A Quiltropolitan Hits the Con
QuiltCon, like Comic-Con, is an in-person meetup that brings enthusiasts together in real time. This year, QuiltCon (for quilting enthusiasts, natch) is in Phoenix.
When I was a young quilter (and a young mother), I knew my people were gathering in large numbers around the country, but I didn’t have the means to travel to Arlington, VA, for the Continental Quilting Congress or to Lawrence, KS, for the Kansas Quilt Symposium, both in 1978.
The first-ever QuiltCon, a production of the Modern Quilt Guild (MQG), was in 2013, in Austin, TX. It was fantastic, and I was there.
The MQG developed out of an online community of quilters making and sharing images of quilts that were different from the traditional ones that are my bread and butter, also different from the studio art quilts that art collectors collect. These (youngish) quilters connected with each other visually through cyberspace nationwide (worldwide, even). The founding Modern Quilt Guild formed in Los Angeles in 2009. A desire to meet in person resulted in QuiltCon. The meetup became an annual event that moves around the country.
Because I’d missed the early gatherings in the revival of American quiltmaking my generation made happen, the minute I heard about QuiltCon 2013, I bought a plane ticket.
Best in Show that year was Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s “Double Edged Love,” a modern variation on one of the most traditional patterns in the American patchwork lexicon, Double Wedding Ring.
Quilts exhibited at QuiltCon—winners and non-winners alike—often spark controversy. Last year’s Best of Show, “What Will We Use As Weapons: A List of School Supplies,” by North Carolina quilter Ginny Robinson, made a statement about school shootings.
I heard one attendee say the the workmanship should have been better—for a Best in Show. Another person didn’t like the disturbing subject matter. “I want to escape from the ills of the world when I come to a quilt show.” I personally found the quilt powerful and beautiful. I like to see people in my industry flexing the idea of what a quilt can be.
A quilt displayed at QuiltCon 2023 in Atlanta has sparked recent controversy.
Shaw is a member of the nonprofit Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA). Her quilt, “Your Mother. Your Daughter. Your Sister. Your Grandmother. You.” is among 39 works selected for the association’s 2023-2026 touring exhibition, “Color in Context: Red.”
Shaw says she started “Your Mother” in spring 2022, after the leak of the draft of the U.S. Supreme Court decision to overturn Roe v. Wade. Shaw writes on her website, “I felt the need to work through my anger and frustration knowing that this fundamental human right to essential health care was soon to be lost for millions of women.”
News broke earlier this month that organizers of a series of five regional quilters’ events informed SAQA they would be removing Shaw’s and another piece from the exhibit before the group of quilts travels to their shows.
The event organizers’ reason for rejecting the two pieces was that they “could be considered controversial.”
SAQA’s response was to cancel the inclusion of all 39 works from the upcoming shows. The next thing that happened is that the International Quilt Museum in Lincoln, NE, purchased Shaw’s quilt for its permanent collection.
I’m looking forward to my four days in Phoenix, to a break from our current super cold Iowa winter, to hanging with my quilty besties (including my daughter Mary Fons), shopping the vendors, seeing the quilts, and of course thinking about them.
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I still am pretty shocked that AQS has made no public statements about it, but I also should probably not be shocked.
Hopefully I will see you around at QC!
That is shocking, that a quilt about women's health would be removed because of possible controversy. How far backward must we go?