QUILTCON 2018

So I went to Quiltcon this year.

QUILTCON is the only Modern quilt show. It’s part of the Modern Quilt guild. Which I have been a part of for several years. It’s a juried show . I am not exactly sure what they are actually judging after being at the show. There was several quilts that I feel would never make it into another type of juried show…simply for technique ect. But that is also the “charm” of the QUILTCON.

This was probably my most favorite charity quilt. All of the guilds were given a choice to make a charity quilt. We were given a color pallet. Then the challenge was to take a traditional block and make it modern. There were so many….it was quite a showing. They were all pretty amazing.

There were some AMAZING quilts that really made me think outside of the box. I love that.

But I went to the show thinking “I was going to be with my people”…because I was so looking forward to going to a completely modern show. I knew I was going to see a whole show of quilts that I have never seen before.

What I discovered is that I wasn’t with “my people”. I quickly discovered that there were so many political quilts. All one sided. Liberal.

So I think that it’s fair to say that I didn’t agree with many of them. I still took pictures of a few of them because I felt like they executed their message in a great creative way.

But what was stunning to me is that there wasn’t one conservative quilt. How is that possible with the thousands of Modern Quilt Guild ( MQG) members? I think that is the what is “juried” as far as this show, honestly.

I won’t share any of the political quilts here…because I don’t want to support that. The reason it upsets me is that all sides aren’t represented ….i think if you have one side you should have all sides. Art is art and we have the right and inspiration to share what is in our hearts..and express ourselves in any way. What I feel in not right is that a whole group of people are being shut out. I wouldn’t join a club that shuts out Jewish people or Black people..or any other segment of the population….so I don’t think I should support a group that shuts out conservatives or Christians. My own people.

So I am making a Call to all conservatives and Christians… to make religious a or political quilts to submit  to QUILTCON next year. I have never felt that need to submit a quilt to quiltcon….I didn’t feel like I needed that recognition. But now I am making 10 quilts of my own designs to submit to QUILTCON next year. They are all going to be Christian based quilts. I want to test them. I want to know if they all get rejected. If they are all rejected…then I will no longer pay my membership fees to this organization.

So to say I was “inspired” by the show is absolutely true. I just wasn’t inspired in the way I thought I would be…which is ok. unexpected inspiration is usually the best. :)

There is a lot more to say and talk about. I didn’t want to write a book here. I did talk about it some on one of my Fb live Streams. But I think we can all make an impact and make this guild more welcoming to all of us.  I am thinking my guild next year is going to be completely different…quiltcon kind of ruined it for a few of us…which is sad.

Thanks for listening. :)

Charisma