Sunday, March 28, 2021

Virtual Quilt Market 2021

This year, Quilt Market has gone virtual, and I thought I'd catch you up on some highlights to tide you over on industry events until Market in Houston, TX in October. Affiliate links are present in case you want to snatch something up.

Premiere Schoolhouse was "Celebrating 100 Years: The Textile Industry and Andover Fabrics". Andover has a vast array of upcoming lines by some of my favorite designers. You can check out the lookbook onlineGiucy Giuce has a trio of collections.  Deco, available in July, features 20's-inspired designs pigment printed on Century Solids. Pietra is a versatile blender collection. If you've been slathering every household surface with marble Cont-Tac paper, your heart's desire has arrived. Nonna, a tribute to his grandma and reminiscent of favorite items from her NY home, coordinates with Pietra. Alison Glass is releasing a new Sun Print collection, Luminance, with low volume rainbow colors printed on white, rainbow blenders, and coordinating Century Solids.


C&T Publishing gave a teaser about Heather Black's upcoming book, Design Make Quilt Modern, which you can pick up on the C&T website or Amazon.


Clover has come out with a magnetic pin sharpener that is as adorable as they come. What a fun way to stop storing needles in the arm of the couch! The Sweet 'n Sharp Macaron comes in raspberry and pistachio. Pair with a coordinating tape measure.

 

Robert Kaufman has glitzed out 27 shades of Kona Cottons with added metallic shimmer in the Kona Sheen collection. 


Michael Miller is adding 27 new Cotton Couture colors.

Barbara Brackman is the coolest quilt historian that ever was. Electric Quilt has produced a stand alone software program, Block Base +, containing the collection of blocks gathered in the Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns.


Sassafras Lane Designs can be counted on to develop a modern BOM. This year, Graphic Jam, was unveiled.


The major trends I see this season are adorable notions, virtual instruction and shows, white pigment ink prints, and solids with a twist.

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Saturday, March 27, 2021

Quilt Con Together Favorites

Hello. How are you doing? It's been a while. I've been adjusting to the pandemic lifestyle, with four kids at home that NEVER LEAVE. School here has been virtual the whole time. My rationale for keeping the kids to the chaotic and technology-glitched schedule was that it would make for a smoother transition when they were able to go in person. Welp, the school district decided not to return this school year. A couple weeks ago, I did something I swore I'd never do: homeschool. I am a stay at home mom, and a certified teacher, but this is my most ornery class of students ever. 😉 Update: The state overruled the district, and kids go back in person April 5. So, I re-registered the oldest two kids, and they'll be seeing friends in masks from a couple yards away very soon.

I've been eking out some time to sew, for sanity's sake. And the Albuquerque Modern Quilt Guild hosts monthly virtual sew days. It's been so nice to have a dedicated time to visit with  fellow quilters and ease the social deprivation. Aside from that, I took a little tour of Quilt Con Together. 


Here are some of my favorites I could locate off-site. You'll need to click through, since I don't have rights to the photographs. Also, check out the #quiltcontogether hashtag on IG, since you'll get plenty of beauty immersion there.

Drunkard's Path blocks form an abstracted water lily in Victoria Amazonia by Brigit Dermott. It reminds me a bit of Anne Sullivan of Play Crafts' QDAD flowers (scroll down the page a little). On a side note, if you haven't checked out Anne's Palette Builder, you totally should.

While quilters may appear subdued, there's a streak of political activism ready to make tomorrow better than today. Right Matters by Rosalind Daniels is one such quilt. Still Not by Chawne Kimber, Power Conceeds Nothing by Elisabeth Geller, Note to White Self by Juli Smith, Black Lives Matter by Berene Campbell, and  Power Lies by Rima Tree are other examples from the show. I appreciate the reminders that personal growth, and checking our viewpoints with consideration to others, is critical.

I love the warm color + browns color scheme of Ann Feitelson's Pieced Pie. The color scheme in Juli Smith's Wildfire is striking in its tragedy and beauty.

Christmas Cheer, a quilt that toys with the standard block grid, and Starlight Hotel, with its clever use of negative space to transition between differing blocks, are really crisp designs. I find I'm very drawn to by Corinne Sovey's style.

I'm amazed by the bravery at taking on odd angles and inset seams Claire Victor possesses. Check out Tumbling Down. Her free-motion quilting is also an inspiration.

I love the shadow block quilting in Q is for Quarantine by Renee Tallman.

Yvonne Fuch is a quilter that is so in tune with modern quilting, that her aesthetic is a driving force behind the movement. I love Downstream.

Sarah Ruiz's Notes to Self is a pretty sure test of obsessive compulsion. Anybody else have an irresistible urge to "fix" the Post-It notes?

Kelly Spell's Stay in Your Log Cabin is such a hip take on the classic block, even though it can't be unbound from the melancholy context of grieving life outside of a pandemic.

Around the World by Sheri Cifaldi-Morrill of Whole Circle Studio captures the fun of modern design, architecture and travel in one fell swoop.

Abstract portraiture continues to be a highlight amongst geometric designs. Entries included Chloe and Patriot by Angela Bowman and My Big Face by Cindy Stohn of Sew Cool Quilts.

Quilts with an unidentifiable piecing framework, or grid, are a staple of the modern movement. Tina Marie's My Modern Honeycomb is one such quilt.

The community outreach quilts are always fun. I particularly enjoyed Apples on the Move by the Central Washington Modern Quilt Guild. I enjoyed their guild website, complete with a quirky sense of humor and meeting recipes.

For the sake of wrapping up before Quilt Con 2022 in Phoenix, I'm going to leave it at that. Thank you for being a part of my quilting community!