QuiltCon 2024 Recap Part 1: My Quilts

QuiltCon 2024 was fantastic! The MQG hosted the show in Raleigh - the convention center was 30 minutes drive from my home. This gave me the unique opportunity to attend the show every single day and volunteering on the two setup days and the one take down day.

This blog post is all about my show quilt and is the first in a series of four or five posts about the show.

I was honored to have 3 of my quilts juried into the show and was excited to share my quilts with family, friends and all those who attended.

Although barely visible, my quilt Mending Fences was on the main aisle and visible as you looked down on the show floor. This quilt was created as part of a guild challenge, inspiration coming from a photo of the shadow of a sand fence on the beach. This tiny quilt got quilt a bit of attention and got really positive feedback from the judges. (Originally I called the quilt Mended Fences but changed the name when I submitted to QuiltCon.)

It was quite fun to have a quilt on the main aisle!

As an aside, a fellow guild member's six year old son had a quilt in the show. I happened to bump into the family coming down the escalator and he asked if I would like to see his quilt. He grabbed my hand and we walked towards it. When his mom suggested we stop and look at one of my quilts, he commented that it was small. We then moved onto to look at his quilt. See a photo of young William and his adoring fans on his Melissa's IG. He vowed to enter a quilt into next year's show too!

I had two quilts in the Small category and they were very close to each other, both visible in one photo!

The Twist also got positive feedback from the judges. It also attracted lots of attention from fellow quilters. Everyone was curious how I created the quilt. It was very fun to come upon people puzzling over how it was constructed. Random people even stopped me on the show floor to ask and it was really fun to share the process.

My quilt Echo could be found in the Negative Space category. The quilt was a bit harder to find than my others and shared the aisle with guild challenge quilts. It received some fun attention from fellow quilters and attendees. My favorite was an elderly gentleman who spent quite a bit of time staring at the quilt and told me it was his favorite in the show. Such a honor!

Super exciting, my Echo quilt was also featured in QuiltCon magazine. The issue was available as a physical magazine at the show and is also available as a digital magazine. The magazine features about 30 quilts from the show so quite the honor for me.

I had cards and buttons made for this quilt to hand out. I came home with a few buttons because I would forget I had them!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Illusions - Pattern and Kits available!

Introducing the Illusions pattern!

Cary Quilting is my local quilt store and they invited NC modern designers to create patterns to debut at QuiltCon. It was fun to see my quilt hanging in their booth. Their shop was quite busy all the time but if you look carefully, inside the circle you can find it hanging!

Illusions is a Foundation Paper Piecing Pattern (FPP). The quilt finishes at 30" x 30" and is perfect for a wall hanging. It is a two color quilt and requires just 1 yard of each color! My quilt was made using Kona Breakers Blue and Kona Jet Black.

Cary Quilting has kits available - see the listing - and is also selling both paper versions and digital versions of the pattern.

It was a thrill to have a quilt as part of their QuiltCon booth!

I do intend to offer a digital version of the pattern in my own shop in the future but until then, if you are interested I would encourage you to support Cary Quilting so they will ask me again!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

My QuiltCon Coat - Part 1

Binding, binding, binding.....

As one does (ahem!), I decided somewhat last minute to make some quilted attire for QuiltCon. My goal was to make something to wear more like a cardigan with big pockets to hold my phone and stuff while I enjoy the show.

I chose the Hovea pattern by Megan Nielsen. (I want to make a non-quilted garment this year too and Megan has some nice patterns to choose from.) Purchased as a PDF download, you need to tape sheets of paper together, which isn't hard just tedious. This pdf was layered which so you selected which size(s) to print and only those lines are visible.  

Given I had so little time to both piece a quilt and make a coat, the idea to improv the quilt part of the design was abandoned (this idea will return!) so I used my modern pickle block from my Pickle Bird quilt. (Pickle Bird was not accepted into QuiltCon sadly.)

The sleeves and coat front were solid - this yummy Painters Palette Solids color marine. The back (above) and the pockets have the Pickle Bird block on them.

There were a few bumps along the way. The fabric took forever to arrive. I had a bit of the fabric in my stash so I pieced the blocks and then used the new fabric to build out the back. However, the shades of blue are different - not sure if I ordered the wrong color, they shipped the wrong color of the dye lot is very different but it meant I needed to remake those blocks. 

The coat is all assembled and my goal today is to get the visible binding sewn down. The interior binding on side and shoulder seams are done but the sleeve seams are looking a bit messy. The coat pieces were quilted with a 3" grid and my goal is to add hand quilting accents. I suspect the quilting on the coat will continue each evening during QuiltCon!

P.S. This is my Patchwork Chore Coat #1 and Coat #2.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Modern Potholder Quilt Blocks

Linda from Flourishing Palms as if I would like to contribute blocks for her potholder quilt. She asked for colors from a specific palette with a strip of grey running through the rectangle. The blocks are hand-quilted and then Linda will bind them and assemble them. You can read more about the group quilt on on Linda's post and see her latest collection on Instagram.

Quite the intriguing idea. I not heard about this type of quilt before (nor had Linda until recently.)

The blocks were fun to create and will be hand delivered to Linda at QuiltCon. Can't wait to see this come together!

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Local House #2 - the Cahills

Welcome to the Cahills!  Another fun make. (After my first pass, I did  slightly deconstruct the block to adjust the front porch door fabric.) 

A friend organized a fun QAL using the Local pattern by Carolyn Friedlander. Each month, we'll each make a house and read the back story about the owner. Several of us plan to add our own homes to the neighborhood. I've printed off the pattern at 50% scale. My blocks are~ 8" x 10". 

Here is my neighborhood so far - the Carlos and the Cahills.

Have a wonderful day! Patty

Cozy QAL - the Middle Layer

Isn't this a yummy pile of color? These solids are my inner later for my quilt as part of the Cozy QAL from Alison Glass. The top and bottom layer will be jersey knit in a denim blue colorway.

I spent a bit of time figuring out the best way to lay out the fabric to make maximum use of the FQ bundle I had purchased. Everything was laid out on the floor and then transferred next to the sewing machine for assembly.

Isn't that pretty? I didn't have the right amount of rectangles for a perfectly colored diagonal but I am really happy with how this looks.

Besides, you won't see it in this form anymore! It will be sandwiched between the layers of jersey knit and then color revealed via reverse applique.

While there were a number of stencils to choose from for the QAL, I decided to make my quilt about things that bring me joy. I've got these 4" stencils which should work well.

The basting has begun!

Have a wonderful day! Patty