QuiltCon in Nashville

Written by Diane Harris on February 27, 2019. Posted in Blog, Quilt Lifestyle

QuiltCon is the annual gathering of The Modern Quilt Guild, and it was held last week in Nashville. I decided to go because I’m interested in what’s happening in this arm of the quilting world. Today I’m sharing photos of some of the quilts in the juried show.

Wild Goose Riot by Wendy Hill from Sunriver, Oregon; @wendyquilter.

This quilt didn’t photograph especially well but I stood in front of it for a long time, which Jo Morton says is the mark of a successful piece. It’s a happy quilt and there’s a lot to see.

Wild Goose Riot, detail

Binding detail on Wild Goose Riot

It was machine pieced and quilted. I especially enjoyed the detail that maker Wendy Hill added to the binding. The majority of the binding is white, but occasionally Wendy pieced in a short length of brightly-colored stripe. It’s a great way to pull the entire design together.

The City Zoo by Zoe M. Sutters was one of my favorites in the show. Zoe is a little girl, maybe around 8 years old, judging by one photo I saw.

The City Zoo by Zoe M. Sutters

The entry card reads like this:

I made this quilt with my momma when I was a little kid. I said I was going to design something with my mommy and this is how this quilt ended up here. It reminds me of a rainbow city with a zoo next to it and it is very busy.

Zoe is from Herndon, Virginia. What parent wouldn’t be proud of this little quilter?

Log Lunacy by Laurie Sheldon, Washburn, North Dakota

This Log Cabin quilt was impressive because of its size. Each block finishes at 1-5/8″.

My finger covered up about half a block in Log Lunacy.

At the very center is a tiny drawing of the maker. I’d have missed it had I not read the placard.

A drawing of the quilt maker is on the quilt’s center patch.

There were no measurements on the placards but I’d estimate this piece was around 25″ square.

Detail of Log Lunacy

I wonder if Laurie is a native of North Dakota, or if not, perhaps this quilt got her though a long cold winter.

Ribbon Candy by Emily Parson, St. Charles, Illinois; @emilyquilts.

The striking graphic quality of Ribbon Candy by Emily Parson appealed to me. Emily wrote:

My family loves ribbon candy! It was a special treat that my grandma had every year at Christmas. Now I buy it for my own kids and they love it as much as I did. I used bias tape to recreate the unique shape and festive colors of ribbon candy. Bias tape is easy to manipulate into curves and it comes in lots of great colors. It is a fun process!

Emily’s quilt was in the Minimalist Design category. My favorite part was her signature.

Emily Parson signed her quilt much as a painter would sign a painting.

Doesn’t it look hand written?

Many of the quilts I loved were in a category called Modern Traditionalism. Last year’s Best of Show winner created this quilt.

Star Sprinkles by Steph Skardal, Clemmons, North Carolina; @stephskardal.

The colors really appeal to me. As I’m rereading this post before I publish, I see that each quilt has its own rainbow, making a kind of unintentional theme. What a happy little accident!

I took several hundred photos and it will take me a while to get through them. (Each one has to be fixed up via a multi-step process before it goes into a blog post.) But I’ll keep at it so I can share the most interesting ones with you all.

Please follow and like me!

Tags: modern quilts, other people's quilts, quilt show, quiltcon