This month, I attended QuiltCon for the very first time in Savannah, Georgia. I was so excited planning for this trip, I was afraid I set my expectations too high but I was blown away by the event. So many amazing quilts, great lectures and curated vendors.

9am: Minimalist Quilts with Season Evans

We had a lecture at 9 with Season Evans. Season's lecture was Minimalist Quilts: From Traditional to Modern. Her lecture was very direct, which I loved, and she talked about Modern Art, Amish Quilts, and Minimalist Quilts. After Season's lecture, we had a short break before our next lecture at 11, so we went to see the vendors.

10am: First stop: Cotton and Steel

This was first on my list. I had to hear about the new Cotton and Steel secret product, Cotton and Steel Fan Club. And yes we signed up, without a second thought. I even texted my husband before the floor opened to tell him I was 99% sure I was about to make a large purchase. Devon, the chief communications officer for Cotton and Steel helped us join and shared in our excitement. (I'm still excited, a week later writing this post.) I was also so thrilled to get a strawberry tote full of selvages and scraps. I had been eyeing Kim Kight's strawberries tote on Cotton and Steel's Instagram feed for months.

Ellen Baker's presentation, Beyond Patterns: Explore Your Creativity with Fabric was also amazing. Her presentation was colorful and visually inspiring. Her 8 Tips for Creative Experimentation are very actionable and she provided a lot of insight on ways to apply them.

I really enjoyed Sherri's Improvise! Setting Limits to Find the Sweet Spot of Flow. I'm not really into improv quilts, so I picked this lecture to help stretch my appreciation of improv. I liked the quilts Sherri showed, which were not wild crazy quilts, but actually had form to them and were more planned out.

10am: First stop: Cotton and Steel

I thought this year's show was amazing! "Bling" by Katherine Jones completely stole the show and was a clear winner for Best in Show. (Next week's blog post will take a deeper look into Katherine's quilt and the principles of design. Sign up for my newsletter to get a link in your inbox.)

"Autumn Hours" Daisy Aschehoug

My favorite (not including Best in Show) was "Autumn Hours" by Daisy Aschehoug (@antstosugar), member of the Baton Rouge Modern Quilt Guild. She won 3rd place in Modern Traditionalism.

"I used the traditional hourglass block to explore ideas about contrasting aspects of fall-- cool blue skies and chilly nights next to the lingering warmth of the soil and fiery orange in the turning leaves."

There was a shift in the style of Improvisation quilts, with an emphasis on planned improvisation. This year the Improvisation category really moved away from crazy randomness and into more of a design-conscious realm focusing on form and negative space, almost taking a step towards Minimalism. Minimalism and very distinctive color schemes ruled the show.
Less popular this year, Statement Quilts. I saw fewer pieced words this year, but more quilted words. I think there were less than 5 quilts with pieced words as the focus of the quilt. I did enjoy this quilt on cursive.