Taking a Closer Look: 5 Stunning Quilts from QuiltCon 2023

March 3, 2023

If QuiltCon is any indication, 2023 will have heaps of fabulous quilts appearing in shows. I wish I could share every quilt in each show I attend, but since that isn’t practical, I pull five of my favorites (shown in no particular order) to include in a round up blog post. The selection was particularly difficult this year, and many of my favorites are wildly different from each other. I intentionally did not include award winners in this post because you can see the winning quilts here.

Watermelon Eyelashes by Jo Avery

What I like about it:
  • The use of multiple pinks in the background rather than a solid field of color
  • Graphic black and white dominate the focal motif
  • Mixing machine and hand quilting

Quilter’s Energy by Lauren Klementz-Harte

What I like about it:
  • The abstract graphic motif is arranged off center
  • Nearly complementary colors combined with variation in quilting density to make the focal motif pop forward.
  • A fantastic range in quilting stitch variety

I Know a Shortcut by Maggie Schreiter

What I like about it:
  • The quilt tells a story before you even look at the artist’s statement.
  • A commercial print is cut improvisationally to become a small, but focal element of the quilt and the story.
  • Hand-quilting stitches guide the viewer around the quilt.

Memento Mori by Emily Watts

What I like about it:
  • Bold prints combine seamlessly with smaller prints, solids, and some selvages.
  • Graphic outlines shift between black and white depending on the color of the primary fabric.
  • A black and white stripe binding encourages the viewer’s eye to move back into the quilt design.

Full Circle by Audrey Esarey, Bob Bosscher, Carson Converse, and Jen Broemel

What I like about it:
  • The aesthetic style of each artist effortlessly shines through while combining seamlessly into a group quilt.
  • Hand-dyed fabrics pair with dominant quilting motifs to provide subtle color shifts.
  • A dominant circular motif merges with strong vertical and horizontal lines to move the viewer’s eye around the quilt design.

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5 Comments

  • Reply
    Fran Sakelarides
    March 3, 2023 at 7:45 am

    Very interesting a beautiful selection. I enjoyed seeing these. Thank you.

  • Reply
    Virginia
    March 3, 2023 at 10:14 am

    I was there at QuiltCon and these quilts are even better when seen in person! Amazing!!

  • Reply
    Joan
    March 3, 2023 at 2:32 pm

    Gob-smacked! I have seen pictures from Quilt Con but haven’t been to one in years and it’s amazing that there is such a variation of design, texture, awesomeness! I saw your quilt posted on a blog “views from Quiltcom” A-MA-ZING!!!!!!! Thanks!

  • Reply
    Judy
    March 4, 2023 at 12:18 am

    A fellow guild member and friend made one of those (Lauren). She is so talented!

  • Reply
    lindamay
    March 4, 2023 at 7:20 pm

    Thanks so much for your insightful comments on these quilts from QuiltCon.
    This is a much more interesting way to view selected quilts from this show.
    I hope that others, who have attended and took really good pictures and have interesting critiques of their selected quilts will do the same with some of the other quilts.

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