Four Unique QuiltCon Contest Submissions You’ll Want to See

The end of October brings cooler temperatures, Halloween, and, most importantly, the QuiltCon contest entry deadline.

I submitted four entries for the 2025 show, and they are some of my most diverse. Each boasts unique features, and I am curious how the jury will assess the entries. QuiltCon has one of the lowest acceptance rates of any quilt show. The 2024 show had 2,342 entries, and the jury only accepted 470 for display, meaning about 20% of submitted quilts ended up in the show.

Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) Members can enter as many quilts as they would like, but a maximum of four entries from one person can get juried into the show. While QuiltCon allows members to enter multiple quilts in a single category, I spread my 2025 entries between four categories. Let’s take a look at what I submitted this year.

100 Days of Apple Cores

Category: Modern Traditionalism

Quilts in the Modern Traditionalism category are rooted in traditional design but feature modern reinterpretations of classic motifs.

Quilt Description

How does an up-and-coming color trend meld with a traditional shape? For my 2024 100-Day Quilt, I used the Pantone Color of the Year, Peach Fuzz, in a design featuring Apple Core Blocks. I improvisationally pieced rectangles of fabric for individual blocks before using an Accuquilt to cut the final apple core shape. The piecing within each block enhances the unexpected diagonal gradient that moves across the quilt.

Nine Patch Infusion

Category: Small Quilts

This category encompasses a wide range of styles. All entries have a perimeter of 119″ or less.

Quilt Description

How do thread color and weight combine with quilting density to alter the overall impression of simple patchwork? 

This quilt consists of four nine-patch quilt blocks featuring bright colors. The intense color continues with the 50, 40, 28, and 12-weight quilting threads. While the thread color repeats throughout the quilt, the appearance alters depending on the fabric color behind it. Decorative machine stitching creates additional density within the plaid effect of the quilting. 

Oasis

Category: Appliqué

QuiltCon Categories include both technique and design-focused options. The Appliqué category features quilts primarily using hand or machine appliqué techniques.

Quilt Description

Photographs of desert plant life at a Nevada botanical garden combined with the red rock formations of Southern Utah inspired this needle turn appliqué quilt. Using AutoCAD, I translated these images into a template line drawing. As I turned the edges of each fabric section under during the stitching process, the gradient background was revealed, creating a stained glass-like effect. The gridded quilting is reminiscent of observing the outdoor world through a window screen.

Triple Silk Translucence

Category: American Patchwork and Quilting Transparency Challenge

American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine sponsors a challenge with a specific theme each year. This year focuses on transparency in all of its quilting forms.

Quilt Description

I enjoy using quilting stitches to create an illusion of transparency, but what happens to that stitching when the entire quilt is translucent? In this quilt, I used three layers of silk organza to develop a design reliant on transparency. The first two layers are simple stripes that alternate directions to create a plaid effect. The third layer of white organza creates a pastel version of the design when the quilt is reversed.

What Happens Next?

All of the quilt contest entries are now in the hands of the jury. These individuals are anonymous during the jurying process, and remain anonymous forever unless they choose to reveal their jury participation at a later date. 

If you are interested in what happens during the jury process, a few former jurors have written about their experiences:

• Steph Skardal
• Latifah Saafir
• Christa Watson

Modern Quilt Guild Members can also read more about the jurying and judging process here. (QuiltCon is run by The MQG and you must be a member to enter the show.)

Now we wait for results which are supposed to come in around December 2. Even though this feels like forever to wait, it is actually a short amount of time compared to the jurying period for many shows.