QuiltCon Lectures

This just in from The MQG.  More from QuiltCon for those that couldn't be there.  

The Modern Quilt Guild had the amazing opportunity to partner with Craftsy to bring you several lectures and presentations from QuiltCon for free! Some of them included are Amy Butler, Jacquie Gering, Mary Fons plus a couple bonus videos just to name a few. Thank you to all who participated and made this possible.

Eye Candy

Thanks to flickr we are seeing what it was like to be in Austin this time last week.

So many pictures are popping up!  Let's take a little journey to QuiltCon thanks to these ladies who've shared their pictures.


Here is the set from Luana Rubin of eQuilter, titled QuiltCon 2013 - Austin Texas.  Her photos really put you in the convention center, on the show floor, surrounded by the quilts.  This is just a small sampling of the 213 photos she's shared so far.  

This set, titled QuiltCon Quilts, is from DLQuilts or Kelli Davis from Arlington, TX.  Kelli's photos are detailed and close-up.  You can tell she wanted to see the quilting.

  
QuiltCon 2013 is the name for this set of THE quilts!   Not all of them, but obviously, 12 of her favorites. Jennifer, a Texas girl, blogs about her sewing and crafting adventures at married to a bmw.

The photos from this smaller set of 33, Quiltcon 2013, were taken by designgirl9's Bethany Smith who blogs over at CraftyGeeks.  She includes scenes from some of the talks and workshops with the likes of Jacquie Gering and Katie Pedersen, and wife and husband team Amy Butler and David Butler.

How about a peek at a workshop?  This QUILTCON set, actually takes you into the improv curves piecing class, Get Your Curve On, taught by Sherri Lynn Wood of Daintytime.

I know we wish we could've been there.  I know some of us won't miss it in 2015.  However, because of this digital age we live in, we can experience it from our laptops.  Vicariously.  

Dreaming of QuiltCon

Our little piece of QuiltCon.  You know, that inaugural conference and show by and for The Modern Quilt Guild that happened in Austin, TX over the weekend.  You know, the one we all wanted to attend.  You know, the one some of us recently  dreamed about attending.

QuiltCon.  The reason we made this beautiful quilt.   

First came the idea of, and the challenge.  Even when QuiltCon was in it's planning stages and details were vague, we knew we wanted to participate.

Then came fabric. 

This little bundle was put together at Lynn's during our March 2012 meeting.

Then came the blocks.  

August 25, 2012 was the submission deadline.  Some of us sent blocks.  Some of us held onto our blocks.  Some of us even held onto our fabric.  From around the country and around the world, more than 375 blocks were received, but only 20 to 25 would eventually be chosen for the Raffle Quilt.  Elizabeth Hartmann wrote a series of posts about all of the blocks, organizing them into shape families and piecing styles.  Photos can be found here.  She did this from August 27th thru September 22nd.  There were SO many gorgeous blocks!  

After her selections for the Raffle Quilt, the remainder of the blocks, in groups of 7 or so, were distributed to MQGs who wanted to make a quilt for the Austin Children's Shelter.  These quilts would also be displayed during QuiltCon.

These are the blocks ECMQG received.  From New Zealand.  From Charlotte, NC.  From Philadelphia, PA.      

During our November meeting, we decided to make our quilt in the style of a "travelling quilt" with participating members arranging blocks, adding blocks, and/or adding yardage.  We chose Kona medium gray as the background. 

As it made it's tour through our homes over the holidays and into January, it took shape like this:  (I think I have these in order.  I think I know who made new blocks and who assembled what, but for fear of omitting someone, I'll just show pictures.  For now.)

After our January Sew-day, Marcy took it home and began free motion quilting with her longarm.  Once again, just as she did with this quilt, she took a one dimensional top - a beautiful, colorful, modern top - and intuitively, magically, made it come alive.  Texture.  Depth.  Beauty.  Dimension.  Fun.

The pieced binding, hand-sewn by Kathleen just as she did for our last charity quilt, is a combination of Michael Miller's Painter's Canvas in tangerine orange (I think tangerine is more descriptive, but...) and On A String in lime by Valentina Ramos for Robert Kaufman.  Both, obviously, are official QuiltCon colors.  Both compliment our quilt beautifully.  We have to thank Kelly S for that design choice.

Finally, our label.

We packed this baby up and shipped it off to Austin for QuiltCon and it's eventual destination at the Austin Children's Shelter.  What better way is there to share our love of quilting, our love of color, our love of fabric, our love of sewing, our love of design, than to comfort a child, a young adult, or a family that needs protection and healing?

I think we accomplished all of that with every stitch we put into this beauty.  Congratulations ladies. 

Remember January?

Remember January?  Not that long ago, but now that we have two meetings in the bag for 2013, it seems like eons ago.  

After the holiday break, it was wonderful to see each other again and share our sewing and quilting adventures.   

Show and Tell always brings us visual goodies.  Here is Melanie with a couple 
of hers - a Christmas table topper, a new fabric bundle, and her Little Apples quilt, which really, is not so little.

Front

Back

Melanie ALWAYS finds adorable fabric.  

Little Apples Quilt

Stretching to show the no-so-little Little Apples Quilt

Kim showed us her creativity by using a piece of remnant fabric found on the flat fold table at A&E, bordering it, and adding some coordinating bright solids, into a modern boy quilt.  Her design echoes the lines and colors of those graphic buildings.

  

Faye brought her curvy improv pieced batik WiP.  Progress!

She also had this unfinished quilt for someone who had lost her home in Hurricane Sandy.  The original quilter spent 12 hours hand quilting 4 blocks when she realized her severe arthritis made her stop.  She then asked Faye to finish it by machine.  What to do?  What to do?  Take out the hand quilting, or, keep it and find a way to incorporate both?   

With our insight and comments, Faye decided to keep the original hand quilting.  (Yay!)  That sock monkey block is the one Faye contributed, and one of the original hand quilted blocks.

Leslie and Cindy showed off little projects that had been completed.  

Kelly had a terrific story about a family quilt that not only had her Grandma made, but it had been in the family forever, and they NEVER told her that it was hers.    

Because she had some down time, Kelly jumped in on the fun of Quiltville's Scrappy Trip Along that popped up all over modern quilting social media during Christmas and New Year's.  Addicting, is how she describes it here.

The best work of our January Show and Tell, the project we were all so excited to see, is below.  This is baby Gus.  He belongs to Melissa. 

Scenes from our Sew-Day

ECMQG QuiltCon charity quilt.  

As you can see, 2013 is off to a terrific start.  We would love to have you join us sometime.