One of the most inspirational parts of QuiltCon was seeing the creativity and intricacy of the quilting. I have been doing longarm for two years and have been slowly branching out and trying new things. The beautiful quilts of QuiltCon definitely inspired some new thinking for me. Here are some of my favorites from a quilting perspective.  

 This quilt is simply beautiful. “Windy” by Emily Parson (on Instagram @emilyquilts) simulates blowing leaves on a crisp October day. The appliqué leaves really jumped off the blue and turquoise background but the quilting really brought this quilt to life.  

 The long strokes of wind with tight stippling in between really helped tell the story of this quilt. I like that this was quilted with purpose as opposed to a random design.  

 This quilt is called “Young Prince (Charming)” and brings to life the sheer volume of Prince’s musical output over his career. It was made by Stacie Dolan (@njstacie).  

 I loved her quilting the song names into the quilt. It is unbelievable how neat a job she did! Jen has something planned that will tell a story in the quilting and I can’t wait to see her idea come to life!

 This quilt by the Aberquerque MQG/Renee Hoffman (@quiltsnfeathers) was amazingly intricate and is a great example of the quilting elevating the quilt from beautiful to stupendous. 

  Look closely at the quilting. You can clearly make out the sun, swirls, definition of the mountain, and hot air balloons. There are apparently ten tiny snails in the quilting but I couldn’t find them all! 

 This is from a guild quilt and unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of which guild. That said, I love the simplicity of the quilting and what a good job they did with the straight lines.  

 “Value does the work” by Susan Hilsenbeck is more about the color story, but for me I loved the way each component of each block had quilting relevant to the shape. Very nicely done.  

 “Vortex Resux” by Jackie Venedetti (@tinwoman48) is awesome and along the lines of the type of quilt that really appeals to me. The circular quilting is so crisp and clean, and SO MUCH harder to do than it looks!  

 Unfortunately I didn’t get a photo of the placard for this quilt which is quite pretty alone, but spectacular when you study the quilting.  

 The swirls, circles and waves really brought this quilt to life for me. The patience to do quilting this intricate is admirable!

All of the quilts were amazing in their own way, but these are some of the quilting specimens that most inspired me. 

Tomorrow, a few of my favorite guild quilts from QuiltCon 2016.