February Trip Review #1: Quilt Con!

 So as noted in yesterday's post,  part of our recent trip to visit my MIL in North Carolina also included going to Quilt Con 2026 which was held in Raleigh again this year.  

My show badge and a "make and take" necklace from the Andover Fabrics booth.

The view from above the exhibit floor.  For an even better shot of it, check this out.

It was a thrill to get to go to this again!  I have to thank my MIL for that:  if she hadn't retired to NC, I might not ever have had an excuse to attend the show as it has been held in places I'd have had to fly to and plan a hotel stay.  I am considering planning a trip to next year's Atlanta show as I have friend that lives in the Atlanta suburbs.  However since she is not a quilter, it would still mean planning a hotel stay to be able to conveniently do multiple days of the show.  

And you do need multiple days if you plan to do more than just look at the quilts or visit the vendors.  Most of the classes held at the show are either half or full day which means you need additional days to walk the show or the vendor mall.  Both this year and when we attended in 2024 my MIL and I couldn't get into our preferred classes as they were already full by the time we registered.  Yet we were still able to fill the days attending the lectures.  To get an idea of the various topics we got to hear talks on, here's my list which they conveniently print on the back of your badge:

You can purchase attendence for the lectures on each day of the show as well.  They also have a print out at the show of the lectures for all the days and a daily sheet of events (lectures, vendor demonstrations and scheduled meet-ups) each day of the show.  It is a very well-run event!  

There was a lot to see including lots of quilty attendee fashion!  One I hadn't expected (or at least must have missed in the announcements leading up to the event) was that ladies from the actual Gee's Bend quilt community were at the show!

I had signed up for the lecture about them but it was a plus to also get to meet them in person and see a display of quilts made in the community.  They also had quilts of theirs for sale and two stations set up to let you learn from them how to hand quilt.

There were so many quilts displayed in the show that we didn't even get to see all of them; particularly on days when the display area was full of people.  The Modern Quilt Guild received over 2,000 entries to the show and whittled that down to a little under 500 to put on display!  

Prominently dislayed as you entered the show floor were the quilts that won the top show awards:    

Apologies for the picture quality of the quilt and of the tag.  This is the "Best in Show" winner and you can read the artist's statement about it here and see the other top category winners here.

This lovely quilt won "Viewer's Choice":

Remember, don't touch the quilts!  If you want to see the back, find a "white glove" volunteer to assist you with that!

The featured speaker this year was Hillary Goodwin and there was also a special exhibit section of her work.

Article from the 2026 Edition of Quilt Con magazine.

I liked this one of hers that speaks to the "modern quilting style" that Christa Watson talked about in her lecture and that I mentioned in my "To Do Tuesday" post yesterday.

 

 I really want to try some "graffitti" stitch techniques like this!!

Then there were the usual quilts in the "modern style" on display:

But clearly "politics" was on the mind of many makers over the last year:

I also attended the lecture of this artist:

There was also a great display of quilts made by kids 18 and younger.  If you don't think the next generation is already creating, check out this quilt by this young man of 7 (!) who was there in his Boy Scout uniform presenting the quilt with his father.....

Once again, apologies for the slightly blurry picture.

....along with this quilt made by his 5 year old brother!!

There were many, many more and we didn't even get to the section of "Small Quilts".  All of the lectures were in the ballroom upstairs on the third floor and next door to it was the display of  "Community Outreach" group quilts.

As the placard notes, these quilts had to be made medallion style and there were two color ways used.  An example of each follow:

To see more of the quilts in the "Community Outreach" exhibit, check out this video and for more from the show in general, check out this video and this article from the Quilting Daily editors. 

And of course, no show visit is complete without a visit to the vendor mall!  I didn't do a lot of shopping this time so my haul was small.

In the back left was the t-shirt, bag and show pin (seen on my lanyard in the picture at the top of the post) that I pre-ordered and picked up at the show.  The socks and the issue of the Quilt Con magazine I purchased in the "MQG Merch Store" set up on site next to the check-in area.  

The items on the lower  left were purchases: the dies and Rose City Quilts charm pack were in the Accuquilt store set up by the Loving Stitches Quilt Shop (they often partner with Accuquilt to vend at shows).  That "Music Medley" die was one I had long wanted but had been discontinued on the Accuquilt site so I thought it a real catch to find it there --- especially since it was cheaper than the prices for it I've seen on eBay!  I had also talked in yesterday's "To Do Tuesday" post about the Colonial Needle Thimble pads I picked up.  

The African print fabrics are a fat quarter bundle sold by Sew Creative Lounge whose owner gave the lecture on "The Stories That African Fabrics Tell".  We learned about the meanings behind each of the designs on those prints.  She had conveniently set up a sales table outside the lecture hall which was great because during it I was thinking that was just what I wanted to run down to the vendor mall to get!  I also bought a project bag in Latifah Safir's booth and we met her while in there!  I will also note that she was one of the award judges this year as well.

All the things on the right side were freebies handed out by vendors or were "spin the wheel" giveaways in their booths.  You saw the necklace I made in the Andover booth at the top of the post but they weren't the only ones with "make and takes" -- other vendors like Ruby Star Society and Accuquilt had them too.      

We also saw quite a few "sew-lebrities"  like Barry of Barry Quilts (who I met on line as we queued up to enter and bumped into a few times during the show),  Carolina Moore of Always Expect Moore,  Tiffany of Tiffany's Quilting Life, and Mac Cox of MA Couture Crafting (we kept seeing the back of her head as she walked past filming the show!).  While I was in two lectures that my MIL didn't attend, she saw and took pictures with Sew Becca and Di of Sister Chicks!  Someone told us they saw Misty and Natalie of Missouri Star and we think we missed them because it was while we were in one of the lectures!  

Also many designers were there in person if they had a booth or were doing demonstrations or were there with their fabric company promoting their new lines.  We saw Stacey Lee of Stacey Lee Creative in the Accuquilt booth,  Karen Miller of Redbird Quilt Co. in the Aurifil booth and Sarah of Sarah Hearts Labels had her own company booth.   

So all in all, another great aspect of our recent trip!  In my next post, I'll cover what I did during the mini quilt retreat my MIL and I had!