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.