last week I opened my print stash doors and stared inside, wondering if I could find inspiration. Then, voilá! A lightbulb turned on! I unearthed a leftover piece of a large black and white check. How would it look cut into strips as spacers between circle blocks? I liked it!

That fabric was just the inspiration I needed to re-ignite the design. 

I kept making circles, trying a variety of different styles - with stripes, plain, half circles, quarter circles - and made smaller circles using Applipops purchased from The Craft Table in Orlando.

I used my Bernina appliqué foot #20C; a size 60 Microtex needle, and Wonderfil Invisifil thread to zig-zag stitch circles into place. Last Monday I had my nails redone, and unintentionally, they looked pretty good with the circles I machine-appliquéd!

I dug out some yellowing Carol Doak Foundation Paper to cut into pieces that I positioned behind each circle, to help stabilize zig-zag stitches. Tearing it away was it bit of a bother.

A couple days later, the design started to come together. I worked from the top to the bottom, doing the math to make sure blocks fit together - a few had to be re-made larger - adding Applipop circles as I went. It took quite a bit of switching back and forth - from machine-appliqué to piecing - that required many foot and thread change-outs.

Here it was about one-third pieced together. 

Determined to finish the top by the end of September, I stayed up late Thursday night to complete it. Whoo-ee! I couldn't be happier! This weekend I'll prep parts for the quilt sandwich. The top is 61" X 70". This time I'm planning to use Quilter's Dream Puff batting to make the quilting pop.

Playin' Around is what I plan to call it because that's exactly what I did as I made it; I enjoyed playing with circles.

This week of intense sewing has meant a lot of pedal-to-the-metal, so today I gave my Bernina a thorough vacuum-out, wiping down, and oiling. She deserves it.

This is week 5 of the Finger Paints QAL, and these are blocks 7 and 8. I'm keeping up with weekly goals and posting pics to Instagram so as to be in the running for weekly prizes. 

Only block 9 remains to be pieced; it's due next Friday. 

After making the circle quilt top, my sewing room was mess! Just believe me when I say that there were lots of scraps, piled up and tossed here and there that I rooted through often to find parts and bits of this or that particular color. But it was very satisfying to clean up today! I added scraps to my shoebox bins of color-sorted scraps. 

When I have some uncommitted time, won't I will have a good play, piecing from several of these shoeboxes?

These past five days found me so focused on sewing that I didn't listen to a book, as I usually do. Instead, with lots of goals running through my mind, I've been ticking things off a mental check list. October will be a busier-than-usual month.

On Saturday and Sunday afternoons I'll be tuning in to the Global Quilt Connection virtual program: All Star Virtual Sampler Platter. 

Tuesday I'm giving a Big Stitch Quilting and More program and demo to members of my local Big Cypress Quilters. 

Next Saturday is the Central Florida MQG meeting from which I'll have to hurry home to attend Intriguing Interleaves, a virtual workshop with Mel Beach.

I'm playing hard these days... and lovin' every minute of it! Linda