Bee Quilts

It's nice to see the reintroduction of the old fashioned "bee" for group quilts. So many modern quilters honed their skills by taking part in random assemblies or bee swaps online. As well as the many group charity quits hung in the Convention lobby there were group entrants in the main exhibition. My workshop tutor, Rossie Hutchinson had a major hand in two of the ones I chose to photograph.

Mistwraith, a round robin quilt by Rossie Hutchinson and
some fellow Ann Arbour MQG members.

Little Tents by Daisy Aschehoug from improv. blue and yellow triangle
units she requested from the Love Circle of the charity bee Do Good Stitches.
She wanted to suggest a camping scene with tents lit up from within as
 a way to offer a little comfort to someone in need.

Enthusiasm pieced in one session by Rossie Hutchinson and four others
starting in the centre with layered curves and then moved out to playing with lines
and then confetti shapes finishing with softer curves. One of the group,
Lynn Harris, quilted it mindful of the piecing so the quilting changes with each section.

Home now

Gwenny's Woodpile  by Karen Duling (Gwenny is Gwen  Marsden)

Back home to a different world especially as my  sewing room is piled with stuff from the spare bedroom which is having a new ceiling put in and then being decorated. It will be good to have it done though as we are house swapping in May.  My bags are emptied and I encountered fabric I couldn't remember buying. Anyway here is more catch up from the show, this post the applique section:

Detail

Another detail

Flower Doodle by Lindsay Neill, a fresh look at stained glass/Celtic.

Detail

5/325 by Hilary Goodwin, the numbers are
something to do with prescription medicine
and addiction.

Small Quiltsand Minimalist Design Quilts at QuiltCon

Judging from this show modern quilts are definitely moving off sofas,beds,floors and chairs onto the wall and for many this can be their only role as is the case with small quilts. I suppose this is to be expected when time is limited and the purpose is to try out ideas and to follow a less is more strategy.
Anyway here is a selection of small quilts

Summer Spin by Rebecca Bell UK using English Paper piecing

Stacked by Nicole Neblett made in part to whittle down her
scrap bin (!!!)

Detail

Bzzzzzz by Sherri Cifaldi Morell; I love the graphic quality of this one.

Mixed Cassette tapes by Lysa Flower, also
a small quilt.

Stone + Bone by Kelsey Boes, a small quilt
employing screen printing and over
printing.

and from Pam Rocco's quilt onwards minimal quilts in the
 "Minimalist. Design"
category.

This is House Plan by Pam Rocco. Pam is a hero of mine as I always follow her articles in
QNMagazine and often cut out pictures of her qulits to stick in my book. She was very
interesting and utterly delightful in real life and I loved everything about this quilt.

Detail of Blind and "Doe" fabric.

This is Blind by Nancy Purvis inspired by the
windows in her home.

Cancer and Taurus (Constellation Quilt) by Amber Corcoran.
The yellow specks represent her and her husband's stars.

Farewell Pasadena

It's the last day of the show and we are all very sad our time here is coming to an end. However I shall relive my show experience by reviewing my photos and posting images here. Here are some examples from the Use of Negative Space category:

Debbie Grifka "Clersetory"

White spaces by Bev Bird who quotes Yoshiko Jinjenzi "a balance between
minimalism and a sense of richness".

detail

Red Hot by Shawna Doering

QuiltCon Improvisations

A spacious, airy well lit exhibition space.

(Apologies for not emailing or responding to emails; the webmail site says Ooops Sorry trying to fix it.)
I haven't taken pictures of any winning quilts as I expect they will be published by MQG on their site and in the newsletter. I went round each section looking carefully at quilts and reading descriptions, noting my favourites and then walked round from a greater distance, taking pictures of a selected few either because I liked them or because they included elements I might want to adapt for my own work.
Here are some samples from the large improvisational section.

"Hemisphere" by Janice Smyth, freeing herself from
a block format and using colours inspired by Joseph Albers

Puddling by Amy Friend using and adapting skills she learnt while testing the Layered curve
score for Sherri Lynn Wood

"Score for showing up" by Sherri Lynn Wood 

Party Arbor by Jenna Brand started in Sherri
Lynn Wood's Scrap Doodling class at
QuiltCon 2015

Detail of tree forms

These are quilts made for charity by various guilds and individuals. Sometimes
modern quilts look all the same!

QuiltCon people

Pam Weeks, curator of the New England Quilt Museum, taking a group on a tour of Molly Upton's quilt before the doors opened.

There is an intimate friendly feel to this show which unlike Houston, Paducah and the rest is not for profit but run by quilters for quilters and it has been very enjoyable coming across in real life quilters  previously encountered in magazines and on social media.

Jenny Doan from the Missouri Quilt Company

Christina Cameli of FMQ fame

Anna Maria Horner and fans

Mary Fons signing posters

Rebecca Bryan of Rainbow quilts

Jennifer Sampou with birthday cupcakes

Rossie Hutchinson who taught my workshop

Victorian Findlay Wolf and friend

The girls from Windham fabrics

More about Molly Upton

I went to a very informative lecture today by Pam Weeks about Molly Upton and her quilts which are the subject of continuing research.Members of Molly's family were in the front row and were referred to for information from time to time. Pam set Molly's work in the context of her time and the history of quiltmaking as a whole which appealed to me. Molly and her friend, Susan Hoffman, set out to make 60 quilts often in pairs though Molly's showed the greater sophistication..

Childhood illustrations

Teenage Molly and friend Susan holding a craft stall.

Paired quilts, Molly's more sophisticated one on left

Paired quilts

It's started

Instagram screen

Today the show proper has begun. The use of modern technology to speed things along is impressive. Our barcodes are scanned as we enter lectures. Instagram posts pop up on a screen n the lobby. Jackie Gering hosted the awards show - really large images of the winning quilts on the screen. Then it was an impressive lecture by Casey York on art as inspiration, not just for colour but form, use of contrast and decoration etc. with lots of examples.

Here and below examples of inspiration and interpretation.

A wonderful space in an older building across the way houses many of the quilts ; it's well lit with partly natural light with plenty of room and no traders to distract.
I was particularly interested to see the special exhibit "Quilts of Molly Upton" as I read an article about her years ago. She died very young by her own choice so it was good to know her quilts had been preserved and kept together by those left behind. Although her designs were outside the norm in other ways with puffy wadding and hand quilting and fabrics to hand they give a picture of quilts at this time.

Here and below, quilts from the
Molly Upton exhibit

We had a  lovely evening meeting up with Brigitte and her daughter and ate outside on an upstairs terrace.

Good company