QuiltCon 2016-Part 1

 

Lucky me-I got to go to QuiltCon, the Modern Quilt show in Pasadena this year! This was my first visit to a major Modern quilt show. There were lots of strollers and babies and it was delightful to see such a young crowd get so excited about quilting. I loved the venue too-open and very well-lighted with lots of room in the aisles to easily see and photograph the quilts.

It was a fun road trip with Martha Wolfe and Judy Coates Perez. The 6-hour drive flew by in a flash with all the chatting. Judy used to live in the area and she knows where all the fabulous restaurants are. I loved this part of Los Angeles -people were pretty normal and the food was soooo good!

We stayed at the home of one of Judy’s long time friends, Mary Rose. Did I take a photo of the fabulous Mary Rose? No, but I did take a photo of her fabulous succulents! All three of us are nuts about succulents so we spent hours examining her beautiful plantings.

And Pasadena was gorgeous! The weather was perfect and there were so many interesting shops and eateries close by.

Hmmm, a temporary tattoo booth-my first clue that this was not your typical quilt show!

I usually don’t spend too much time at the vendor’s booths, but at QuiltCon I actually enjoyed them. Oh if only I had time to sew garments, I would HAVE to make this dress!

Catherine Redford with her quilt, The Long Winter

It’s always fun to meet up with friends old and new.

We took a few hours to work the SAQA booth-and we were soooo serious! There is always lots of interest in SAQA and we were happy to recruit some new members.

There is an excellent post about the show here and there are lots of great photos on Instagram also. I will probably share two posts of the quilts. I don’t usually post photos of quilts that are widely photographed, like the big winners since there are so many readily accessed professional photos of them. I also don’t usually include photos of quilts that I’ve already posted from previous shows like Houston. Here are some of the best quilts.

Individual Modern Quilt Guilds could make a donation quilt to hang at QuiltCon. There were a few notable donations. This quilt was made by the Tulsa MQG. Everyone seemed to have a different opinion as to who this was: Beethoven, James Dean, Justin Bieber. How funny because it’s actually Woodie Guthrie!

I thought the Sacramento MQG donation was one of the best-love the texture of the quilting too.

Isn’t this just cool? I love this quilt-one of the best in the whole show. Now on to the show quilts:

This quilt was based on Colby’s time of living in Minneapolis, Mn in zip code 612-very clever and creative.

Christopher’s statement was around disconnecting from technology and reconnecting with each other.

Sheri’s quilt was inspired by frequency waves and this is her vision of what the word “love” might sound like.

Jennifer’s quilt was inspired by the interaction of colors in yarn-dyed fabrics. She carefully chose her colors to imply transparency. I love this quilt for its color and style, and the quilting truly enhances its beauty.

Natalie’s quilt was part of the “Glitz Fabric Challenge”. The fabrics evoked strong memories of her Grandmother’s brand new house in 1957.

This piece is part of the Triangle Challenge group. Tami used the Eichler home as a starting point for a Modern take on a house quilt.

This is one of my favs-I think this is masterful. Katherine designed this quilt in CAD and was inspired by the idea of how light shines through an emerald-cut stone.

Clever write up for this one: (paraphrased) Ascended Mount Monadnock at 50, most ambitious hike ever at 3,165 feet. 3,165 feet of matchstick quilting attempted at 50-most ambitious quilting ever completed!

Isn’t this adorable and creative? Samarra obviously enjoyed this massively oversized representation of a childhood candy.

How adorable! Based on a children’s greeting card.

Nancy was intrigued by the mesas of the Southwest, her inspiration source for this design. Love that rogue yellow piece in the binding.

Taurus and Cancer are the constellation signs of Amber and her husband. I think some might consider this too minimalist but I loved this quilt. It’s not obvious from the photo but Amber used various blacks and yellows to achieve a slight variation. I thought this was a brilliant use of minimalism.

This was inspired by the traditional Drunkard’s Path but made on an exaggerated scale. Sheri had (at least) four quilts in the show!

Melissa used a Sizzix die to cut her strip-pieced fabric into the melon shapes. She used AG Handcrafted fabrics-I love the colors and patterns!

Another one of my favorites. It certainly was a fabulous example of a minimalist take on a traditional Log Cabin.

Dunes was based on the traditional clamshell, but with curved splashes of color. Lovely!

Alexis based her quilt on the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery. So bold!

Susan started from a doodle which she transferred to EQ7. She then printed the pieces onto paper and foundation-pieced her quilt.

Sheri started with a traditional Flowering Snowball pattern and was clever with her use of print, scale and color. What a fresh and happy quilt!

Kirsty used Log Cabin blocks in only 2 fabrics to create this fabulous piece. Her clever use of the Alison Glass fabric really makes this quilt.

I’ll be writing about my observations of QuiltCon next week and I’ll also conclude with more photos of quilts. I’ll be posting on Friday to Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday.