Creativebug By Creativebug Artist Blair Stocker
Quiltcon, the premiere show for modern quilting presented by the Modern Quilt Guild, was held in February in Raleigh, North Carolina this year. If you love modern quilting (or any quilting, really) this is the show for you to fill up on creative inspiration, take workshops, and sit in on lectures from industry experts. I spent 2 days wandering the show, all the while sharing what I saw as a takeover on Creativebug’s Instagram Stories. Here I’ll recap some of my absolute favorites.
Best in Show was awarded to “What We Will Use as Weapons: A List of School Supplies” by Ginny Robinson (on IG as @minnowpeck). A powerful image of ordinary classroom objects that could possibly be used by a teacher to defend their class in the event of a school shooting. A sobering expression of thoughts from a middle school teacher, beautifully constructed as a quilt.
Original, inspired use of color and color value (my favorites!) was throughout the exhibition.
The simple shapes and the movement in this quilt are created by manipulating color value in “Bloombox” above, by Caroline Hadley(@geometriquilt). Stand there long enough and it felt almost like it was vibrating!
“Forthcoming” by Holly Clarke (@holdmyseamripper– which I think may be the best IG name ever), is deceptively simple at first glance. A few colors and a series of basic shapes. But look closer to see how she created depth and the effect of ribbons laying over other ribbons, all achieved by playing with the dark and light color values of the chosen fabrics. A beautiful design.
“Hexibore” by Jenny Haynes (@pappersaxsten) plays with color value, depth, and dimension beautifully. Jenny is known for manipulating round shapes in innovative ways in her quilts.
“Flower #1” by Jess Peck (@teta_pep) is a gorgeously done pixel quilt. A pixel effect is just what it sounds like, the image is reduced to squares of colors just like an enlarged, grainy photo. The beautiful colors capture the pixel-y details of the flower in such an interesting way.
Of course, one of the best things about Quiltcon is running into friends and fellow Creativebug instructors. Denyse Schmidt and I walked the show together one morning and paid a visit to Carolyn Friedlander at her booth. Denyse is one of the instructors in Creativebug’s How To Design Fabric Series and Carolyn teaches several modern quilt classes.
See lots more quilts and commentary over on Creativebug’s saved Instagram highlight.