As a dedicated modern quilt show, QuiltCon divides its contest into categories that highlight different aspects of modern design and construction, but few other shows are this specific.

Happily, more mainstream quilt shows are embracing modern quilting with a category focused on modern quilts. But these shows blend all quilts with a modern aesthetic so that a sleek minimalist design may sit next to a bold piece of improv. So, in practical terms, what does an entire Modern category look like at a mainstream quilt show that includes traditional and art quilts alongside Modern?

In September, the American Quilter’s Society hosted its first Columbus, Ohio show, and today I’m sharing what the entire category looked like.

The Modern Category

AQS has expanded its Modern category to include every show in its annual lineup. Here is the category description for the 2026 shows:

Modern: Width 40″ to 96″; Length 40″ or more. Quilts using any technique that are inspired by modern design, often using improvisational piecing or appliqué and including bold colors, high contrast, and simple shapes on neutral backgrounds. Expansive negative space may allow the quilting to take the forefront.

AQS Columbus Contest Rules, 2026

Quilt Displays

AQS shows outside Paducah often have more room to display quilts, so the pipe and drape is set up with two or more quilts along a section of the back wall, with a quilt on either side panel. The chain in front of the quilts is angled, allowing attendees to get much closer and see each piece from the front.

Quilts From the AQS Columbus 2026 Show

The non-Paducah shows display quilts within each category by the maker’s last name, without pulling the award-winning quilts to the front of the category. To match this layout, I am sharing the images in the order they were displayed at the show.

Enter Your Quilts

Are you inspired to enter a quilt? Find the rules for the 2027 shows here.

After each major show I attend, I like to choose a few quilts that didn’t receive a ribbon to share with you, and today I’m sharing a few quilts that stood out to me at the AQS show last week in Columbus, Ohio. These quilts embrace different design styles and construction techniques, so hopefully this gives you a small taste of the show’s overall aesthetic.

Lotus Leaf

By Kyoko Ochiai

What I love about the quilt:

• The scale of this quilt (I know it’s hard to tell from a photograph) is quite large, so the massive, graphic appliqués feel all-encompassing and whimsical even when paired with a subdued color scheme.
• The botanical appliqués use subtle monochromatic value shifts within a blue palette, creating a silhouette effect, particularly on the larger plants.
• Improv versions of traditional log cabin blocks, done in subtle variations of white, juxtapose traditional piecing with bold, contemporary appliqué forms.

St. Regis: Chicago River View

By Rebecca S. Dickson

What I love about the quilt:

• The quilt’s overall proportions emphasize the height of the depicted skyscrapers.
• Striped fabrics on the right side of each building enhance the image’s perspective.
• Organic fabric layering creates the sky in the background, while the manmade structures feature a clean finish.

Santa Fe Trip

By Kylie Menagh-Johnson

What I love about this quilt:

• Improvisationally pieced blocks of various sizes create a scrapbook-like effect, feeling like a collection of photographs, postcards, and mementos.
• Large-stitch and decorative hand quilting enhance the spaces created within the quilt.
• Organically shaped quilt edges mimic the land formations found in the Southwest United States.

Tangerine Tango

By Jan Frazer

I have loved this quilt since I first saw it in Paducah, but it won an award, so I didn’t include it in that highlight post. Since it didn’t win at the Columbus show, I added it to this list as a “bonus” quilt!

What I love about this quilt:

• The bold orange background is unexpected and creates a distinct mood for the piece.
• Using a solid background fabric, rather than block-based appliqué, lets the shapes dance with one another and evokes a style more commonly seen in other forms of textile art.
• The intensely dense hand quilting in the quilt’s background echoes the appliqué shapes, but creates a terrific sense of movement and flow where the echoing quilting sections meet.

The Show

I’ve shared a few pieces that stood out to me. Do any of these quilts speak to you? What do you think of the wide range of styles and techniques? If you were also at the show, do you have any favorites that you are still thinking about a week later?

I’m vending at the show, and I love seeing so many friends and enthusiastic quilters. I haven’t made it out of the booth much, but today I’m sharing a few photos, and I hope you enjoy a brief glimpse of the show.

Vendor Booth

I have a 10’ x 10’ booth, which is number 1619, located near the winners’ circle. I hope you will stop by if you attend the show!

My Quilts

I found my quilts that were juried into the contest!

Winning Modern Quilts

The Modern Category is one of my favorites, so I was excited to locate the winning quilts. In the non-Paducah shows, the category-winning quilts remain in place, so it’s fun to look for them!

Visiting the Show

If you are near the show, there is still time to plan a trip! You can find more information about the show here. I suggest downloading the show book now to help plan your trip!

One of my favorite ways to mark a design with many interacting elements is to create a pounce template specific to the design. To create a pounce, you will make a paper template of your design, punch small holes along each line, then push chalk powder through the holes onto the fabric you want to mark.

If you have ever used Full Line Stencils, you will recognize this process, but this way you can create a custom design for the space you want to work within. 

Supplies to Make and Use a Pounce Template

I learned this method of transferring a design while doing scenic painting, not in quilting, but the tools you need may already be in your sewing kit.

• Needle point tracing wheel: You may have one in your sewing kit if you have used tracing paper when marking and sewing clothing.
• Full-size version of your design, drawn or printed on paper
• A surface with a little give: My favorite surface is cork or homosote, but cardboard, foam core, or a wool pressing mat also work well.
• Very fine grit sandpaper
• Fabric-safe chalk powder: Test your chalk to make sure it comes off your fabric, and only purchase chalk intended for use on fabric. I prefer white and very light blue chalk. Other colors are more likely to stain your fabrics.
• Pounce pad: If you don’t have a pounce pad, you can create a fabric pouch to hold the chalk. You may need multiple fabric layers, and it is messier than a purpose-made pounce pad, but it is an option.

Making the Template

Hand-draw or digitally draw and print your design at full scale. If your design is large, you may need to tape multiple papers together. 

Place the paper drawing on a surface with a little give, such as the wool pressing mat I’m using below. Run the tracing wheel along each printed line. You may want to use a ruler to help keep straight lines straight.

You will have a series of small holes along each line. If you need additional holes, use a thick pin or stiletto to make them.

The back of the template now shows a mirror image of the design. You will notice paper bumps along each line on the back of the image.

Rubbing the back of the template with very fine-grit sandpaper will remove the bumps and help open the holes, making the marking process easier. This step is optional, but if you want to skip it, I suggest a test to make sure the chalk passes accurately through all the holes.

Using the Template

Position the pounce template on the section of fabric you plan to use. You may want to pin or tape the template in place, especially if the design is large.

Prep the pounce by firmly tapping it on a table. The pounce I use is a box with a pad inside. Tapping the pounce with the box lid in place greatly decreases the amount of dust released into the air. Once the pounce is ready, gently rub it across the paper template.

Remove the paper template to see the design that you have transferred to the fabric.

When to use a Pounce Template

The template shown here is for positioning appliqué components on a dark background, but my favorite use for a pounce template is marking quilting stitches. This technique is particularly useful if you want to quilt specific, detailed designs multiple times in a quilt.

I marked the primary design lines of this wholecloth mini quilt with a template, then filled in the background quilting freehand.

For me, I need to see all of my fabric options. I wouldn’t do well if my fabrics were tucked away in drawers- they would all be pulled out all the time, covering every possible flat surface, and probably across the floor, too. However, I’m fine with notions kept in drawers, and I can usually remember exactly where each item is within each drawer.

The way we work shapes our organizational style, and each person’s needs differ depending on the type of work we do. I design patterns and sell fabric in addition to creating original work for shows, so my organizational needs may differ from other quilters. However, many sewing spaces could benefit from some of my favorite fixtures!

I like a lot of IKEA organizational items, but the pieces I chose to feature in this post are special. After using each one, I went back and bought it again to use elsewhere in my sewing space.

I’ll warn you now: I took all the photos in this post this week with no special cleaning or organizing, so be prepared for the good, the bad, and the ugly!

(This is not an affiliate post. I occasionally include affiliate links in my blog posts, but I will always tell you which posts contain them.)

Billy Bookcases

I had one, then two Billy bookcases in my old sewing space, and added several more when I moved into my new studio. I am now up to ten, and would add more if I had the wall space!

These bookcases are the perfect depth for holding bolts of fabric, and only the middle shelf is fixed so that I can adjust the other shelves with minimal wasted space. I use the shorter shelves to store my backstock of patterns and workshop supplies.

You can also buy doors for the Billy bookcases, and two of my units have them. I chose all-glass doors with a solid white backing panel. These doors are on the pricier end, but I can write notes on them in wet-erase markers, which makes them a much more useful surface.

Since I have tall ceilings, I’m adding a shelf extension to each bookcase.

I don’t use all of the shelves in the units for fabric on bolts, but the extras are great for my personal fabrics.

One of the best parts of this bookcase style is how quickly they go together. I went from this stage (below) to a finished bookcase in an hour.

In recent years, the back design has changed to include pre-drilled holes and two-piece “nail” units that fit easily and align exactly where they need to go.

Alex Drawer Unit on Casters

I love furniture on wheels, especially in a studio space. This Alex drawer unit on casters has played many roles in my sewing and office spaces, and right now it holds my larger-than-average printer. This unit is made to fit under one of the standard office tables/desks IKEA carries, and I missed having all those drawers easily accessible while I’m at my computer. I decided to fix that this week by adding a new office-supply unit. 

This unit also works well under a sewing table or long arm. The drawers are a great height for rulers, notions, and thread.

Skådis Pegboard

These Skådis pegboards have lots of options for hooks, baskets, and shelves. In my old office, I had these pegboards on the wall, but in this space, I got clamp attachments so I can use them freestanding on my L-shaped desk. This arrangement also means I don’t have to look at the back of the printer.

Vattenkar Desktop Shelf

These Vattenkar desktop shelves are one of the newer items I’ve added to my space. I’ve been using one on my computer desk, and I just added them to my cutting and sewing machine tables. The shelving unit clamps to the edge of the table, so it won’t fly off if I bump it with a bolt of fabric. My favorite rotary cutter fell off the other side of the table and broke earlier this year, so I’m hoping this shelf will help prevent further accidents!

Your Studio

Do you use any of these items in your sewing space? What are your favorite organizational items?

The American Patchwork and Quilting Challenge Category

What’s the category I’m so excited about?

The Pick-A-Color Scrappy Challenge

For QuiltCon 2027, the MQG and American Patchwork & Quilting want to see your take on single-hued scrappy in modern quilts. Dig out your color wheel, pick your color, and start scrapping. These quilts must feature a minimum of 10 different fabrics, with the colors all in one area of the color wheel. The challenge is open to individuals or groups.

Category description from the QuiltCon Website

Initial Inspiration

When photographing my quilts, I always take straight-on full and detail shots, but I also like to take a few from a sharp angle. I always enjoy how dynamic this view of a quilt looks, particularly with block-based designs. Suddenly one day, I was struck with the idea that I could make modern-traditional designs with a forced perspective, so the entire quilt would have the aesthetic of that angled photograph while looking at it straight-on

Shifting Perspectives

I tested this concept on a relatively simple design for a hexagon challenge last year. Rather than piecing these designs, I’m using hand appliqué on a gradient backing that appears in narrow stripes as I turn the edges of each piece under during stitching. I used the gradient to guide the color placement of the main design components.

Quilt Block Inspiration 

For these early explorations, I kept the overall shapes within the design relatively simple. I liked the idea of incorporating curves in this piece, and I originally considered a Double Wedding Ring design variation. However, as I developed the design, it felt a bit busy for what I was trying to accomplish. 

I returned to one of my favorite reference books, The Encyclopedia of Pieced Quilt Patterns by Barbara Brackman, to find a traditional block that would work with this style of reinterpretation. I ultimately landed on this block with orange-peel-like motifs called either White Rose or Whig Rose.

Drafting the Design

To start the design, I drafted a traditional version of the quilt top in AutoCAD. The only trick in this part of the design was estimating how many repeats would work well for the quilt’s overall size. Since the gradient base fabric was key to the overall design, I knew the finished piece needed to be about the width of the fabric. I had a bit more leeway with the quilt’s height, as long as the proportions worked well.

Next, I imported a PDF version of the design into Photoshop to adjust the perspective of the design.

Switching between vector- and pixel-based programs resulted in somewhat heavier, pixelated lines. I typically re-draft the design over the reference image, but I decided to skip that step this time around. Since I’m the only person who will be working from these templates, I went ahead and printed the design first to see if I could work from this blurrier version of the image. (Spoiler alert— it was totally fine!)

I added registration lines and labels to the design to make it easier to assemble the printed templates. I’m lucky to have a printer that handles 11” x 17” paper, so the assembly goes fairly quickly. 

Moving to the Design Wall

Once I’ve assembled the full quilt template, I pin it over the base fabric, which is a fantastic purple gradient.

I cut out all of the template pieces with scissors while it is up on the design wall. Cutting pieces one by one helps me keep each piece oriented correctly with all of the surrounding pieces. For this design, I decided to eliminate the small square pieces where the orange peel shapes (almost) converge.

Fabric Selection

Most of the fabrics I used in this quilt are from my stash, but I did add several pieces of violet/purple to work with the colors of the gradient base fabric. I first placed the fabrics for what would be the background fabrics in a pieced version of the design. I wanted these fabrics to match the base fabric as much as possible without being exactly the same. I left a strip of the gradient fabric visible at the bottom of the quilt to use as a color reference.

I’m pleased with how the value in the gradient fabric enhances the forced-perspective design. Keeping the value of the background fabrics close to the base fabric creates subtle movement and a slight glow across the piece.

As I placed the fabrics, I kept my full fabric palette out on a nearby cutting table. I cut each unique piece by laying the template paper over the fabric and cutting carefully with a 28mm rotary cutter. I’ve found this style of appliqué works best if I shave off just a tiny bit of the template as I cut. Every piece in this quilt is different, so I cut them one by one to make sure I knew where each design component was placed.

The orange-peel-inspired segments are slightly lighter than the surrounding fabrics, but many of the background fabrics repeat in the orange peels in other sections of the quilt.

Every fabric in this quilt came from the violet/purple section of my fabric stash. In context with other purple fabrics, some appear very pink, while others look very grey, and some lean toward blue or even beige.

What’s Next

The design process for the quilt top is complete, so now it’s time to take it off the design wall. This is probably my least favorite part of the entire construction process. Up until this point, I stick each piece to the design wall with a straight pin. Now I pull out my favorite appliqué pins and make sure the appliqué fabrics are attached only to the base fabric.

Once it is off the wall, I baste and hand-stitch each piece in place. I can’t wait to see this piece come together!

Quilts in Progress

Quilt #1

Working Title

Butterfly Quilt

Background

I started this quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG) Pollinator Challenge issued a few Summers ago. I obviously didn’t make that deadline, but I’ve been working on the quilt off and on since then.

Potential Category

Appliqué

Production Process

All of the hand needle-turn appliqué is finished. I selected and prewashed the backing fabric. I still need to baste, quilt, and finish the edges.

Quilt #2

Working Title

Ceiling Minimalism

Background

Staring up at the ceiling of my studio in the evening, with ambient light, inspired this design.

Potential Category

Minimalism

Production Process

The quilt top is complete. I have selected and prewashed the backing fabric. The quilting is the star of the project, so it will take a decent amount of time to execute. I plan to add a facing to finish the edge.

Quilt #3

Working Title

Violet Rose

Background

Scrappy monochromatic quilts are featured in one of the special categories at QuiltCon 2027, and it worked well with a concept I wanted to explore. This appliqué quilt is a forced-perspective version of a traditional pieced quilt block called White Rose.

Potential Category

Pick-A-Color Scrappy Challenge

Production Process

This piece has the most work left. The design and fabric placement are complete. I need to take the piece off the design wall, baste the appliqué, do the needle-turn appliqué, baste and quilt the project, and finish the edge. 

Quilt #4

Working Title

View of the Sky

Background

Last year, while ice dyeing, a piece of fabric came out that looked like a view of the sky through the branches of a grove of trees. I didn’t want to cut it up, so it became a wholecloth quilt with improvisational tucks, large stitch hand quilting, and decorative hand-quilting accents.

Potential Category

Handwork

Production Process

This is the project I picked up off and on over the past year when I needed handwork on the go. It was a surprise when I finished the quilting—it totally snuck up on me! I still need to add more decorative hand stitching and finish the edges.

The Finished Quilt

I only have one finished quilt to enter so far. Stretching the Color Limits was a challenge quilt I made last year that embraced “ugly” colors. Since it is only 17″ x 12″, I will enter it in the Small Quilt Category.

Entering QuiltCon

There are more than two months left to enter QuiltCon, so there is plenty of time to finish an existing project or start something new! (I actually have one more quilt that I would love to make, but I’m prioritizing the ones I shared today.)

You may have noticed that I currently plan to enter five quilts. Each member can enter as many quilts as they like, but a maximum of four quilts can be in the show, which is definitely something to keep in mind when planning your entries.

I can’t wait to see your entries!

Currently, all three galleries in the center feature fiber-based work. Last week, I shared selections from the two smaller galleries’ exhibitions. Today, I’m excited to share a few pieces that stood out to me from the Fibers of Appalachia exhibit in the main gallery.

The Fibers of Appalachia

The Fibers of Appalachia exhibition celebrates all types of fibers made by creators living and working in the region, encompassing contemporary and historic pieces.

As a quilter, I was most drawn to the quilts on display, but the exhibition included a much wider range of fiber-based work, and I made sure to share a couple of those pieces, too.

Star Quilt

Maker Unknown

Star designs are classic for a reason, and this piece drew me in with the combination of plaid and indigo fabrics in a graphic design combined with the relatively dense arcs of hand quilting. 

Shaft Mines

By Wanda Dotson

Horizontal lines dominate this contemporary piece of improvisation with just enough vertical piecing to help move your eye around the composition. While horizontal lines are generally calming (think of a sunset over the ocean), the juxtaposition of a primarily magenta palette creates unexpected energy.

Genevieve

By Beth Houck Shutty

Vintage embroidered linens meet a contemporary design inspired by an historical era in this quilt, which embodies an intergenerational collaboration between mother and daughter.

Too Poor to Count

By Sarah Ruth Morris

Traditional blocks form the basis of each state impacted by Hurricane Helene while text and imagery in both fabric and thread tell the story of desperation and recovery.

Receptaculum X: puer universum integro Arisaema triphyllum (A Boys World Recreated Jack-in-the-Pulpit)

By Andrea Finch

A well-loved quilt forms the base of this piece, which explores the theme of transition. While the maker’s story could have been told in 2-D form, it feels appropriate to depict a plant in the configuration of a pot or vase that would typically contain it.

Common Wealth, Uncommon Layers

By John Lefelhocz

Simple, inexpensive, and unexpected materials combine to create a dynamic design that depicts small objects playing an outsized role when combined en masse.

Power Object 1

By Jasmine Best

Fiber goes beyond fabric and thread, and the exhibit includes several brooms and similar objects. I was drawn to this piece, which uses the impressive techniques of making a functional broom to create a purely decorative object infused with meaning.

See the Exhibit

If you are interested in seeing this exhibit in person, it is on view at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio through August 30, 2026.

Today, I’m sharing some highlights from the two smaller galleries, and next week we’ll look at pieces from the main show, Fibers of Appalachia.

In the front gallery, Avant Garde includes quilts from the Carrefour European Quilt Show, featuring a wide range of techniques. The smaller gallery is a solo show of Kim Eichler-Messmer’s work.

Avant Garde: Carrefour Européen Patchwork

Makers from around the world are represented in this carefully curated show of quilts made with traditional techniques and those that push the limits. I wish I could share the entire exhibit with you because each quilt showed a truly unique vision for the future of quilting. Ultimately, I decided to share five quilts that caught my attention and made me want to circle back to look at them again.

Deviance

By Betty Busby

This wholecloth quilt combines math, AI, and human artistry in a way that strikes me as the best possible way to incorporate new technologies into a traditional art form.

Monet’s Pond

By Olga Stang

The folding technique and color choices immediately evoke the feeling of Monet’s water lilies while allowing the contemporary artist’s voice to shine through.

The Third Hand

By Aeran Kim

The layers of texture pulled me into this composition. I was particularly intrigued by the rounds of thread embroidered on the surface- they remind me of the machine I learned to sew on that had bobbins which unscrewed to allow you to remove the extra bobbin thread, leaving perfect little rings of thread.

Wall of Flame

By Marijke Van Lamoen

This piece pushes the boundaries of what we traditionally consider a quilt by using safety pins as the permanent method for joining the quilt’s layers.

Zeitgeist of the Dream

By Irina Malyukova

The forced perspective of the quilt enhances the surrealist feel and makes me want to move around the piece in a futile effort to see it from the “front.”

Tender Machines and Soft Structures

This solo exhibition of work by Kim Eichler-Messler combines highly textured hand quilting, the shine of mirrors and sequins, and the hard surfaces of pottery into a cohesive body of work in which the components visually play with one another across the space through color, texture, and shape.

Tower For Passage

Subdued versions of primary colors on heavily textured linen form the backdrop for large-stitch hand quilting and the shiny surfaces of judiciously positioned mirrors and sequins, juxtaposing natural fibers against manufactured elements.

Bearing, Threshold, and Voids

These stoneware pieces draw on similar shapes and colors from the surrounding textile pieces. Both the hardness of the pottery surfaces and the softness of the textiles are enhanced by the presence of the other element.

Tender Machines for Unstable Ground

This collection of identically sized works allows each piece to stand on its own while interacting beautifully with the other canvases. The diversity of hand-stitching techniques allows the thread to create both line and shape on the fabric’s surface.

See the Exhibits

If you are interested in seeing these exhibits in person at The Dairy Barn Arts Center in Athens, Ohio, you can see Avant Garde through August 23 and the other exhibits through August 30. 

In the final quilt in the Telephone Tag Series, I have employed minimalism to (hopefully) tell a simplified compositional story with the source image as inspiration.

Over the past few weeks, I have shared the quilts I contributed to the 2026 Telephone Tag series, a collaborative challenge I participated in with my regional SAQA group. Based on the game of telephone we played as children, this version is entirely visual rather than auditory. For the first quilt, we worked from another group member’s photograph to make a mini quilt, but all subsequent quilts are inspired by the mini quilts made by the person before us in the rotation. Today I get to share the final quilt in the series!

The Inspiration Quilt

When I first saw the inspiration quilt, I was struck by the painterly effect in the background. The way the colors flowed through the composition was the most dominant aspect, and I was excited to highlight it in my reinterpretation of the image.

My Design

As I looked closely at the inspiration quilt, I noticed how the colors in the composition formed four sections of dominant colors, with a rosy-rust color at the bottom, followed by a sharper yellow-green, then a grey-violet, and finally a dusty blue. Having the colors towards the top of the quilt become cooler and more grey creates a sense of aerial perspective that helps define the composition.

To my eye, these four fields of color were the critical elements in the design, and I decided to embrace minimalism by using only these four colors to piece the quilt top.

Quilting

In a nod to the painterly effect of the inspiration quilt, I decided to use matchstick quilting, in which matching thread colors extend into neighboring fields of color, creating a subtle filter-like effect. 

To enhance the effect of the matchstick quilting, I did all the quilting with a heavy 12-weight thread on top and 50-weight in the bobbin. 

Finishing

To maintain the overall design’s simplicity, I chose a faced edge finish for the quilt.

Quilt Stats

• Title: Color Fields
• Size: 12” x 12”
• Techniques: Piecing
• Quilting: Matchstick Quilting with a Walking Foot on a BERNINA 770 QE PLUS
• Fabric: Solids from my stash
• Batting: A scrap of Hobbs 80/20 Cotton/Wool blend
• Thread: 12-weight and 50-weight Aurifil
• Edge Finish: Facing

The Telephone Tag Series

Below are all four quilts I created for my contribution to the telephone tag series. I am thrilled that I was able to create distinct quilts using techniques reflecting the source image. Techniques that I incorporated include:

• Quilt 1: Hand Appliqué
• Quilt 2: Foundation Paper Piecing and Hand Appliqué
• Quilt 3: Improvisational Piecing
• Quilt 4: Traditional piecing and Matchstick Quilting

This series will be exhibited in clusters of four quilts, each paired with the original photograph. When we know the exhibition location and schedule, I will share it in the newsletter!