How Did I Select the Quilts?

That’s an easy question this time- I avoided award-winning quilts, but otherwise, I chose quilts that I liked so much, I stopped to look at them multiple times.

The Quilts

Ouch, it’s pokey!

By Sarah Schreiner

What drew me in:

• Strong use of value that shifts around the focal shape
• Black outlines give the design a graphic novel-like quality.
• Cactus spines create a circular effect as they angle around the plant’s central point. 
• Linear quilting within the cactus shifts in angle and density to enhance the shape’s dimensionality.

Beautiful & Perfect & White

By Carolyn Murphy

What drew me in:

• Simple shapes clearly reference the image the maker is trying to evoke.
• Carefully placed seamlines define the line from which the sheet shapes are visually suspended.
• Shadows are created with a muted color rather than a neutral one.

Cocksure and Featherheaded

By Timna Tarr

What drew me in:

• Beautiful merger of traditional and pictorial quilting
• Many medium- and high-contrast prints blend to create a textured design with a gradient background.
• Individual appliqué blocks focus on value, but come together to form a recognizable image.
• Composition gives the feeling of a painted portrait.

Wash Away the Blues

By Tania Tanti

What drew me in:

• Longer lines are often created with a series of tightly spaced perpendicular lines.
• Mixing machine quilting with several styles of hand quilting develops varied textures.
• Contrasting threads infuse the composition with color.

Second Sight

By Tara Evans

What drew me in:

• Modern wholecloth quilt
• Couching adds tremendous texture.
• Central hand-dyed motif sets the tone for the couching and quilting.

Connect #2

By Julie Reuben

What drew me in:

• Modern wholecloth quilt
• Color shifts are created entirely with thread.
• Quilting lines change color mid-line to achieve distinct color shifts.
• Hand quilting offers a distinctive texture.

Do You Want To See More Quilts?

This is the final post for QuiltCon 2026, but there are lots of places to see more quilts!

• The winning QuiltCon quilts are available for everyone to see online.
• A couple of weeks ago, I shared quilts featuring a color scheme of Black & White with Bold Colors
• Then, I shared quilts using yellow as a key color in the design and block-based quilts at the show
• Last week, I wrote about humans appearing in the quilts using various techniques..
• Search for QuiltCon on your favorite social media platform.

Quilts featuring people are not usually my favorite. (Just by stating this, I have probably guaranteed that I will be making one before long!) However, the more I have looked at the quilts from QuiltCon 2026, the more I have realized what a strong and distinct trend this subject matter was at this year’s show. Moreover, most of the quilts in the contest depicting people are good. It is hard to make a quilted version of a human that actually works aesthetically, so today, I am taking this opportunity to share just a few of the best people-inspired quilts in my final post on QuiltCon trends for 2026.

How I Select Quilts to Feature

Human depictions within the quilts at QuiltCon this year ran the gamut stylistically and thematically. To show the full range of designs for this relatively narrow topic, I broke my usual rule and included quilts that won awards. A quarter of the quilts shared below are award winners, but the styles depicted in each were unique within the show, and I didn’t believe this topic was complete without their inclusion. To capture the overall depictions of humanity, the quilts included in this post have:

• Varying degrees of abstraction
• Styles that are unique to each quilt
• Themes ranging from worldwide concern to deeply personal struggles
• Use of scale to create different depictions of humanity, from close-up details (see We Are Looking Back at You) to symbolic representations of a crowd (see The Women’s March on Washington January 21, 2017)

The Quilts

Frances

By Jeanne Eileen Garcia

The Flower Lord

By Carrie Witherell

Nyota

By Brooke Veale

Faces

By Ava Gaffney, age 8, and Raewyn Gaffney, age 11

We Are Looking Back at You

By Patricia Amburgy

The Quilter

By Katherine Jones

This CRIMINAL

By Eliu Hernandez

What Women Carry

By Carrie Stout

Vanity

By Scott Culley

The Women’s March on Washington Janurary 21, 2017

By Patricia Amburgy

Hope For Ukraine

By Devida Bushrod

Note: The following quilt, which is the final quilt in this post, includes imagery and text relating to an eating disorder and strong language. If you are sensitive to either of these topics, please scroll past this quilt or back towards the top of the page.

Stretch

By Sarah Morris

Do You Want To See More Quilts?

Next week, I’ll share more quilts from QuiltCon, but until then:

• The winning QuiltCon quilts are available for everyone to see online.
• A couple of weeks ago, I shared quilts featuring a color scheme of Black & White with Bold Colors
• Then, I shared quilts using yellow as a key color in the design
• Last week I wrote about block-based quilts at the show
• If you are a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, images of the entire show are available online until the end of March. Check the weekly MQG email for details.
• Search for QuiltCon on your favorite social media platform.

For the purposes of this post, when I say block-based or block-inspired, I mean a repeated shape or motif filling most, if not all, of the surface of the quilt. This could mean repeating a single shape or using traditional or new quilt blocks in a regular layout.

How I Select the Quilts to Feature

As usual, I immediately eliminated award-winning quilts from these posts- they already get a lot of attention, including on the QuiltCon Winners website page. I like to focus on just a few of the hundreds of other quilts in the show that are also amazing, but you may have missed on social media.

I could have easily filled several posts with block-based and block-inspired quilts, so narrowing it down to just a dozen was a challenge. I decided I wanted to include quilts that:

• Incorporated a variety of shapes and blocks. Circles and curves were a particularly popular motif in the block-based quilts in this year’s show, but certainly not the only type of shape represented in this style of quilt.
• Used the scale of the design in a variety of ways. Some block-based quilts used many small repetitions, while others used fewer large-format motifs.
• Employed a variety of design styles and construction techniques. Many of this year’s block-based quilts were in the Modern Traditionalism Category, but there were still many more spread throughout the show, using a variety of piecing and appliqué techniques.

Additionally, if one maker had multiple block-based quilts that caught my eye, I selected one to highlight, hoping to capture a more complete view of the overall trend by featuring more quilters.

The Quilts

Recycled Rings

By Jen Sorenson

More Adventurous

By Sarah Campbell

Blue Lagoon

By Audrey Esarey

Peppermint Twist

By Ann Feitelson

Retro Blossoms

By Brittany Lloyd

Folded Flowers

By Holly Clarke

Bauhaus Kelp Forest

By Emily Kidney

Around the Sun

By Katie Larson

Pep

By Caroline Hadley

Double Decker Checker

By Sarah Ruiz

Half In Half Out

By Yvonne Fuchs

Echoes

By Michaela Romesburg

Do You Want To See More Quilts?

Next week, I’ll share more quilts from QuiltCon, but until then:

• The winning QuiltCon quilts are available for everyone to see online.
• A couple of weeks ago, I shared quilts featuring a color scheme of Black & White with Bold Colors
• Last week, I shared quilts using yellow as a key color in the design
• If you are a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, images of the entire show are available online until the end of March. Check the weekly MQG email for details.
• Search for QuiltCon on your favorite social media platform.

Occasionally, we see distinct color trends emerge at the show, and this year, yellow was hot. It was a dominant color in many quilts, and an essential supporting color in even more. I actually found it challenging to limit this post to just 12 quilts that use yellow as a critical design element. You may even notice that yellow appears in many of the quilts I shared last week, which feature a black-and-white color scheme with bold color pairings.

How I Select the Quilts to Feature

As usual, I immediately eliminated award-winning quilts from these posts- they already get a lot of attention, including on the QuiltCon Winners website page. I like to focus on just a few of the hundreds of other quilts in the show that are also amazing, but you may have missed on social media.

I could have easily selected a dozen quilts where yellow was the dominant color, and this is the case for many of the quilts I did select. However, I wanted to include some quilts that use yellow as an effective focal point, even if it doesn’t cover the majority of the quilt’s surface.

Additionally, I tried to select quilts using a variety of design styles and construction techniques, from precision piecing to improv, handwork, abstract compositions, and pictorials. 

If one maker had multiple yellow quilts that caught my eye, I selected one to feature, hoping to capture a more complete view of the overall trend by featuring more quilters. (There is even a youth quilt in this round-up that you won’t want to miss!)

The Quilts

Hive | Pulse

By Kathy Thorncraft

Beetlejuice

By Cindy Grisdela

Accidental Crossing

By Coleen Pokorny

Dancing in the Dark 4

By Susan Lapham

Mid Century Nights

By Cole Whitaker

Two Step

By Steph Skardal

Summertime

By Julie Reuben

Stepping Stones #6: Crop Circles

By Jan Soules

Stars: I Love You JWST

By Robert J Bosscher

Lemon & Blueberry

By Carl Brown

Hallucinations

By Lilah Briggs, age 9

Mirrored Lattice

By Betsy Vinegrad

Do You Want To See More Quilts?

Next week, I’ll share more quilts from QuiltCon, but until then:

• The winning QuiltCon quilts are available for everyone to see online.
• Last week, I shared quilts featuring a color scheme of Black & White with Bold Colors
• If you are a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, images of the entire show are available online until the end of March. Check the weekly MQG email for details.
• Search for QuiltCon on your favorite social media platform.

Today, I am sharing the first in a series of posts on trending design elements at QuiltCon 2026, focusing on one of the strongest trends: mixing black and white with bold colors. In 2022, I shared a post about neutral quilts trending at the show, including many designs featuring black and white with limited or no additional colors. This year, there were a few terrific black-and-white designs, but most incorporated many different colors, and those are what I’m showing you below.

How I Choose Which Quilts to Share

I do a series of posts following every QuiltCon I attend, looking at trends and key quilts from the show. Every show has some quilts, usually the award-winning pieces that get a lot of attention online, but there are literally hundreds of quilts that don’t win awards, and we all should have a chance to see them and think about how they fit into the landscape of modern quilting.

Selecting Quilts For “Trending” Posts

This is the first in a series of posts that I will share with trends I noticed during the show. Here is how I select the quilts to share:

At the Show:

• Walk the show floor relatively quickly to get an overview of the show and start identifying trends.
• Move through each section more carefully, actually looking for quilts that fit into what I saw as a trend. Sometimes there are a lot more or fewer quilts that fit into what I thought was a trend, and I may amend my list based on this walk-through.
• Take photographs of quilts, including the full quilt, one or more detail images, and the information tag for the quilt.

After the Show:

• I sort the photos and select the quilts that fit into each subject area I want to write about.
• Next, I eliminate quilts that won awards or received significant social media attention. Ideally, at least some of the quilts in this post are quilts you haven’t seen before, unless you were at the show.
• Whenever applicable, I try to select quilts that embrace a variety of techniques or styles that align with the overarching trend. For instance, today’s post on quilts in black and white with bold color includes everything from structured, block-based quilts to improvisational quilts to representational pieces.

QuiltCon Went Viral in 2026

Upon returning home, I was delighted to learn that QuiltCon had gone viral on social media, and people who had never heard of quilting, at least the modern form, were drawn into the artform. This attention from quilters and non-quilters alike was primarily due to the resistance quilts, which focused on cultural, political, and personal issues expressed through textile art. Here are just a few posts sharing some of these quilts: 

(Many of these links include topics and language that may make some people uncomfortable. If you are easily offended, please skip these links and continue reading about the design trends I noticed at QuiltCon this year.)

Quilts Mixing Black and White with Bold Colors

Pairing multiple bold colors with black and white (or dark grey and extremely pale reads-as-white pastels) was one of the strongest trends at QuiltCon this year, and the color theme ran through most categories and embraced a wide range of techniques. There were so many quilts using this general color scheme that I had trouble narrowing it down to just a dozen.

As you look through the following quilts, notice how we first see quilts using color in one area and black and white in another. Next, the colors begin to mix into the black-and-white elements in a block-based way. Then the blocks move into improvisational piecing, and we end up looking at quilts embracing abstract representation.

Chroma

By Corinne Sovey

Three

By Elizabeth Ray

Hue’s to Say

By Erin Kroeker

Big Slice

By Tara Faughnan

It Started With Circles

By Ann Marston

ItsyBitsy

By Susan Lapham

Memphis Madness (Who Threw the Christmas Tree Down the Stairs?)

Group Quilt by Ellyn Zinsmeister

Jazz Quilting

By Hannah Parks

Way Out

By Lenny VanEijk

Swan Song

By Annie Hudnut

Visitor

By Sharon Carrier

Lighting the Way

By Robert Lowe

Do You Want To See More Quilts?

Next week, I’ll share another trend I noticed at QuiltCon, but until then:

• The winning QuiltCon quilts are available for everyone to see online.
• If you are a member of the Modern Quilt Guild, images of the entire show are available online until the end of March. Check the weekly MQG email for details.
• Search for QuiltCon on your favorite social media platform.

QuiltCon has an entirely different panel of judges each year, so comment quality and even award decisions can vary wildly from year to year. Having a clear, consistent set of judging criteria can help, and in recent years, QuiltCon has been open about its criteria, even providing this list before the show.

In a highly competitive juried show, every quilt you see is already a winner just to be displayed. This year, there were 2,041 entries, and only 470 quilts (23%) were accepted into the show. Keeping that in mind, would you like to see the winning quilts? 

How are Quilts Judged?

Each show can determine how the quilts in its show are selected and judged. The following judging criteria are quoted directly from the QuiltCon Awards, Categories, and Judging Criteria page.

Judging Criteria

Each category is evaluated using the following criteria:

Design

• Elements of the modern aesthetic
• Visual impact
• Use of balance
• Use of color
• Use of contrast/value
• Fabric choices
• Innovation/Creativity

Workmanship

• Overall construction
• Piecing
• Binding or edge finishing

Quilting

• Execution
• Thread choice
• Complements the piecing/appliqué design

Additionally, some categories have criteria specific to them that judges look for. Those are listed below for each category. This year, I had a quilt in the Minimalism Category, but none of the other areas had specific criteria.

Appliqué

• Innovation/creativity
• Execution

Handwork

• Innovation/creativity
• Execution

Improvisation

• Innovation/creativity
• Execution

Minimalist Design

• Principles of minimalism

Modern Traditionalism

• Innovation and reinterpretation

Use of Negative Space

• Innovation/creativity

Mocha Mousse Mountain

Size: 20” x 20”

Note: This quilt sold at QuiltCon 2026

Category: Small Quilts

Quilts must have a total perimeter of 119” or smaller. The quilt can be any shape.

Why I Selected This Category:

This category was easy- outside of specialty categories (challenges, group quilts, etc), size dictates if a quilt needs to be in the small quilt category.

Quilt Description:

At a scenic overlook in Eastern Utah, you can see where the desert’s red rock begins to merge with the Rocky Mountains. This abstract mini quilt incorporates the 2025 Pantone Color of the Year, Mocha Mousse, with vibrant colors to evoke the hues of the desert formations.

Utah Overlook

Size: 50” x 68”

Category: Minimalism

Quilts must demonstrate simplification of content and form for maximum visual impact.

Why I Selected This Category:

This quilt is constructed from two fabrics and features straight-line quilting. These simple components lend themselves to a minimalist design.

Quilt Description:

When you look closely at the red rock formations rising from the Utah desert, you notice dozens of colors infused into the landscape. In this abstract interpretation, a scenic overlook thread imbues color into a vast field of brown fabric.

My Thoughts On the Judging Comments:

I’m thrilled that the judges liked the fabric choices. I have made many plaid quilts using this technique, but this is the first time I have used a print for one of the fabrics. 

I’m not surprised that they commented on the not-quite-flat edges. I ended the quilt blocking process a few hours earlier than usual this time, and it must not have been completely dry, even though it was dry to the touch, which caused the quilt to distort slightly as the drying process finished.

Where the Wild Quilts Are

Size: 65” x 79”

Category: Piecing

Quilts must be machine pieced and reflect a strong or innovative use of piecing.

Why I Selected This Category:

I flipped the design process upside down with this quilt: quilting and binding the components first, then piecing them together as the final step.

Quilt Description

When driving through New England, I loved seeing the dome-shaped individual trees interlocking along the hillsides, resembling a wild version of a clamshell quilt. Eighteen whole-cloth mini quilts are joined into a single quilt using a potholder quilt technique, where each individual component is quilted and bound as its own entity before being combined into a larger quilt.

My Thoughts On the Judging Comments:

The judges seemed to get what I was going for by using quilting to create texture and pattern. However, I’m very disappointed that the judges didn’t understand what I was going for with this category placement. I thought piecing a quilt after quilting and binding was innovative in relation to how quilts are typically constructed, but it sounds like this group of judges didn’t recognize it as pieced at all. 

Would You Like to See More?

If you would like to see more QuiltCon judging examples, check out these posts:

Contest Quilts

Most of the quilts at the show are juried into the contest and judged prior to the show.

Top Award Winners

Visiting My Quilts

Finding quilts, whether your own or a friends is always fun! Here are my quilts along with some of their textile neighbors.

Special Exhibits

The Quilts of Hillary Goodwin

Freedom Quilting Bee Legacy

Coming Next!

Watch for posts in the coming weeks where I share my favorite quilts and trends I noticed at the show!

Many people bring small items to swap with the other quilters at the show. In recent years, stickers have been the most common item to exchange, but buttons (the most popular item before stickers took over), badge ribbons, keychains, and friendship bracelets have also shown up. This annual tradition is a fun way to collect little pieces of art that you can infuse into your daily life once you return home, and it gives you an excuse to talk to new people and maybe make some new friends.

Quilters who have a piece in the show often have custom stickers made of their quilts, and this year I chose two of my three quilts to hand out as stickers. I was particularly excited to get die-cut stickers this year to depict my quilt with irregularly shaped edges. I’ll be giving these stickers out to anyone who wants one until they run out, so if you run into me, please ask!

Each year, the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) hosts an official mini quilt swap. I participate occasionally, but this year I didn’t want to commit to a significant project. Instead, I am making a few micro-mini quilts on tiny canvases to share during the week. Watch my Instagram feed next week to see how you can win one of these fun mini quilts!

Each micro-mini quilt measures just three inches square.

The first micro-mini quilt is inspired by my quilt, Mocha Mousse Mountain, which is in the Small Quilts Category. The thin stripes are 1/8” wide, just like on its larger counterpart.

The original quilt is stitched in the ditch with monofilament, but since quilting isn’t the star of this piece, I decided to skip this step in the micro-mini version. To give it a bit of softness, I used Lite Steam-A-Seam 2 to adhere a scrap of batting to the canvas. 

Each piece is cut 1/2” larger in each direction to account for the seam allowance when adding the fabric for the edge wrap. These tiny canvases show every minor imperfection, so I stitched the edge piece in a continuous strip around the edge, clipping the seam allowance of the strip at each corner to allow it to pivot. This technique just leaves one corner to worry about turning under the ends.

I cut narrow strips of Steam-A-Seam and attached them to the mini canvas frame.

As I turn back each edge, I peel the protective paper off the adhesive and stick the fabric to it. This is repositionable until you press it with steam, so you can keep making adjustments until you are happy with how the edges look.

To finish the back, I added a piece of fabric backed with Steam-A-Seam.

The second piece is based on Utah Overlook, my quilt in the Minimalism category.

While the first micro-mini had no quilting, this micro-mini is a wholecloth piece entirely reliant on the quilting to create the design. I used all 12-weight Aurifil in the top of the machine to create the diagonal plaid motif.

For the next piece, I upcycled a scrap quilt sandwich that I used to test quilting tension on the Utah Overlook quilt. I then experimented with adding diagonal quilting stitches spaced 1/16” apart.

For the final piece (at least for now), I took inspiration from the color series I did a few years ago and worked with a mostly green palette to create improvisational trapezoid-like shapes.

I’ll have these, and maybe a few more, with me at QuiltCon, and I’ll be giving them out during the four days of the show. Follow me on Instagram to find out how you can win one to take home during the show!

Fabric orders have been coming in for a few weeks, and this photo was taken after the most recent delivery. More than 200 bolts have come in since the beginning of the year to put together fabric kits for the block of the month. I use my favorite solids, Painter’s Palette Solids from Paintbrush Studios.

For kits including the full amount of fabric at one time, I cut twelve kits at a time. If I cut more than that, there is no place to keep everything organized.

Once all of the colors for a dozen kits are cut, I label and stack the fabrics. These bundles get split between four clear plastic bags to protect the fabric during shipping.

After cutting the largest pieces of fabric, any remaining fabric on the bolts is used to cut monthly fabric bundles that require smaller cuts. Scraps at least a few inches wide that are still left go into scrap grab bags that I sell at quilt shows.

The empty bolts have been consistently stacking up.

I quickly learned that I get the most items shipped when I do a large batch of the same thing. Here, I am packing monthly kits. In the background, you can see boxes that include ruler purchases, and in the front, you can see the envelopes that hold purchases of fabric and patterns only.

Thank you to everyone who joined the block-of-the-month!

If you are heading to a show next month or at any point this year, there are some things you can do now to prepare and have the best possible experience once you’re at the venue. 

Beyond Class Supplies: 5 Important Things to bring to QuiltCon

This article focuses on QuiltCon, but most of it applies to any quilt show, so you can use most of the information to prepare. 

One thing I mention in this article that is very specific to QuiltCon is the exchange and sharing of small personal items such as buttons and stickers. The current trend is stickers with a photograph of one of your quilts or a fun saying. 

Here’s a preview of my stickers for this year. I chose two of my quilts from the show to feature. I’m particularly excited about the die-cut sticker to go with my irregularly shaped quilt.

Sew on the Go: Packing a Sewing Kit

If you are taking a workshop at a quilt show, a basic sewing kit is often on the supply list. We all have our favorite supplies, but it’s easy to overlook key ones when packing up. In this article, I go over the essential elements you should include in your kit. I refer back to it when I’m packing up for a workshop, sew day, or retreat.

3 Steps for Quilt Show Snapshots

Once you are at the quilt show, you will probably want to capture photos of some of your favorite quilts. This short article covers the three minimum snapshots you should take of each quilt to help you remember what you like about the piece and to find the maker online to see more of their work.

Creating Preset Hashtags on an iPhone

Do you plan to share your quilt show experience on social media? Hashtags aren’t as necessary as they once were, but if you want to add some of the same text to each posting, such as a sentence or phrase about the show and location, you can set up a keyboard shortcut to make posting your photos even more efficient.

Bonus

Are you inspired to enter your quilts in a show? Check out these articles to plan for next year!