In my explorations of the quilts at Quilt Con, I set out to discover what made the quilts juried into the show stand out amongst the thirteen-hundred entries submitted, and be selected to represent modern quilting. I did notice a few trends.
Free Motion
Some of the quilts at Quilt Con featured some really impressive quilting. I loved the combination of straight lines and pebbles in this charity quilt.
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| Down by the Edinburgh MQG in Scotland, Quilted by Tatanya |
The use of free-motion shadow designs in this piece are jaw-dropping. What an incredibly generous gift this
Boise MQG quilt will be!
Here's another. I'm sorry there weren't any attributions on the display of charity quilts. Please comment if you know who is responsible for these incredible creations.
The show also boasted some exceptional free-motion skill. The secondary designs created on Moving Target add another layer of artistry.
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Moving Target by Christine Perrigo
How about a scoot back to see the full effect? The transparency of this Bias Tape Challenge quilt makes it even more mesmerizing.
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| Moving Target by Christine Perrigo |
As Seen On...
Many of the quilts at Quilt Con gave me a sense of deja vu, as I remembered them from recently-released publications or blog posts. Lee Heinrich of Freshly Pieced who co-authored
Vintage Quilt Revival
, Christa Watson of
Christa Quilts, and Amy Garro of
13 Spools who wrote
Paper Pieced Modern
were well-represented, among others.
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| Chandelier by Lee Heinrich |
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| Freeflow by Lee Heinrich |
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| Wavelength by Lee Heinrich |
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| March: Modern X by Christa Watson |
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Icy Waters by Amy Garro
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| Ceiling Tiles by Amy Garro |
Straight-Line and Matchstick Quilting
I would go so far as to say the majority of quilts at Quilt Con employed some form of straight line quilting, be it matchstick, big-stitch hand quilting, or parallel lines.
If you attended Quilt Con or have followed the action online, have you noticed these characteristics, or are there others that stood out to you? I'll be back tomorrow with the continuation of my observations, so I hope you'll come back soon!
The very first quilt you show was down by the Edinburgh modern quilt guild in Scotland, the free motion quilting was done by our very talented Tatanya who blogs at http://tanichiwa.blogspot.co.uk
ReplyDeleteGreat overview, Afton!! I noticed two more trends - the first being how small most of the quilts were, especially the ones I'd seen before online. Most of them seemed to be quilts made to show, not to use on a bed. Well, maybe just not by my giant quilt hogging husband. :D There was also the definite trend of "original design" - I can't recall a single quilt that listed a different designer for the pattern, and on Saturday I tried to hunt them down. Even the do.Good Stitches quilts were predominately either an original design, or modernized traditional pattern. Makes me wonder about those patterns, books, and magazines on the shelves....
ReplyDeleteI think you picked up on one of the large distinguishing factors for sure, Afton. I also did not see very many fully pieced quilts; and the ones that had a more traditional "block" tended to be either the charity quilts (makes sense!) or very, very intricate piecing. Other than that it was very much more free form design. I look forward to more of your insights. :)
ReplyDeleteThanks so much for this! Love your trend spotting, that shadow quilting really adds a lot to the quilt alright.
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