What stands out to you at a quilt show? Trend spotting is one of my favorite quilt show activities, but not every quilt fits neatly into one of these categories. After a month of looking at design trends, I’m thrilled to share six quilts from QuiltCon that stood out to me all on their own.
How Did I Select the Quilts?
That’s an easy question this time- I avoided award-winning quilts, but otherwise, I chose quilts that I liked so much, I stopped to look at them multiple times.
The Quilts
Ouch, it’s pokey!
By Sarah Schreiner
What drew me in:
- Strong use of value that shifts around the focal shape
- Black outlines give the design a graphic novel-like quality.
- Cactus spines create a circular effect as they angle around the plant’s central point.
- Linear quilting within the cactus shifts in angle and density to enhance the shape’s dimensionality.
Beautiful & Perfect & White
By Carolyn Murphy
What drew me in:
- Simple shapes clearly reference the image the maker is trying to evoke.
- Carefully placed seamlines define the line from which the sheet shapes are visually suspended.
- Shadows are created with a muted color rather than a neutral one.
Cocksure and Featherheaded
By Timna Tarr
What drew me in:
- Beautiful merger of traditional and pictorial quilting
- Many medium- and high-contrast prints blend to create a textured design with a gradient background.
- Individual appliqué blocks focus on value, but come together to form a recognizable image.
- Composition gives the feeling of a painted portrait.
Wash Away the Blues
By Tania Tanti
What drew me in:
- Longer lines are often created with a series of tightly spaced perpendicular lines.
- Mixing machine quilting with several styles of hand quilting develops varied textures.
- Contrasting threads infuse the composition with color.
Second Sight
By Tara Evans
What drew me in:
- Modern wholecloth quilt
- Couching adds tremendous texture.
- Central hand-dyed motif sets the tone for the couching and quilting.
Connect #2
By Julie Reuben
What drew me in:
- Modern wholecloth quilt
- Color shifts are created entirely with thread.
- Quilting lines change color mid-line to achieve distinct color shifts.
- Hand quilting offers a distinctive texture.
Do You Want To See More Quilts?
This is the final post for QuiltCon 2026, but there are lots of places to see more quilts!
- The winning QuiltCon quilts are available for everyone to see online.
- A couple of weeks ago, I shared quilts featuring a color scheme of Black & White with Bold Colors
- Then, I shared quilts using yellow as a key color in the design and block-based quilts at the show
- Last week, I wrote about humans appearing in the quilts using various techniques..
- Search for QuiltCon on your favorite social media platform.
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