I’ve been home from QuiltCon for a good month now, but I cannot let the experience pass without some mention of the amazing quilts that hung in the show. I wish I could say that I spent hours gazing in awe at every quilt there, but to be honest, I’m SURE that there are quilts I didn’t even see. Every time I turned around, I found another quilt I had yet to see.

QuiltCon was my first quilt show, and it was an amazing place to begin. Every single quilt was just one more bit of inspiration, and made my brain swirl with possibility. There is a lot of talk about what makes a quilt “modern”, but I think that the quilts hanging at QuiltCon definitely fit the bill, as vague and openly as that “modern” label extends. Being fairly new to quilting, there were quilts where my gut reaction was, “wow, THAT’s a cool idea/technique!”, where I had not even fathomed the possibility of a quilt made in such a way or in such a design. Like I said in earlier posts, I didn’t take nearly as many photos at QuiltCon as I would have liked, so here is just a collection of a few of my favorites. Click here to see most of the quilts from the show, care of Sew Mama Sew.

I debated waiting until the crowd in front of Sherlock dissipated, but decided I really liked seeing him peek out and took the photo as shown. This quilt was one that begged to be visited multiple times!

Some may be surprised that I rank this quilt in my top picks, since one might think my typical OCD tendencies might twitch at the sight of this one. To be honest, it makes me giggle with glee. What a simple yet completely unique idea. It’s a collection of yellow squares, with one out of wack. Tell me it’s not brilliant!!?

In all the known quilting world, I find myself the most drawn to modern quilting and paper piecing. I’ve been designing paper pieced patterns for about a year, but still struggling with finding a way to mix the two: modern and paper piecing. Enter: Amy Garro. This quilt is from her new book Paper Pieced Modern*, and when I first saw it and realized it was from an entire book of awesomely paper pieced modern quilts, my reaction was, “Yesssssssssssssssssss!!!” Let the fun begin!

Modern Quilting Trends

A lot of quilter bloggers have written about trends in the quilts that were accepted into the QuiltCon show, and rather than repeat what has already been said, here are a few excerpts that I also definitely noticed in the show:

I most agree with Lee from Freshly Pieced‘s observation that “design is the single most important element of a modern quilt” and that “walking around the floor, it was pretty hard to miss the layout creativity that was on display.” Lee totally nailed my gut reaction mentioned above; the layout creativity blew my mind and explored design elements beyond my wildest dreams. Read her full post here. Of course, taking Lee’s Off the Grid: Alternate Layout class was an eye-opening highlight of my trip, so I may be a bit biased, but I really think that she hit the nail on the head regarding the direction modern quilting is headed.

Afton from Quilting Mod noticed a prevalence of dense free motion quilting, straight line or matchstick quilting, circles or quarter circles, pixelated quilts (swoon Sherlock), quilts with actual words, gemstones, architecture, bold saturated rainbow colors, and a more lenient look at perfect craftsmanship with more of a focus on design. I definitely noticed a strong prevalence of dense free motion quilting and matchstick quilting, which is one more motivator to improving my free motion quilting skills!

I also loved Christa from Christa Quilts‘ reflections on modern quilting post QuiltCon. My favorite bit of wisdom I got from her post was “…just because you enjoy modern quilts doesn’t mean you have to BE a modern quilter. And just because you consider yourself part of the movement doesn’t mean you have to make exclusively modern quilts.”  Christa mentioned being able to see the quilters’ heart and soul going into the quilts, and I agree that so many quilts not only were aesthetically gorgeous, showed masterful craftsmanship, and exhibited a thinking-out-of-the-box design element, but they also expressed emotion. Maybe I’m just a quilting sap who found my creative niche in the mostly-modern quilting world, but the quilts spoke to me. (No, I’m not weird. Just humor me, ok?) The quilts at QuiltCon were a huge inspiration for me to continue playing, creating, and stretching my boundaries.

Here are a few of the blog posts specifically about the quilts at QuiltCon, if you want to get a more in depth look at other bloggers’ observations and thoughts:

Bryan House Quilts QuiltCon in a Nutshell
Christa Quilts Christa’s Soapbox – My Thoughts About Modern Quilting Post QuiltCon
Christa Quilts My Experiences from QuiltCon 2015
Christa Quilts More Quilts from QuiltCon 2015
Don’t Call Me Becky QuiltCon 2015
Freshly Pieced QuiltCon: My Thoughts
On the Windy Side QuiltCon Recap 1: The Quilts
Quilting JetGirl QuiltCon 2015: Quilts!
QuiltingMod QuiltCon: Trends Part I
QuiltingMod QuiltCon: Trends Part II
QuiltingMod QuiltCon: Trends Part III
The Plaid Portico Multiple QuiltCon Quilt posts

Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl has a pretty extensive list of quilt blogger posts about QuiltCon HERE.

Are you a quilter blogger who also posted about the quilts shown at QuiltCon? Let me know and I’ll add you to my list above!

*Amazon affiliate link included, which means if you buy Paper Pieced Modern by clicking through, I receive 4% compensation with no extra cost to you.