A Modern Slant

Back in the Spring I treated myself to a day at the Dallas quilt show.  Last year was the first year I’d been in a long time and had such a good time that I vowed to go again this year, even though I was going by myself.  I ended up getting to meet up with KwiltyKim, which was a ton of fun to finally get to meet her in person.

We had a fabulous time and got to see some amazing things!  This year’s show had a theme of Modern quilts, which was exciting.  As you know I’ve been spending a lot of time working with more modern fabrics and patterns.  So, most of what I wanted to share with you has a focus on the modern quilts, but there were certainly a lot of more traditional quilts, and those Civil War repro fabrics that make my heart go pitter patter (like the quilt we’re standing in front of in the photo above!).  You can see more photos of the show on her blog post.

Of course the quilt that fits in the “most amazing thing ever” category is this quilt portraying the Chihuly sculpture from the Dallas Arboretum installation.  Mostly pictorial quilts don’t do it for me, but this was stunning.  And since Chihuly is a favorite – double whammy!

This was a fun quilt made with Lily Ashbury fabrics – don’t you love the negative space here?

And a closeup…

I loved the teal background in this one.  And who can resist a striped binding?!

And they even had this one displayed so that you could see the back too.  I seriously love backings like this that complement the quilt top.

There were several quilts that (to me) were more traditional patterns, but when paired with bright modern fabrics they completely bring it to a new level.  I love the fussy cut flowers in that border especially.

And if you’ve been on Instagram for any length of time you probably remember all the quilters making “x plus” quilts.  What I loved about this one is that the quilter took that single x plus block and enlarged it to make a quilt top.  What a great way to showcase fabrics you love and the block pattern.

This one used all solids and I loved the impact of the improvisational piecing.  Horizontal straight line quilting on this one too.

I do love me some Kaffe Fassett.  I seriously fell in love with this one because of the diamonds.

That brilliant blue border is killer though.  I couldn’t take my eyes off it.  Coincidentally I signed up for a Tula Pink mystery workshop on Craftsy a couple months after seeing this that turned out to be a similar diamond pattern quilt.  So fun!

This one was pieced strips that were all like 1/2″ wide.  I think the name of this quilt was Voldemort.  Appropriate, no?

Ok, this one is definitely not “modern” but I had to include it because I’ve never seen anything like it before.  This is what appears to be a lace tablecloth that has been appliqued or quilted to a whole cloth panel.  I love how it shows off the lace pattern being able to see through the base fabric through the lace.  And the quilting really showcases the lace as well.  What a fantastic way to repurpose!

A closer look.  I was really blown away by this.

Ok, back to modern.  This one was one of my favorites.  I love love love the feathers.  And then quilting it in concentric off-center circles and adding a scrappy pieced border – love!

I love the colored “shards” in the background.  They give the quilt such movement and interest in what could have been plain white triangles.  Fun pebble quilting on this one too.

I love the colors in this one.

Horizontal matchstick quilting.  Another stunner in solids.

This one was made by a friend of mine.  She claims that it’s the striped fabric she used that really makes this quilt look more complicated than it is, but I still think it’s gorgeous and has a ton of visual movement.  Plus look at that binding!

Fantastic quilting here as well.

So 1) yellow 2) hexies – seriously can’t get enough of this.

I like the kind of whirligig/pinwheel pattern these make.  And yellow binding, of course.

Of course one of the best things about the quilt show is the vendors.  I wanted to take the kit for this Steampunk quilt home with me so bad!

This same shop also had a kit for Midnight at the Oasis.

I brought a few fun things home with me, but as always the best part of this is the experience.  And of course, I came home wanting to sew ALL THE THINGS!

I’m looking forward to next Spring’s show for sure!

I am grateful for meeting up with new friends.

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