Best in show this year was this amazing quilt “Bling” both pieced and quilted by Katherine Jones – this piece was created by taking a digital picture of a princess cut diamond and using that to create a foundation paper pieced pattern, then pieced in a range of solids. It’s amazing! You can find Katherine on IG as @twocatquilts

Best Improv Piecing went to Kim Soper for her “Lincoln” quilt – she goes into detail on her process and inspiration on her blog. She based this quilt on an Indonesian style of pop-art called WPAP – specifically a portrait of Abraham Lincoln by  Ihsan Ekaputra This one also won Viewer’s Choice!

First place in minimalist design went to Susan Kyle – I love her story behind this piece, “Wax and Wane”. It is made from the cotton they use to pull off wax at salons!

Susan Clay won first place in the Michael Miller Luxe Challenge that many of us participated in, with her piece “Luxe Modern “.

“Ode to Yashiko” by Marilyn Farquhar won first place for piecing – if you look closely you can see the amazing geometric piecing behind what looks like an abstract, random design.

First place in Applique went to “Inside Out” by Susan Bleiweiss. This piece was made with fused raw edge applique.

Judges Choice was “Selt Portrait in T”, made by Hillary Goodwin from her old worn out t-shirts, and quilted to emphasize dimension.

This one, by Katie Larson, is so much fun! She won first place in the small quilts category.

And look at this proud Mama and her daughter, Lilyanna Kenhle , who won first place in the youth division with “Gemstones”. Start ’em young!

I loved seeing this group quilt, Organic Mid Century Mod,  in all of its completed glory. It was a progressive quilt made at MidAtlantic Mod last year right next to our table – I loved hearing all the discussions and debate as every quilter took their turn to add or modify the finished product. The progressive quilts are raffled off to one of the creators at the end of the retreat, and Laura Bennett @drlbennett of CJMQG was lucky enough to take this beauty home. She finished quilting it at the CJMQG fall retreat I attend every year – a VERY well deserved ribbon indeed!

Politically charged quilts may not appeal to everyone, but I find them fascinating and compelling when done right. “Tea and Skittles” by Thomas Knauer is such a powerful piece – the quilting is text from Trayvon Martin’s memorial service. Did you know Tom is one of our own, an Asbury Park native? He even designed a whole fabric line inspired by the city by the sea, entitled “Asbury“, a few years ago!

There were some fantastic text quilts this year – I loved these two in particular, “Cursive” by Paige Alexander and “Make More Quilts” by Cathy Fussell.

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Now we just need Deb H to give us a report from the field! Deb? Any other quilts from QuiltCon East that caught your eye? Share in the comments below!