QUILTCON:: Minimalist design

Melissa Miller Curley: Harper
"Harper is inspired by the the lines and strings of all things musical."

Though I am drawn to quilts with lots of printed fabrics and surface texture there is something to be said for the graphic impact of restraint. I found the quilts in this section with
limited palettes, enlarged blocks and bold use of line gave me food for thought.

Yvone uchs: Wayward Transparency

Detail

Marah Light: Figures
Quilted by Rebecca Canetti
Retrieved a disaster when making pairs of blocks only to find some had made made the wrong
size so they wouldn't fit together. Cutting down resulted in a new design. 

Suzy Williams: Maypole
The interweaving ribbons of olour that form this bold composition [are] reminiscent
of a traditional maypole.

QuiltCon: Improvisational

Improvisation is an aspect of Modern Quilting that I am most drawn.to.

Claudia Shearer: Time Out
Cut with scissors, arranged on a design wall. The lack of a block structure made for
challenging piecing with many inset seams.

Deborah Jalbert: Leftovers #7
Kept going till the fabric ran out

I love the piecing and beautiful colours.

Detail

Debra Kidd: A little bit of this, a little bit of that
I met the maker over lunch. She did construct blocks, some interpretations of internet
images such as a chair in front a door, others just modern shapes.

QUILTCON: Admonishment/Political Quilts

QUILT CON: Applique

The categories seem to be design or technique based. Here are quilts from the applique section and I've included the winners because I like them.

Diane Vandeyar: Tropical Delirium
A free form version of Hawaiian patchwork with wayward quilting.

Laura Hartrich: Train track pennies
References the pennies squashed on the railway behind her childhood house,.
 Made from her grandmother's clothes and the shorthand symbols list some
of  her grandmother's qualities. A memory quilt with layers of meaning.

Detail. I used to squash our larger pennies on the railway line. I can remember the train driver shaking his fist,
(understandably in retrospect).

Detail: how lovely

Virginia Robinson: Fauchet
Quilter: Suzen deSerres
Based on her great aunt Lizzie's crocheted Afghan squares.
3rd prizewinner

Karen Maple: Black, Brown and White in Orange
A comment on the US prison system which incarcerates a much larger proportion of the
population than European countries and a disproportionate number of blacks and Hispanics.
She asked how you would spend your days with little to do dressed in orange.
This won second prize and made its point subtlely in a pleasing quilt.

Detail

Natalie Skinner: Quarter Turn
Needleturn applique using Carolyn Friedlander fabrics and machine quilted
with a 1" grid 

Debbie Grifka: Canterbury #2
Inspired by a picture of a corridor near the Cathedral cloister. Eliminates colour and focuses
on the  bare bones of the architexture. The judges seemed drawn to such pared down quilts.
First prizewinner.

QUILTCON: Handwork

I think it is so lovely the modern movement has a special section for handwork when more traditional shows don't.

Detail: the hand quilting on the top layer is all that secures the colourful fabrics underneath

Heidi Parkes: But I need to remember
Incorporates inherited and new fabric: a quilt full of resonance.

Tara Faughnan: Courthouse Steps
Two years ago I remember Tara's quilts as quite complex. The two I saw this reverted to a
stripped down simplicity and plainness

Detail of minimal hand quilting

Tara Faughnan:String Star Quilt
She had been working wiith star shape and made this to deal with a build up of strips.
Hand quilted

MY FAVOURITES

I loved the design, loved the fabrics and the pieced units in this charity quilt.

Detail

And now my favourite from the non juried charity challenge and the one I voted my Best of Show, well not sure it was THE best but it was one I related too - can't shake off my traditional.roots even at QuiltCon though there too the links with the past were clear to see. We all build on what has gone before.

Home

The view from there and the view from here.

View from the hotel window

Home to snow and the view from my window but California was unseasonably chilly too.

I have tried not to show award winners  as these appear elsewhere but weakened near the close and took pictures of some major prize winners.

This was the raffle quilt and yes I bought tckets and no I didn;t win though I sat by as the winner was drawn feeling hopeful as I had already won the first door prize (a layer cake) in Katie Pederson's class. it went to someone called Julie.

sarah Bond : Ribbon quilt
eQuilter prize for quilting excellence
This would be a surprise to some as the quilting was vertical straight lines but the
 thread colour altered to suit the fabric.
Personally I thought some quilts were compromised by fancy scrolly FMQ.
A simpler approach seemed to work better in most cases.

Detail

Sandra Kaye: Happy Dance with 600 crosses. Sandra is new to the Modern Quilting
movement but won the Best Machine Quilting Frameless prize.

Detail

Stephane Scardal: Going Up
BEST OF SHOW
someone I sat next too wasn't impressed with this choice but sometimes less is more.

Detail

On my last wander through the naturally lit room devoted to quilts I came across some bustle and the "Visitors' Choice went to   . " And Anna Maria Horner got in on the picture?
This quilt had a personal message. There were many using words but were what I would call "admonishment quilts" (more later).

Liz with Anna Maria Horner

Detail