QuiltCon Charity Quilts Part 1

Posted on March 2, 2015 by Plaid Portico

Well, I am back from QuiltCon with enough shots of quilts to last for weeks, and weeks it will take to process them and load them up. So hang on for a fun and inspiring ride. QuiltCon was great–REALLY enjoyed it personally and thought it was very well done and well organized. The excitement was palpable. This IS a movement.

If you don’t know what QuiltCon is, this was the second conference put on by the national Modern Quilt Guild, which included workshops, lectures, a huge exhibition and events, all for the modern quilter. The first two, this year and 2013, years ago were in Austin, Texas. Next year it will be in Pasadena, California, and 2017 will be in Savannah, Georgia.

Normally I curate exhibitions and only take photos of the quilts that really speak to me. In this case I took photos of all the quilts, partly because the majority of them I did like, and partly because I really think the modern quilt movement needs to be documented.

The first thing we all saw were the QuiltCon Charity quilts which were lining the ballrooms that were the site of all the keynotes and lectures throughout the conference. The charity quilt challenge required “Modern Quilt Guilds to work collaboratively to create quilts using a pre-determined color palette and alternate grid design work.” The quilts were twin size and were sewn entirely by each guild from design through finish quilting, and will be donated by each guild to a children’s shelter in their area. The challenge was sponsored and fabric provided by Cherrywood, Pink Castle Fabrics, Rock Paper Scissors, Sew Modern and The Intrepid Thread.

The quilts were hanging uncredited which I do think is in the spirit of a charity challenge, but for this venue I am glad to credit the guild who created them. So if anyone contacts me or comments with the guild info, I would be glad to add the credit information. Inquiring minds might want to know! And please forgive some of the photos. It was hard to get an unobstructed view of some quilts to take a whole quilt shot and some photos turn out better than others. But rest assured all the quilts could be viewed quite well in person!

Over the next 4-6 weeks I will be posting all the rest of the quilts in the exhibition by category, so stay tuned!

QuiltCon charity quilt

QuiltCon charity quilt by Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild. To be donated to the annual fundraising for SAVE, a local animal shelter.

QuiltCon charity quilt

“Silly Goose, Catch Me if You Can” a QuiltCon charity quilt and collaborative effort by the Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild. Will be donated to a children’s charity to be auctioned off to raise the most money possible for the charity.

QuiltCon charity quilt

QuiltCon charity quilt by the South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild in California.

QuiltCon charity quilt

QuiltCon charity quilt by The Lake Superior Modern Quilt Guild in Duluth, Minnesota. Bridge motif inspired by Duluth’s iconic Aerial Lift Bridge, and is also a replica of the guild’s logo designed by their president Deb Westerberg.

QuiltCon charity quilt by The Lake Superior Modern Quilt Guild

QuiltCon charity quilt

QuiltCon charity quilt by the Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild

QuiltCon charity quilt

22 thoughts on “QuiltCon Charity Quilts Part 1”

L on March 31, 2015 at 7:39 AM said:

The seventh and eighth pictures down (counting the three links that are not working properly for me) are by the Central Jersey Modern Quilt Guild. To answer the question that has been raised about future uses: we will be donating it to SAVE, a local animal shelter, for their annual fundraising auction.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on April 8, 2015 at 4:06 PM said:
  
  Thank you so much for the information on your guild’s beautiful quilt, and the alert on the images that aren’t showing up!! Will add your info and fix pronto.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Pingback: QuiltCon Aftermath | The Snarky Quilter
Tami on March 9, 2015 at 11:41 PM said:

Hi Carol, I forgot to mention that South Bay Area MQG meets in Santa Cruz, CA and that Silicon Valley MQG meets in Milpitas, CA. 🙂

LikeLike

Reply ↓
Tami on March 9, 2015 at 12:43 AM said:

What gorgeous photos Carol! I belong to two guilds that made two of the charity quilts shown here. The 12th quilt, the one that came after the arrows quilt, was made by the South Bay Area Modern Quilt Guild. The 21st quilt, the one with the big patchwork circles on the wasabi green background, was made by the Silicon Valley Modern Quilt Guild. Thank you so much for sharing the pictures with us.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on March 9, 2015 at 8:29 PM said:
  
  Thanks so much for the credits Tami! I love both those guilds!!
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Sue Staum on March 5, 2015 at 8:19 PM said:

Thank you so much, Carol, for the wonderful photos of the charity quilts. The Lake Superior MQG from Duluth, Minnesota made the one with the patchwork “bridge” and fluttering of triangles angling off to the upper left. It has the soft gray voile background and beautiful wavy line quilting representing the motion of the waves on Lake Superior. The bridge motif was inspired by Duluth’s well-loved, iconic Aerial Lift bridge and is a replica of our guild’s logo which was designed by our president, Deb Westerberg. Our back also held a wonderful surprise- improv liberated pinwheel blocks of “made-fabric” pieces created by our guild members reminiscent of sailboats on our lake.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on March 6, 2015 at 8:41 AM said:
  
  Thanks so much for the info Sue! And I’ve actually been to Duluth! I lived in Minneapolis for 3 years in the 80’s.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
The Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild on March 3, 2015 at 8:27 PM said:

Thanks for posting the pics of all the Charity Quilt Challenge photos from each guild. They are stunning. We have some awesomely creative people in our local guilds.

The 6th quilt (not photo) was a collaborative effort of The Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild. We call it “Silly Goose, Catch me if you can”. We plan to donate it a children’t charity, (yet to be determined), to auction off to raise the most money possible for that charity.

Robin McCallister
President, Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild
Jacksonville, Florida

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on March 3, 2015 at 8:31 PM said:
  
  Thank you so much for the backstory!! I will edit the photo to add this information. It’s a beautiful quilt!
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
  - The Jacksonville Modern Quilt Guild on March 4, 2015 at 3:19 PM said:
    
    Hi Carol:
    
    Another aspect of modern quilting is the intricacy or style of the quilt back. Unfortunately at QuiltCon, we couldn’t see the backs of these marvelous quilts. You can check out our whole story and our fabulous improvisational back in our January blog post at: jaxmodernquiltguild.wordpress.com
    
    If I may weigh in on the perceived “over quilting” discussion. One may expect the quilts to be stiff based on a visual; however, we’ve done many densely quilted charity quilts (usually with straight line quilting) and they are amazingly soft and comfortable and not stiff at all.
    
    Lastly, if quilts are going to be donated to charity; children’s hospitals or shelters, we need to keep in mind that the quilt will be regularly and repeatedly washed; therefore, dense quilting should be use and in some cases required by the organization.
    
    Yvonne Wecker
    JAX MQG
    
    LikeLike
  - Carol Van Zandt on March 5, 2015 at 10:19 AM said:
    
    Oh Yvonne, I LOVE quilt backs! Thank you for weighing in on the quilting discussion! I think I will officially too now. From my point of view I look at things aesthetically and practically. Aesthetically if the quilting and the quilt top work well, I don’t care if it’s really complex or really simple quilting. Practically, depending on the piecing and material in a quilt top, it needs to be quilted enough to keep it sturdy. When I think of something being quilted too much, it would only be for that particular quilt top. I happen to love matchstick quilting, which is about as dense as you can get. Thank you for sharing your experience with the softness of dense quilted quilts.
    
    LikeLike
Pingback: Quiltcon Charity Quilts – Part 1 | See How We Sew
Quilt Musings on March 2, 2015 at 2:34 PM said:

The quilts are really beautiful and I am glad you have shared them all. I am particularly drawn to the first one. It would be interesting if there is a follow up by the Modern Quilt Guild to show what has been done with the quilts by the charities that receive them. I can imagine them both displayed and auctioned off to raise the profile of the organizations.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on March 2, 2015 at 6:31 PM said:
  
  You are right, it would be interesting! I imagine each guild will have some sort of to do and a different story about their quilt and it’s destination.
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  
  Reply ↓
Janet Monahan on March 2, 2015 at 10:21 AM said:

These are wonderful, Carol! I am looking forward to seeing more as you post them. Thanks for documenting and sharing.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on March 2, 2015 at 6:30 PM said:
  
  Thanks Janet! So nice to see you online. So much fun meeting you at The Sewing Summit.
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Ann Haley on March 2, 2015 at 9:22 AM said:

Carol, Your photography is wonderful. Thanks for including photos that show the quilting on each of these wonderful quilts.

BTW, they don’t look stiff at all to me, but I understand Melanie’s point about how heavily stitches modern quilts can be. I think they should be used as wall hangings in the children’s shelters (which can be very sterile and austere in their decor).

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on March 2, 2015 at 6:26 PM said:
  
  Ann, well the close-ups also show the true color better so it helps when I adjust the full shot! It would be interesting to find out that they do with them in the shelters. I volunteer at a transition home for women and there are a couple quilts that are up on the wall. I think it is recognized as a wonderful hand made gift and shared that way. The lucky person that actually gets one for their bed though,can you imagine?
  
  LikeLike
  
  Reply ↓
Melanie McNeil on March 2, 2015 at 8:56 AM said:

You said this: “The quilts are twin size and were sewn entirely by each guild from design through finish quilting and will be donated by each guild to a children’s shelter in their area.” I expect the shelters will need to auction or otherwise sell the quilts to get the good out of them. With so much quilting, they look very stiff and not very useful as comfort quilts. It’s an interesting turn on the notion of functionality on which modern quilting was built.

LikeLike

Reply ↓
- Carol Van Zandt on March 2, 2015 at 6:24 PM said:
  
  Melanie, I think it’s really interesting to discuss these things. I heard many comments about some quilts being “over-quilted”, and that certainly is a trend to do very elaborate and detailed quilting, though it is just one direction and one that I find also pervades traditional quilting–hey it could be that the capability of the machines are taking us there! In the end some people like a lot some people like a little. It certainly is part of the artistry and a huge design element by itself. Often at quilt shows many quilts are ones that will always do better on a wall than a bed. Except a quilt as a bedspread could be stiff, and yet also still provide the comfort of weight and beauty. It’s an interesting discussion!
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  
  Reply ↓
  - Melanie McNeil on March 2, 2015 at 7:18 PM said:
    
    To be fair, I think quilts at “traditional” shows like AQS are overquilted, too. 🙂
    
    LikeLike