Tag: Modern Quilt Guild

The challenging side of QuiltCon

The last category from QuiltCon-2023 is the Ruby & Bee Fabric Challenge.

These were the 6 fabrics…..

This category was the one that I was most looking forward to because I had a quilt in it!!!

“Star Explosion” by Frances Arnold

It was such fun to stand with my quilt, knowing that it was hanging with MANY other amazing quilts!!

Let’s look at some of them!!

The 2nd-place ribbon went to this beauty…..

“Encircled: Containing Darkness:” by Julie Limbach Jones

I love so many things about this quilt, but especially the quilting design!!

Those tiny little circles add so much texture to the background.

This next quilt won the 1st-place ribbon…..

“Alley Neighbors” by Ellen Meeker

My favorite things about this quilt are the touches of colored fabrics that she used on two of the binding sides.

I appreciated the various angle designs in the next quilt…..

“Amalie’s Oranges”by Jacqueline Laba

….and I love how the quilting lines reinforce the “curves” in the design.

This was the 3rd Place winning quilt…..

“Value Added” by Elizabeth Ray

The design is very simple but man-o-man does the quilting set it off well. Did you see the solitary blue block that is quilting diagonally?? That is genius!!

This next quilt was completely hand quilted….

“Pop Up” by Sophie Thomas

I didn’t see much of that at QuiltCon. Maybe a little hand stitching to accent something but not like this!!

There are three more days of R&B Challenges so…..

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

A little Traditionalism at QuiltCon

One thing that I love about the Modern Quilt Movement is that they often take traditional patterns…..patterns that my grandmother enjoyed making…..and turn them into new and different creations!!

That was exactly what I found in the “Modern Traditionalism” category at QuiltCon 2023. These quilts must modernize a traditional block or quilt pattern with modern design elements!!

This first quilt was a double winner…..receiving the 1st place ribbon and a Judge’s Choice Award…..

“Outbound” by Michelle Bartholomew

Just look at the piecing and how some of those “flying geese” are almost invisible…..

As I walked up to the next quilt, I was asked if I wanted to see the back so let’s start there…..

Doesn’t that look great!!!

Now let’s look at the front of this 3rd-place ribbon quilt…..

“Spin Cycle” by Maria Shell

I love the use of modified log cabin and star blocks!!

Many of the quilts that I saw were based on a split-x design and I especially love this one…..

“It’s Trippy” by Michelle DeliaMaria

I absolutely LOVE the colors!!

This quilt uses improvisational stars…..

“Monterey Kelp” by Michelle Trimble

…and these pinwheels are amazing…..

“Modern Pinwheesl” by Donald K. Wattam

The three-dimensional effect is astounding!!!

I have seen this pattern before, but I love the design and colors…..

“Zetus Lapetus” by Matthew Friesz

Probably my very favorite was this one…..

“Sweet Tea Summer” by Catherine Beemer

One of the reasons that I was attracted to this quilt was the amazing quilting…..

Finally, there was classic Storm at Sea quilt…..

“Ripple Effect” by Nancy Messuri

I love the perspective changes in this quilt!!!

There were lots more quilts in this category, but these were my favorites!!

Come back tomorrow for more Quilt Con 2023 Highlights!!

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

Crossing Hemispheres…..

For most of this week, I have been talking about a 24-inch quilt that I am making If you haven’t figured it out, this is my Modern Quilt Guild Mini Swap quilt that is being sent to Christine in Australia.

I have already talked about the quilt that she made for me……

Click HERE if you want to learn more about this quilt.

Here is the finished quilt that I will be sending…..

Over the last few months, I have spent an inordinate amount of time trying to decide what to make. Christine told me that she loved bright colors and mixing florals and geometrics. I tried to keep to that plan!!

In honor of the distance between the two of us “swap-mates”, I named it

“Crossing Hemispheres”

I was excited with the label…..

Now, before it starts winging its way to The Land Down Under, let’s talk about how it developed.

It started with the Pantone Color of the Year for 2023….

Then followed the fabric pull……

Pantone Fabric Pull

Remember that when I pulled these fabrics, I had NO idea what I was going to use them for!!!

BUT, I did know that I wanted to try some Split-Rectangle blocks.

AND, amazingly, the quilt was born!!!

One of the things that I worried about with my fabric selection was whether there was enough contrast between the background fabric and the other fabrics.

Even though there isn’t much contrast, I think that the background fabric really brought the quilt together and I am happy that I used it. I will say that I wasn’t completely sure about it until the quilt was completed!!

This experience of Swapping Quilts with a stranger has been SO much fun. I have loved meeting Christine and I hope that we stay in contact over the years.

Thank you to the Modern Quilt Guild for giving us this opportunity.

AND….if you EVER have the chance to do this, please jump in with both feet!!!

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In this blog, I post stories about creativity, techniques, tools of the trade, and lots more about the wonderful art of quilting. If you are enjoying these posts, please subscribe to be notified of each new blog as it becomes available.

MQG Conference

Back in October, I signed up for Modern Quilt Guild “Sessions”…..a 4-day online conference and it has been such a great investment!!

The first session that caught my eye was using ProCreate in quilting (by Karen Lewis). I have talked previously about using Procreate to plan quilting designs but I had never seen it used for actual quilt design!!

She showed me how to design a block…..

Duplicate it….

….and quickly have a quilt designed…..

Great…..now I have ANOTHER way of designing quilts to add to my To-Do List!!

Kim Soper (@lelandavestudios) had a wonderful workshop about Stash Management. One of my favorite things from her talk was about how to know when you have too much fabric…..is that even a thing???

And then there was this slide…..

Sue Bouchard talked about using Directional fabrics,

and Diana Fitzgerald had a very interesting program about”The Perception of Visual Randomness”. She worked thru an example where the right-hand piece is completely random (fabrics pulled out of a bag) and the left one is a “False Random” where she used a series of rules as she placed the fabrics…..

I don’t know about you, but I like the “False Random” better!!

Cindy Grisdela (@cindygrisdelaquilts) gave a wonderful lecture about color and my favorite (go figure) was “How do I quilt it?” from Christa Watson (@christaquilts).

In particular, she spent a lot of time talking about making patterns easier. Look at this alternative to matchstick quilting…..

Interestingly, much of her quilting can be done with a walking foot!!!

I am excited to be taking a “How to design a quilting plan” workshop from her at the Houston Show….actually when this post comes out, I will have ALREADY taken the workshop.

You can expect to hear more from her!!

If you haven’t checked out the Modern Quilt Guild, I would HIGHLY encourage you to do so!! It is an online guild and they have SO many resources available. I don’t consider myself a “modern” quilter, but I have learned so much from their weekly newsletters, online tutorials and conferences.

At $35 a year, it seems like a deal to me!!