I have often wondered how the “jury” portion of a quilt show entry works. If you don’t know, the jury is a group that looks at ALL of the entries and decides which will be allowed INTO the show.

Then, the judges go thru the ALLOWED entries, look at each quilt, and award ribbons based on merit.

Steph Skardal (@stephskardal) is someone who I have been following on Instagram and she was part of the jury for QuiltCon 2023.

She shared her insights in the following post. I hope that you enjoy the read…..

CLICK HERE TO READ HER POST

I entered two quilts in the show……

…and it was interesting to compare each to her criteria and understand why “Star Explosion” was accepted and “Cordwood” wasn’t!!

It is NEVER too late to learn something new!!

So what will you enter next year???

Today we will finish up my favorites from the Ruby & Bee Fabric Challenge at QuiltCon-2023!!

The maker of this quilt wanted to create an “optimistic and dynamic quilt with this palette”……

I would say that she DEFINITELY accomplished that goal!!

The next quilt made good use of “Big Stitch” quilting…..

I apologize that the photo is a bit blurry. At this point, I was running out of time!!!

The maker said that this quilt inspiration appeared to her one night as she was trying to go to sleep….

I like the multi-coloring of one block design!!

This next quilt appealed to my funny bone…..

She said that, when she saw these fabrics, a nostalgic feeling rushed into her mind and the quilt was born!!

The next quilt used “Orange Peel” blocks to their best advantage…..

I appreciate the binding that juxtaposes dark against light!!

In regard to the next quilt, Tzitzi wrote…..

When I was brainstorming ideas for the R&B Fabric Challenge, I suddenly decided to take a different approach. Pondering on the fact that everything – absolutely everything in this world has an inner part – one that is seldom seen, one that not many care to see, one that speaks to you through your innermost voice, I decided to meander into this reality.

YES….it is pieced inside out!!!

I love the three-dimensional nature of the quilt and her hand quilting is the perfect offset to the piecing!!

So much innovation!!!

The last quilt in the R&B Challenge….and the final quilt in this QuiltCon Review is my favorite in the challenge category…..

Jennifer said that as she was playing with flying geese blocks, she discovered that the design looked like Circuit Board. This could possibly be explained by the fact that she works in the IT industry!!!

The quilting is perfect for the design too…..

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Well, we have finished our tour of the quilts of Quilt Con 2023.

BUT…..there is lots more to come!!!

If you enjoy this blog, please share it with your friends!!!

Thank you…….

Today is part three of the Ruby & Bee Fabric Challenge quilts from QuiltCon2023.

As I look at each of them, I am amazed at how different they are!!

The first quilt for today features PERFECTLY smooth curves….

This is a super simple design but executed perfectly!!

I was pleased to have my quilt share the cubicle with it……

The next quilt was dubbed as being about contrast…..

….”Sharp angles and gentle orange peel curves provide contrast of shape, and strategic placement of the fabrics take advantage of high color contrast.”

My eye is immediately drawn to the blue and white “petals” on the left and bottom edge!!

These poppies just dance across the quilt…..

She challenged herself to used curved piecing to make the flowers and I think that she met that challenge well!!

We moved into the abstract realm with……

From her Artist Statement…. “This quilt began as a way to play with wheel/fan blocks and ended by taking me on an unexpected longarm thread tension odyssey! After much joy followed by much frustration, I am happy to have escaped mostly unscathed but with many lessons learned for the future”.

Haven’t we ALL felt that way at some point in our quilting career!!! Well done to have stuck with it AND have it accepted into the show!!

I love the next quilt….

She based the quilt on things that she learned in a Mel Beach workshop using Lorrie Faith Cranor’s “Interleaves.”

Yet something else that I need to investigate further!!

This quilt inspiration came from the “Dogwood Blossom” block as seen in the “Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns (B. Brackman)……

She certainly took that inspiration and ran with it…..Well done!!!

The next quilt is a nod to a traditional “Wedding Ring” quilt…..

She did a fantastic job of working within her limited fabric palette!!

Finally, I saw this one in progress on @TheQuiltyArchitect” Instagram page…..

It almost made me decide NOT to submit mine!!

I am truly enamored with the perspective he managed in this quilt and, oh my, the precision of his curves!!

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Come back tomorrow for the LAST of the Ruby & Bee Fabric Challenges. I promise that there are lots of goodies left to see!!

Yesterday we look at a few of the Ruby & Bee fabric challenges from QuiltCon-2023.

Here are a few more!!

This first quilt is entirely pieced!!!

That is a lot of circles to piece!!!

I particularly liked the background quilting. Again….just a small change of direction in the lines added so much interest…..

I was so intent on keeping my lines straight that I NEVER considered what a change like this would do!!

This next quilt allowed the maker to work thru the flooding in her neighboring state of Kentucky!!

She improvisational pieced the debris as it backed up into people’s yards and lives!!

The next quilt was a larger version of a design that she made into a mini quilt…..

The simplicity of this design truly appeals to me!!

The next quilt is part of a “crosswalk” series…..

I like the textures that are formed by the narrow and wide quilting.

In her Artist’s Statement, she poses the question….”What happens when you try o go to there from where you are?” Just think about that if you can’t sleep at night!!

The next quilt was inspired by a 1979 poster called “Coffee Hour”…..

She used a technique called “Twice-cut Drunkard’s Path” from Jenny Haynes.

I DEFINITELY am going to look that up!!

The last quilt for today is…..

Her inspiration came from Becky Goldsmith’s Bullseye Quilt and Audrey Esarey’s Radial Quilts. I THOUGHT that I recognized Audrey Esarey’s touch.

If you don’t know what I am talking about, check out this post from Saturday…..

Using Negative Space at QuiltCon23

Alright…..two days down, two to go!!

Today let’s finish the “Modern X” Exhibit from QuiltCon2023. Remember that these are quilts made to say Happy Birthday to QuiltCon!!

This first quilt was based on the remembrance of an Athletic Trainer who was told “when in doubt, make an X over the injury when taping or bracing it”……

What a fun inspiration!!

The next quilt has a lot of hand quilting…..

….with embroidery thread used to stitch the tiny x’s….

Lots of “X-tra” detail was used in the Courthouse Step Block Quilt……

To truly understand this quilt, you have to get up-close-and-personal…..

And, when one of the “White glove helpers” runs over and asks if you want to see the back of a quilt, you ALWAYS say YES!!!

In this quilt, Jessica Plunkett made a series of Sawtooth star blocks and spent time playing with the position of the stars to create new and secondary designs…..

I love the gradation of color!!

The next quilt…..

Isn’t the quilting wonderful!!

The maker notes that this quilt stretched her abilities with paper piecing and partial seams…..

Finally, I love the “pixelation that appears in the colored squares….

And, the quilting is nothing to sneeze at either!!!

There were a bunch more of these Happy Birthday quilts, but I was completely out of time as they shooed me out of the hall!!

I hope that you enjoyed the Anniversary X quilts.

Tomorrow we start with the Ruby & Bee Fabric challenges. You will be amazed at what people can accomplish with just 6 fabrics!!!