Quilt Journalist Tells All 
A Newsletter from Meg Cox                                  February, 2013
 
 


Stashfest: 
April 6 & 7
La Connor Museum  



This is a photo of the mansion that houses the LaConner Quilt & Textile Museum in La Conner, Washington. This quaint town is an easy drive from either Seattle or Vancouver, so it's a great place to stop if you're in the area. There are always terrific exhibits, quilt workshops and other activities, and annual town festivities like the spring tulip show.

Every year, the museum has a cool fundraiser called Stashfest where you can come and buy loads of amazing artisinal fabric and embellishments, plus books.

Click on the photo above for details.  


 






  Owlettes by Yolanda Fundora
 

Visit our sponsor, www.urban-amish.com. to buy this pattern. Fabrics used in the pattern all available at urban-amish.com








 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


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Who is Meg Cox?  


meg
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 Journalist 

 

 Author

 

 Lecturer/Teacher

 

 Traditions Expert

 

 President,
 Quilt Alliance

 






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 600 pages, $18.95

 

 

 

 

 300 Traditions, $16
 
 
 
 
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February Giveaway 

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Once again, I'm happy to be giving away a $50 gift certificate to Superior Threads. You can use it on the company's aptly named terrific threads, or for the fabric they also sell. 

Remember: you must be signed up as a regular subscriber to this newsletter to win anything! I will draw a winner on the last day of February.


The winner of last month's gift certificate to the Missouri Star Quilt Company, which came with the debut issue of Quilting Quickly magazine, was Debbie Davis. The Barbara Brackman layer cake of fabric was won by Jean Etheridge. Thanks, Moda! 


 


Hire Meg to Lecture 

My lecture at QuiltCon was called "400 Years of Quilts at the Click of a Mouse," and it might be something your group or guild would enjoy. Not to put anyone down, but I was gratified by the people who told me afterward that some of the big names at QuiltCon weren't terrific speakers, but that my presentation stood out both for the quality and practicality of the information and my chatty delivery.

Lots of quilters and quilt-lovers don't realize that there are vast virtual quilt museums that would provide enough inspiration for a lifetime. I talk about these resources and how to navigate them. I also explore issues of copyright, so quilters know which designs are protected, and which are in the public domain.


index quilt


Like this one that is documented on the Quilt Index, and owned by the Mountain Heritage Center in North Carolina. As it turns out, this pattern is in the public domain. Quilt history can be fun!!! Try me. And click on the quilt above to go explore the Index. 

To learn more about my lectures and workshops, send me an email at [email protected]. This is only one of the lectures I do, and I am always happy to tailor a class or talk for a given group.








Dear Friends--
    
         I just got back Sunday from 3 full days at QuiltCon in Austin, Texas, and I'm eager to share my experience. I was there representing the nonprofit Quilt Alliance, I delivered a lecture, and I was doing some reporting on this hot new show. 
        Not surprisingly, this was a much smaller show than the big AQS and Quilts Inc. quilt extravaganzas, but maybe it was that more intimate scale that helped to make it so fun. I shared a room with good friends while there, and loved running into so many quilt world big shots who were checking QuiltCon out for themselves. 
       Alas, I was so busy at the show, I never got a chance to check out the vibrant nightlife in Austin.  Just one of many reasons why I am eager to return.
        In this issue, I'll share highlights from QuiltCon and some newsy tidbits. Please continue to ask me any questions you have about people, events and trends in quilting: I'm getting a lot of queries, so I have started a feature called ASK MEG. As usual, I've got a really tempting giveaway for my subscribers. I hope that if you enjoy Quilt Journalist Tells All, you will forward it to friends, and mention it on social media.       
 
QuiltCon: A New Kind of Quilt Show
   

quiltcon touch         
For those who want the scoop on QuiltCon, the inaugural show by and for the Modern Quilt Guild, I have two words: strollers and tattoos.  
        Although QuiltCon, which ended Sunday in Austin, Texas, boasted the usual staples of quilts on view, workshops, vendors, lectures and bad convention food, it had a totally different vibe than most shows. Part of this was due to the aesthetic sensibility of the Mod movement, featuring lots of geometric quilts with bright colors against solid white or pale gray backgrounds. But the nature of the crowd was perhaps even more striking: babies and strollers filled the aisles, and there were diapers being changed in the ladies rooms.  
       
        The massive wave of tweets and Facebook posts emanating from the Austin Convention Center called attention not only to the stunning quilts, but also jubilation at being in a city renowned for its tattoo parlors. Quilters were posting photos of tattoos featuring scissors or needles. While grabbing a quick lunch over the weekend, I watched as the Modern Quilt Guild's treasurer Amy Newbold (who goes by "Sukie"), showed friends the Hello Kitty tat on her back. 
       

       While the strollers and tattoos stood out, the overall demographic of those attending was quite diverse age-wise, including a decent number of white and gray-haired ladies, and a striking number of mother-daugther combos. Several vendors remarked that, on the whole, QuiltCon made them revise upward their estimate of the average age of the modern quilter. 
       Clearly, what drew the crowds was the fresh, playful atmosphere that has marked this movement, and curiosity as to whether these up-and-comers could pull off something this big.  Although there were glitches here and there, including an awards ceremony that was a bit haphazard and flat, the verdict of those who attended was that this show was a winner.
 


VFW wins
Victoria Findlay Wolfe, my friend and fellow board member at the nonprofit Quilt Alliance, won Best in Show. She did a fresh riff on the traditional double wedding ring design, and used Jay McCarroll's very contemporary fabrics. The amazing quilting was done by Lisa Sipes, and the white parts that just look blinding in the photo are crammed with texture. (This image came from the Blooming Poppies blog.)

       I think a question many have about the Modern Quilt Guild style is whether it's too rigid and limited, and whether that will keep the movement from growing and developing. The selection of member quilts chosen for the show answered that question for me: while there were a certain number of cheerful, bright, simple quilts that seemed stereotypical of the movement, even interchangeable, there were many more that were surprising, thoughtful, innovative and worthy of close study. Like Victoria's masterful design above.    


quiltcon vendors                
Vendors did a lot to boost the fun factor at the show. The Kaufman booth above had a table with take-away projects, the Moda booth gave quilters fun options for goofy photos they could immediately post online, and Andover was giving away charm packs of fabrics from some of its top designers.                  
        And there were plenty of celebrity sightings at QuiltCon. Mod icons like Weeks Ringle, Amy Butler and Denyse Schmidt lectured and taught and prowled the show: below, Denyse signs books in the Rowan/Westminster booth. Her keynote lecture on Saturday was full of personal photos and career reflections. (Photo below is from the Fat Quarter Shop blog.)



denyse


Yeah, I know. You want to see more quilts. To immerse yourself in the quilt show aspect of QuiltCon, especially to see the prize winners, check out these three blogs.

Fresh Lemons blog

She Can Quilt blog

Christa Quilts! blog

For a further sense of QuiltCon, go over to the Craftsy website, where you can watch videos of some of the lectures

quiltcon   

     Photo op at the Michael Miller booth. Here I am with Kathy Miller, one of the owners of the company. This was just opposite the Quilt Alliance booth, where I spent a lot of time, and it was constantly full of quilters striking poses with their posses. This was indicative of the general spirit that pervaded this first QuiltCon!

      Alissa Haight Carlton, co-founder of the Modern Quilt Guild, says the current plan is for QuiltCon to happen every other year. This will give the guild plenty of time to iron out some procedures that didn't go so smoothly, like shipping vendors' supplies home. But next year, the guild is planning to run five regional retreats for Mod members. I promise to report details as they emerge.  

      Meanwhile, I am writing a more formal magazine piece about QuiltCon. If you attended and would like to share your impressions, positive and not, shoot me an email at [email protected], with the subject line QuiltCon review.  
 

In this spot, I will attempt to answer some of the questions sent to me by readers. Recently I got an email from a subscriber wondering what happened with the new publication Quilty from Mary Fons, who hosts an online TV show of the same name. 

Here is a photo of the latest issue, and the audience is growing quickly. Mary Fons was all over QuiltCon, giving talks and demos, and hanging out with her mother Marianne. Already the magazine has gone from quarterly to bi-monthly, and recently began offering subscriptions. Click on the cover below to find out more



In other magazine news, Generation Q just announced they are offering subscriptions. Go here for more on that. 

A Powerful Quilt to Leave You With 
         
bang  

Most of the quilts were beautiful, but a few of the QuiltCon submissions went far beyond strong design. This quilt really grabbed me, a work called "Bang You're Dead" by Jackie Gering, co-author of the excellent book Quilting Modern: Techniques and Projects for Improvisational Quilts. This quilt was inspired, if that is the proper word, by the horrible gun violence killing so many innocents in Chicago, where Jackie's husband works in the public school system. Sometimes the kids are absent because they are dead.
 
Jackie explains the making of this quilt more powerfully than I ever could: here is a link to a post on her Tall Prairie Studios blog.

Quilt on! See you back here again in March.
love, Meg

Need to reach me? [email protected]