Tuesday, February 27, 2018

QuiltCon 2018: The Main Event!

In my last installment, I tackled the shopping and the charity quilts at Quiltcon 2018. Now it's time for the main event!

 I spent much of yesterday writing this report. I believe there were 500 quilts in the show. I took about 600 photos, and the prospect of paring them down for this blog post terrified me! So the following report comes with the following disclaimers:
  • I can't say that these quilts are my absolute favorites - they're the quilts I loved and happened to fulfill the impulse to snap a picture! I walked around the show in a total state of overwhelm, plus I was discussing things with friends, so many quilts I missed entirely. Truly, I loved them all, like my children, all for different reasons.
  • Photos of all the QuiltCon award winners are posted by the Modern Quilt Guild here, so I won't show them again unless absolutely necessary.
  • I saw a few political quilts at QuiltCon 2016; two years later, there are many more, including ones that look completely abstract, and I didn't realize they were making a statement until I got home and read the labels I photographed. If I can generalize: A lot of modern quilters are working through a lot of ideas about what's happening in the country, and how they can take positive action.
My apologies if your quilt isn't here and you wish it were; or if your quilt is here and you wish it weren't. In the latter case I will take it down immediately (email me at cathy.perlmutter@gmail.com). I welcome corrections, clarifications, etc.

With all that said, here are just a few of the many quilts that grabbed me and/or my camera....

IN THE BEGINNING
When I walked into the exhibit hall, one of the first things I saw was this was this huge quilt.
And it turns out that it's a RAFFLE quilt! If I'd made it, I'd never let it out of my sight. It's a friggin' masterpiece, designed and pieced by Hillary Goodwin of Auburn, CA, quilted by Rachael Dorr. Hillary's statement says it's a "modern minimalist take on the classic log cabin and inset circle piecing. The piece is a testament to the power of design, piecing and quilting collaboration." The microquilting is superhuman.
Right near it was another gorgeous prizewinner - "Happy Dance" by Sandra Kaye of Jacksonville, Florida: (it won 'Best Machine Quilting'). I used it to direct people where my quilt was hanging....
 ....slightly to to the right, way back there! (closer view in this earlier blog post). I felt that the  proximity to the winners rubbed some of their glory off on me!
I will confess that I spent much of my time at the show ruthlessly propping friends in front of it and taking their pictures. 
Sunday was also my birthday.  I was so excited I was visibly vibrating.

Nearby, also in the small quilts category, was "What Apple?" by Krista Hennebury of North Vancouver, Canada, made from class demos she created when teaching improvisational piecing.
Neither Krista nor I, nor other people with similar quilts were spying on each other with our sewing machine circuitry or microwave ovens. There are are only so many ways you can chop up and rearrange squares! I don't have even a clue to how the judges picked from so many similar (yet distinctive) improv quilts!

"Shine a Light," was also made by Hillary Goodwin, who made the raffle quilt. Moon over the Mountain is a traditional quilt pattern that I've always loved, and Hillary made unusual color choices; her statement explained that she made it in resolution to take positive action after the divisive election.
Next, "The Blue Room" by Juli Smith of Valley Village, California. "A photograph I took in Thailand of looking up at a window really caught my modern quilter's eye, but I wanted to simplify and abstract it. This is where I landed!"
Juli had another moving pieced quilt in the show: B4U. I saw a mom lovingly pointing out all the fours to her young child, but Juli's intention was adult. She wrote, "B4U Hate was hiding, but LOVE will prevail. In memory of Heather Heyer, and all those who have lost their lives while fighting against hate and intolerance." 
Next, "Ode to Thiebaud," by Lori Mapes of Liberty Lake, Washington State. "I am drawn to Wayne Thiebaud's colorful repeating images of everyday pastries" She developed the paper piecing pattern. 
Here's "Bending Petal" by Karen Lee of Happy Valley, Oregon. "I started this piece in Stefanie Ruyle's class ....the thin orange branches which go out from the stem are 1/16th inch thick inset seams." 
"Opposites" is a wall quilt by Katherine Jones of Tasmania, Australia: 
She writes, "exploring the idea of small and large piecing, warm and cool colours,  I made over 700 one inch by two inch geese , then joined these to form partial very large geese....I created shadow geese flying in the opposite direction...." This was part of the American Patchwork and Quilting Flying Geese Quilt Challenge.  

And speaking of oranges and rusts, the vivid color in this quilt was like getting my back scratched. It's "Pencil Us In," by Debra Jalbert of Clermont, Florida. "This quilt was made for my friend Lori who is getting married in March... It is leftover pieces from a class that I sliced apart and reconfigured." 
"Kapow" by Marilyn Lone of Woodinvill, Washington started as a Japanese-style papercut, which she then translated into fabric.
GOING IN CIRCLES
After reviewing my pictures, I noticed that I really was drawn to the circular designs. Sarah Hibbert, from the UK, made this gorgeous piece titled "Macaroons," quilted by Christine Perrigo of Denver. I met Sarah in the line to pick up our quilts after the show, and she is as delightful as this quilt. My photo doesn't do it justice. 
Detail. (The black is very dark black, except in my pictures.)
Below, "Overlay" by Cassandra Beaver of Urbana, Ohio. It's a traditional flock of geese pattern interrupted by floating circles.
"Clambake" by Heather Black of Spokane, Washington, is pieced. "...This design came out of nowhere and fell into place," she wrote. 
The lively "Infinite IV" (with an accent over the 'e') is in the Improvisation category. It was made by Sophie Zaugg of Le Sentier, Switzerland, who writes, "This quilt is the last of a series of four quilts, each circle representing a day of the year." Hand appliqued and machine pieced. 
There were some wonderful ombre effects - some hand dyed, some commercial cottons. "Shining Through," by Di Jobbins of New South Wales, Australia, was one. "Inspired by the traditional Cathedral Windows pattern, I appliqued, by machine and hand, over 500 dimensional diamonds in varying shades of grey-on-grey. My goal was to create the effect of light softly kissing a decorative metallic surface, with my favorite jewel colours glowing through scattered portholes." 
"Clinging to the Edge," in the Improvisation category, was made by Irene Roderick of Austen, Texas. It's one in a series of whimsical and cheerful quilts, "meant to remind me how to play again. " 
The next quilt, "Sacred Heart," was made by one of my new quilt world idols, Christina Cameli (her Wild Quilting class on Craftsy class improved both my quilting and my self esteem, no affiliation): 
She writes, "The center of this quilt features a block improvised by my grandmother on a day we were sewing together. After her death I was moved to make this quilt. It is a visual story about how one woman influenced the world around her, and how her influence continues after her." 

As part of a Michael Miller fabric challenge, Cheryl Brickey of Greer, South Carolina made this piece she calls "Pop Rocks." It began "as a minimalist Dresden Plate design which morphed into its final version, which was made using templates and curved piecing."
In the Modern Traditionalism category, Krista Hennebury (who made the third quilt from the top of this post), also made "Pop Stars," quilted by Carol Chernov of Twin Creek Quilts. Krista's been experimenting with improvisation, and "the 8-pointed star has long been on my make list. Combining improv units with background triangles cut from Nancy Zieman templates allowed me to piece this quilt without Y-seams." (Given that the sewing world lost Nancy Zieman so recently, it was nice to see her name at the show.)
Here are some colors I might never have chosen, but Annmarie Cowley from Hillsboro, Oregon is more courageous, plus she took cues from fabric manufacturers. It's called "'Waynesboro Cherry Wreath' Gone Modern." "Using skills familiar to me, as well as a circle template, I recreated an embroidered, hand-appliqued family heirloom into this modern version. I chose the Pantone Color of the Year, 'Greenery', for the leaves, and the Kona Color of the Year, 'Flamingo,' for the background." 
"12 Shades of ?" is the name of the next quilt, in the Applique category, made by Pat Forster of Mount Pleasant, Australia. "Twelve shades of autumn, persimmon, marigold?" she writes. "I'll choose marigold because the shades and motifs remind me of marigolds in my father's garden. The motif was inspired by the 7 Dragon fractal at fractalcurves.com. Paper-pieced hexagons, appliqued to blocks based on the Drunkards path block." My friend and I thought it looked like petri dishes. 
Flattened circles are featured in "Train Track Pennies" by Laura Hartrich of Oak Park, Illinois. It was "constructed with my grandma's clothes and inspired by pennies we used to flatten on the train tracks behind her house and featuring shorthand symbols that list the attributes I admired in my grandma, this is a memory quilt that has several layers of meaning." 
The next piece, in the Improvisation category, is the gorgeous "Configuration: Kasuri with Five Lines," by Julie Haddrick of Adelaide, Australia. "Interest in Japanese kasuri fabrics inspired this piece, and the linear curves and figure ground relationships in the quilt interacts with a vast selection of fabrics." Another inspiration for her is the work of Nancy Crow.
The second time I walked through the Modern Traditionalism category, I looked up in the sky and saw this: 
It's "Wedding Rings and Crossroads" by Kathy York, a fantastic fiber artist. The keen-eyed white glove volunteer saw me taking the picture... 
...and pulled back the corner! Wow!
Also up in the sky was the gigantic "Six Pairs of Pants," by renowned artist and teacher Sheri Lynn Wood of Oakland, CA. 
It was one of several not-conventionally-beautiful quilts which, Sherri explained, were "scavenged from the Public Disposal and Recycle Area at Recology San Francisco, from June-September 2016. During my four-month residency, I explored the concept of 'making do' as a receptive creative strategy for life after systems collapse. In this series of quilts I allowed the shapes of the garments to be expressed, resulting in works of unusual geometric abstraction that are simultaneously suggestive of the human body." Find Sherri's workshop on this topic and many more, here. (I want to take them all.) 

In the minimalist design category, I found a provocative quilt by another well-known quilter and author, Jacquie Gering of Kansas City, Missouri, one of the founders of the modern quilt movement. 
"'Veer' expresses my concern over the direction my country is going in," she writes, "...it also confirms my commitment to political and community action, and to be part of the solution." 

"Hiss" by Sarah Sharp of Carmel, Indiana had a one-sentence description: "If you're going to throw a snake on the bed, might as well make it a nice one." 
"Fireflies," by Sarah sharp of Carmel, Indiana, pieced by Rachael Dorr (the same longarmer who did the raffle quilt at the top of this post)  is paper pieced. 
TEXT ON QUILTS
Maybe because my profession is writing, I was moved to take pictures of many of the quilts with words on them. These are just a few. First, a machine-pieced quilt by Lysa Flower of Maple Ridge, Canada is devastatingly described in a short phrase: "One big note to self." 
"Strong Tradition" is by Alison Chambers and Emily Robbins of San Antonio Texas. They write,"We wanted to honor the women who taught us to quilt, to fight, and those who have used quilting to fight against injustices. We designed letters that could be pieced, thereby keeping with the custom of traditional pieced quilts. We sewed this quilt side by side, in homage to the tradition of women gathering to quilt together...."
"Good Luck," by Jessica Wohl of Tennessee, is made from shirts, sheets, clothes and tulle. 
Inspired by an essay by TaNehisi Coats, it's a reflection on how some Americans are prevented from achieving the American dream, with a white picket fence. 

Next, "She Was Warned" by Liz Havartine of  Burbank, CA, was inspired by Elizabeth Warren "and all the other women who stand up and fight." 
Here's Chawne Kimber's "Get Woke." I was introduced to Chawne's brilliant work at QuiltCon 2016. Chawne is a quilt teacher as well as a college math professor in Easton, PA. "This quilt is a reaction to and encouragement of the current social wakening in the US," she wrote. The hand stitching is inspired by Alabama Channin, "yet transforms the idea with more layers and to bring depth to the work." 

"Feminist quilt." in the Applique category by Darci Read of  West St. Paul, MN, came from a 1995 Hillary Clinton quotation. Darci made the quilt to carry at the January 2017 women's march.  "Quilts and sewing have been a comfort to me, so I had to make a quilt for the march because I REALLY felt terrible. (Plus I don't know how to knit, so a pussy hat was out). As I walked, I gained strength. I felt the strength of the women and men and children and families that were marching with....Stay Loud!"
In a similar vein, there's "Ms. Conceived" by Miriam Coffey of Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. In the Negative Space category (very ironically), this quilt  - which can't be read from a distance - says, "The Feminist Word." 
Miriam writes, "Feminism - too often is regarded as the other 'F' word. In current society, the meaning has been misconstrued and contorted to be a dirty word or even used as an insult. This quilt celebrates the fight and continual need to stand up for what is right...[and]what it means to be a Feminist - a proud human fighting for equality, opportunity, and autonomy for all." It's machine appliqued. 

"White America" by Jessical Wohl of Sewanee, TN,"calls into question the whiteness of our country and its relationship to who speaks and who listens, or who needs to speak and who needs to listen...Using reverse applique, the text cuts into the layer of white, like a skin revealing a blanket of red, a wound or bodily cut, addressing the physical trauma our country is enduring. The 'blue' section of the flag is comprised exclusively of men's business shirts, incorporating notions of labor, collared workers (white and blue) classism and capitalism."
In the Youth category, here's the witty "Twitter Tantrums" by Carina Cabriales of Antioch, CA, one of several Social Justice Sewing Academy projects. 
MORE RANDOM GREATNESS
"The Here There and Elsewhere Bee" by Andrea Tsang Jackson, of Halifax, Canada, is a graph - a compilation of data from the immigration histories of 1197 visitors to the Canadian Museum of Immigration. (Read more about it here.) Whoops, it's also a prizewinner.
"Stand Together" by Sara Guidry of Shawnee, Kansas, is a small quilt that asks you to "put yourself in the position of a World War I soldier lined up to fight....Each red poppy represents a million WWI soldiers killed. Inspired by the World War I Museum in Kansas, and art by Paul Sunderland called "Bridge over a Field of Poppies."

And finally, the Modern Quilt world did not come out of nowhere. The path was forged by many daring artists, particularly African-American quilters (Gee's Bend, of course), and many pioneering  art quilters. The quilt world lost one of those people in 2016: Yvonne Porcella, founder of the Studio Art Quilters Association, whose colorful quilts conveyed so much joy. One of the exhibits in the main hall was "SAQA Presents: Modern Inspirations - Art Quilts from the 1970s through Today." Among the many fantastic quilts, it was very moving to see a Porcella original, "Razzle Dazzle,"which she made in 1981. Her books are still widely available, and she left behind an extraordinary body of work, which you can browse on her website, here
Here's Yvonne. 
And there we have it - fewer than 8% of the quilts in the show. There is so much more I'm not describing here - like the awesome retrospective of quilts by Carolyn Friedlander (a video of the exhibit is here, and more on Friedlander's website here.) You're just going to have to come to the next QuiltCon yourself!

My thanks to the Modern Quilt Guild, to the Los Angeles Chapter and all the members who worked so hard to set up and run such a complicated, wonderful, rich convention, and also to locate it in the town next to me. I am beyond grateful.

Related links in my blog:
Also, many more political quilts at http://www.unitedwequilt.com/.

Sunday, February 25, 2018

Overstimulated: QuiltCon 2018 Charity Quilts and Shopping

Introduction
There was so much to see at QuiltCon 2018, which ran from last Thursday, Feb. 22 through today, that just thinking about writing a report for this blog overwhelmed me. I took 562 pictures - (no more than half of my own quilt). So this blog post is going to tackle just a small fraction of two aspects of the show: the charity quilt challenge; and the shopping, featuring not even all my favorites, just those that broke through my quilt show trance (which is much like my supermarket trance, but much more hysterical.) 

(Update: Part II, about the juried show, is now online here.)

I. THE CHARITY QUILTS
Warning: If you don't like this color palette, you've got some eye-aches ahead: 

Every year the Modern Quilt Guild, sponsors of QuiltCon, creates a challenge for its chapters, individual members, and impromptu groups. The quilts they make will be donated to or raffled off for a community charity. This year's challenge theme was "modern traditionalism," and the palette was the super-heated colors above (find all the rules here.)

As I entered the show, in Pasadena's sunny Convention Center last Thursday, the first thing I saw was this awesome. very large quilt:

It's called "Pickle Platter", and it's a group project of the Los Angeles Modern Quilt Guild. Looking down hallways in two directions, there were many more quilts with a similar color scheme...
...and wildly different designs....
...dozens of them. (They also lined a huge ballroom). Here are just a few.

First, "Maple Spirit," by the Victoria Modern Quilt Guild of BC, Canada. It was inspired, they write, by a "random conversation about Coast Guard ships, gingerbread houses, the QuiltCon charity quilt palette, modern traditionalism, and the country's sesquicentennial celebration."
And while we're in Canada, the next quilt was made by the Calgary Modern Quilt Guild. The color palette made them think of flowers and fireworks. So they played with the traditional Dresden Plate design, making large improvisational plates, and smaller, more regular ones. They overlap, like fireworks: 
Next, "Smoky Mountain Star" by the Knoxville Modern Quilt Guild in Tennessee. "Inspired by a traditional pattern by Bonnie K. Hinter, we took one of the signature slanted stars and enlarged it for a modern layout....This quilt and its inspiration reflect our guild's location in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains and the beauty we see here every day."
The next quilt was made by a farflung 8-member group that named themselves The Hexists, and it's called "Not Your Granny's Flower Garden:"
"When the quilt returns to us from its trip to QuiltCon, it will be deconstructed in order to add several more rows, to depict the main colors of the rainbow; its final destination will be the lobby/gallery of our local LGTBQ center...."

Below, "Under the Milky Way Tonight" comes from the Sydney Modern Quilt Guild in Australia, and was designed on a napkin. After QuiltCon, they plan to raffle it off for a local charity.
Peaks Posse is another farflung group, was made up of people who met at a quilt retreat (Patchwork in the Peaks, in the French Alps OMG) It was inspired by the glorious sunsets. The quilting is very, very unusual...
...in that it has these giant fluffy suns! (?) They stand out a LOT. I am trying to figure out how they got them so puffy.
Below, "Harmony Crossing" was made by the Whistler Thread Heads. It was inspired by the Whistler ski resort and a particular ski run called "Harmony". "When not skiing or snowshoeing," they wrote, "we wrap the community in love and warmth."
Next is the Ithaca Modern Quilt Guild's entry.
The Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild made this mustard marvel: 
It's an Irish chain variation, with "blips in the grid." 

Finally, a quilt titled "Lake Superior Sunrise," made by the Lake Superior Modern Quilt Guild of Duluth, MN. 
Inspired by crazy quilts, the block pattern "was designed to allow improvisational choices to be made by each maker...It was our goal to include as many hands in the making of this quilt, regardless of skill level or design experience....The resulting quilt was fun to make...and a true representation of our community. " 

And so many more, each a gem! Google "QuiltCon 2018 Charity Quilt Challenge". Participating in making a quilt like this is great fun. Find your nearest Modern Quilt Guild chapter here

PART II: THE SHOPPING
Moving briskly from altruism to capitalism, I'll show you some of the things I enjoyed seeing in the booths. Full disclosure: I have no financial or other relationship whatsoever with any of the vendors.  First: Northcott Fabrics' booth displayed their gorgeous solids folded and cut into flowers. 
This vintage tv pattern (who remembers tv antennas? Not young modern quilters!) appeared there plus in a couple more booths. (I've been told the pattern is by Lori Holt, but I haven't found it for sale yet - if you have the link, please do send it to me and I'll update this post.)
French General was a very unusual booth, with imported French fabrics, and very classy embroidery and quilting kits. There was also a tea towel embroidery project.
And interesting metal hoops. 
Find their unusual quilt patterns and other wares here.
Ombre and Ombre Confetti Metallics are a line of Moda fabrics, and the fabric company had a full booth devoted to showing them off  (you had to go to a different booth to actually buy them).
It was love at first sight. (My motto in life is "no bad ombres.") (Sorry.) So I was primed by the time I saw them for sale at Elkhorn Quilt Company of Mesa, AZ. I clutched my wallet to my bosom while arguing with myself about whether to buy one of every color. 
They even had a rug.
And Elkhorn had lots of other tantalizing prints. This pricing was about par for the course. 

Plus they were displaying this cool (non-modern) quilt.
Elkhorn also had gourmet cork: Printed, embossed, embroidered, colored. 
It's just a little more expensive than fabric. 
The cork could be very effective in wine-themed quilts, but it's really there because it's the hot thing in handbags. It sews up like fabric - you can even embroider it. 
Sew Many Creations describes itself as a bag pattern company aimed at quilters; they also had cork along with bag and quilt patterns. 
 In most patterns, the cork makes up the base of the purse, but here it's a top panel.
Also at the show, lots of black-and-white fabrics, on the bolt or packed in precuts. Below are the black-and-white geometrics at Loving Stitches of Fayetteville, NC (plus the Marcus ombres). 
This tantalizing stack of B&Ws was at another booth - how I resisted, I will never know. 
The next pack was at Private Source Quilting from El Segundo, CA: Almost as good as gorgeous fabric is any fabric that is 50% off.
Also popular was the Grunge line from Moda; they look like a painted wall that has been irregularly sanded.
I even spotted Liberty of London fabrics in a couple of booths. I remember when you had to travel to freaking London to buy Liberty fabrics (which I did, 22 years ago)! Now you can just pick them up at at an American quilt show! Here are some precut bundles at The Patchwork Company:
 This small bundle of 13" x 18" pieces is $44.95. Which is still much cheaper than flying to London. 
There were also plenty of batik fabrics - but only in the vendor booths, not on the exhibit walls. For some reason, QuiltCon judges don't seem to go for quilts that incorporate batiks. I hope this changes, some day soon! 

Pink Door Fabrics had a booth with more purse and wallet kits (this one had pom pom trim)....
abundant purse frames: 
...and yes, more you-know-what....
The quilts in the Apliquick booth, below, were amazing, and definitely not modern, which was a bit of a respite. Apliquick sells specialized tools for turn-under applique. 
The Me+You fabrics booth had this awesome sneaker pattern - thanks to commenter Jessica I know now this pattern is "Kicks" by Latifah Saafir, available here.  
I'm wild about quilted octopii, and this one, also at Me+You, was fabulous. 
Everyone was talking about the Coats Company shutting down its Free Spirit and Westminster Divisions, with its many superstar fabric designers - including earth's #1 color genius Kaffe Fassett. There was no shortage of Kaffe fabric at the show, and I didn't see panicked mobs grabbing it up, so I wouldn't worry too much about it going extinct yet. Here's just a portion of the Kaffe selection at Material Girl:
...and then there was more.
Clover, which sells sewing notions, had lots of practical stuff, plus they reminded me that macrame is still enjoying a revival
Remember making these in 1970? I loved macrame when I was 13.
My friends Saraj and Miriam were among the teeming crowds in the tiny Kismet Designs booth, with handmade and Fair Trade Indian ribbons, trims, and fabrics
...they gave me some for my birthday, and I am thrilled...

Brooklyn Mojo has gourmet small-batch hand-printed fabric; 
I didn't get close enough to take a good picture, so here's a couple of their pillows from their website:
Just Patchwork was staffed by friendly Australians, Gai and Elwin Taylor, specializing in joyful, dense, colorful applique on wool felt. 

I bought four balls of DMC perle cotton from this swimming pool of bliss....
I belong to SAQA (Studio Art Quilts Associates); their booth wasn't selling anything but  memberships in a very worthwhile organisation, plus an opportunity to admire lots of small quilts.

What did I actually buy? The perle cotton candy was the most exciting purchase; plus some unusual solid shades of orange and green from Superbuzzy; the rest were practical - large spools of thread for my midarm from Superior Thread; midarm needles from HandiQuilter; and Glide thread from The Sew'n'Sew shop. The good thing about living next to a QuiltCon venue is that you can go home, check to see if you already have it, and then go back and only buy it if you need it.

Want to see more of the QuiltCon '18 vendors? Go to this page and click on the names in the list to learn about the company, and find their website.  

UPDATE: My next post, a report on the juried show, is now online here.