QuiltCon | Zippy Quilts

There are numerous blogs showing pictures of the winning quilts from QuiltCon, so if you want to see them go to Houzz or the MQG blog here and here. Lots of interesting quilts to see. Here are some of my thoughts:

Fill the Void by Cinzia Allocca

First, I was very happy to see that Fill the Void, by Cinzia Allocca, won a prize in the handwork category. This was one of my favorite quilts at the Vermont Quilt Festival last year, and the hand quilting really is beautiful.

I was happy to see some of my friends’ quilts in the show. Here is Jean with hers:

Jean Larson with “Floating”, her QuiltCon show entry

And here is Amy’s entry in the Michael Miller spring challenge.

The New New, by Amy Anderson

That really WAS a challenge for most of us who don’t often use pastels, but Amy met the challenge with a nice design, so I was glad to see it at the show.

There were several quilts that obviously drew from mid century modern art, though that was not referenced in the show notes. Here are two designs that were especially striking. They are Ethos by Natasa McFadyen and Amazonia by Nathalie Bearden.

To me, these look like mid-20th Century art, especially Mark Rothko.

There were several quilts that drew on common forms from mid-century graphic design. I thought this one was fun:

Bowls and Balls #2, by Rachel Kerley

Finally, I loved this quilt by Luke Haynes, which he frankly states is a re-working of the Andrew Wyeth painting “Christina’s World”. It’s a great example of how good design is good design, regardless of the medium. I particularly like that, although he has changed a number of details to make it his own, the reference is immediately recognizable to anyone who knows the original painting.

{The American Context #16} Christina’s World, by Luke Haynes

In view of a lot of this, I was interested to see in the newsletter from one of the modern guilds that they want to focus on “modern quilts, not art quilts”. Obviously the definition of “modern quilt” isn’t yet settled despite much discussion.

I go to a fair number of quilt shows, and most of them are attended by women (and a few men) in casual but unspectacular fashions. At QuiltCon, however, I saw so many women dressed in fancy outfits. Here are just a few:

Miriam, from the Modern Quilt Guild of Asheville

Miriam and her sister, who collaborate on most of their projects, had a great quilt in the show. (Her sister wasn’t this much of a fashion statement though–sorry Emily!)

Since QuiltCon was in Austin, lots of people brought out their boots. I love the look of boots with dresses:

Linda, an independent member of the MQG (Modern Quilt Guild)

Many of the women had dresses in prints that looked like modern quilts, including this one:

Emily of the Ann Arbor MQG

And a number of women had dresses and skirts they had made themselves. This woman had a dress to match her hair!

Julia of the Houston MQG

Check out how she even matched the pattern where she put in the zipper! If you’ve ever sewn garments, you know that’s an accomplishment. And the pockets were made from a cute safety pin print.

My friend and I loved this blouse, worn by Kelly of the Ventura MQG:

And finally, here is a different type of fashion statement–I’m riding a giant sewing machine! Why do you suppose my friend wouldn’t let me take a picture of HER riding it???