My Quilts That Didn't Make the Cut - #QuiltConRejects

The Quilt Con acceptance and non-acceptance emails have gone out from the Modern Quilt Guild. None of my quilts that I submitted made it in. Let me say here before anything else that I am not at all upset about this. Granted, yes, it did cost me about $40 to enter them so that part is a bit annoying but I am not upset that they didn't make the cut. There were 1800 entries and obviously not every quilt can be accepted.

The quilts go through a jury process where each juror is basically voting on your quilt on a computer based on two jpeg images of it. The jurors don't know how the other jurors are voting. In the end it's the ones with the most votes who make it in (or at least that is my understanding of it... feel free to correct me in the comments if I am wrong.)

I have seen some of the quilts that did get in and some of them I love and some of them I really don't like at all but that is the nature of all art. What is very appealing to one person can be almost revolting to another.

As an aside, and also raising eyebrows with me (to put it politely), I observe that some of the same people keep getting in and some of the same designs, just different colours and interpretations of the same idea, keep getting in too. Do they want to keep seeing the same thing every year? Should we all just copy the winning quilts from the previous year's show? Sorry... just my own little editorial paragraph here as is my prerogative on my own blog. I will be giving entering again a sober second thought.

Mine were just not the look they were going for I guess but I love my quilts and am happy to hang them in my home.

These are my Quilts:

"Cinnamon Bear at Night" by Daydreams of Quilts for the MQG EZ Quilting Triangle Challenge.

Closer shot of bear's head.

The bear quilt was made as part of the EZ Quilting Triangle challenge. We were sent one of the two EZ Quilting triangles. I wanted to get going quicker so I ordered both triangles from the link the Modern Quilt Guild sent out in the challenge email.

I cut all my triangle shapes out of fabrics from my Carolyn Friedlander stash. The triangles are two and a half inches tall (two inches finished) so to make cutting a bit easier I cut 2 1/2 inch strips and then cut my triangles out of them. I laid out all my triangles in rows and pieced them together. The rows alternate between the thinner and wider triangles. I pieced all the rows together and cut out my bear shape from the resulting piece of patchwork fabric. Piecing a large enough piece of patchwork for my bear took eight hours. I worked on it for a whole day.

After all that patchwork I let the project sit for a few weeks. Then I appliqued the bear to the black Kona background with a blanket stitch on my machine and traced the triangle templates to make trees in the background which I free motion quilted. I then washed the quilt to remove the marks I made for quilting. I don't know why this quilt didn't make the cut. (I would be nice to have some notes from the jury.) Maybe the applique aspect wasn't modern enough? I will try it in other shows though. I am really proud of this quilt.

"One Minute After Midnight Jan 1st" by Daydreams of Quilts in the MQG Michael Miller Glitz fabric challenge.

Close-up of pieced confetti, 3D streamers and quilted streamers.

Close up of streamers and rainbow binding.

My Michael Miller Glitz Fabric Challenge quilt depicts the famous ball in New York's Times Square one minute after midnight. The ball has dropped (it's at the bottom of the quilt) and confetti and streamers are flying through the air. Some streamers and confetti are already piling up on the ground (at the bottom).

Fabric challenges are exactly that, a challenge, because you are using fabrics you probably wouldn't have chosen yourself. I don't think I would ever buy these metallic glitzy fabrics on my own. The black background fabric I used is called "Confetti Dot" so just in the name confetti it sparked me thinking about New Year's Eve.

I thought this quilt might have a chance because I was innovative in how I made my 3D streamers. I used a rainbow of Michael Miller solids to create the confetti and streamers and I improv pieced the confetti in the background. I used many different Aurifil threads for the quilted streamers. I also used curved piecing to create the famous ball. In the end though I think this design is probably too busy for the MQG.

I had no New Year's Eve quilt before now and you can bet this fun and bright quilt will be hanging this New Year's to celebrate the start of 2016! :)

"Falling Feather" quilt by Daydreams of Quilts as part of my Ghost Quilting tutorial at Sew Mama Sew.

Close up of ghost feather shapes and pieced feather.

You get three entries for your $30 entry fee ($40 Canadian) and so I entered my Falling Feather quilt that I designed and created as part of my Ghost Quilting tutorial for Sew Mama Sew. I really love this quilt and how it makes use of negative space. I will absolutely enter it in other shows. :)

Hope you enjoyed my trunk show of "#QuiltConRejects" Check out the other quilts that didn't make it using that hashtag on Instagram. And check out the beautiful quilts that did make it using hashtag #QuiltCon2016 and form your own opinion of what is art to you and what is... not to your liking.