QUILTS & FABRIC: PAST & PRESENT


Monday, February 26, 2018

QuiltCon 2018 in Pasadena

Sandra Kay, Happy Dance
 won the prize at QuiltCon 2018 in
 Best Machine Quilting Frameless.

My sister (the strawberry blonde on the left) lives near the Pasadena Convention Center where QuiltCon 2018 took place the other day, so I dragged her to a quilt show. It's fun to go with someone who knows nothing about quilts to get her perspective. She has an art degree and she knows what she likes. 

First of all, the show floor was crowded, always a good sign.
We went on the first morning.

I had to explain the whole machine quilting thing. She'd never seen a long arm.

There was lots of fabric for sale in modern brights and grays.

Some of Vanessa Christenson's new solids

The atypical caught my eye. Here's a stack of new
French General fabrics in great floral prints echoing the early 19th century. 
Anything repro of course was in short supply. 


We noticed the emphasis on solid fabrics in the exhibit.

Ohio Snowball on the left by Christine Perrigo



Few entries made use of prints

Color Study H1 by Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Being a traditionalist I have to say my show favorites were
in the Modern Traditionalism category.

Lollipop by Diana Vandeyar

My sister said the last time I took her to a quilt show it was full of pictorial representations of horses, kittens and small children, not to her taste. She was glad to see no puppies on the quilts. Sentimentalism is one thing that modernists past and present disdain.

We ran into several old friends. Here's Moda Lissa and me from
her Instagram page. She's just published a book and I wrote the introductory
chapter on the history of scrap quilts.

Lissa took care of the modernism in fine fashion.
More about Oh, Scrap! soon.
See the winners here:

And see Carrie's post with lots of photos at the Moda blog:
http://blog.modafabrics.com/2018/02/quiltcon-2018/


11 comments:

  1. My theory is the artist who begins to quilt is thinking only in terms of a color palette, thus the selection of solids to work with. When teaching my sister to quilt, I was speaking about squinting at the fabric and seeing what color the different prints and textures read. That's when she got it. Either that or the fact that solids usually cost less per yard and when you are beginning you just might want a more economical cloth. Looks like you had great fun at the show.

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  2. Looks like it was a great time! Glad you were able to go and see. You know how I love solids or prints that read as solids!

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  3. Interesting to see that the modern quilts are using only solids -- but quite beautiful.
    How awesome that you dragged, I mean took, your sister, who probably noticed things us quilters might have missed.
    xxxs,
    Randy

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  4. I don't normally gravitate towards modern quilts but that green one at the top is lovely! Thanks for sharing with your sister AND us!!!

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  5. Happy to hear you had some sister time. I suspect this would be the only quilt show my sisters would enjoy as well!

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  6. French General.... I had forgotten about that Designer..... so many shops gone... and one is converting there extensive wonderful repo to just fabric..... I use to feel guilty about all the fabric I have bought over the years... but if repro is not going to be available I will be happy to have my "stock" - stash.

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  7. Just today I downloaded the e-galley for Lissa's book and read your preface! Such pretty patterns!

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  8. The quilts are great but I am the most interested in that stack of French General fabric!

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  9. Hi Barbara, I'm happy to hear you enjoyed the Modern Traditionalism category. It's my favorite too! Thank you!

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  10. Thanks for sharing all this wonderfulness. That's what I thought when I went for the first time in Savannah last year - Modern Traditionalism would be my category, if I went that way. I always like French General and find the patterns do mix nicely with the old traditional fabrics I love. The colors, not always, but the designs, definitely.

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  11. Victoria---Congratulations on the prize. The quilt caught my eye the second I walked into the room.

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