Your cart
Close Alternative Icon

Quiltcon 2019 - Social Justice Quilts

I just returned from a weekend in Nashville attending QuiltCon! This annual quilt centric convention is open to the public and put on by the Modern Quilt Guild. It is a weekend full of classes, lectures, a marketplace, and many, many quilts. I've been attending QuiltCon since it started in 2013 and the quality and impact of the quilts just keeps getting better. This year there were almost 500 quilts on display - most of them are juried into several different categories such as Applique, Improv, Machine Quilting and more. There are prizes in each category as well as an overall peoples choice winner that is voted on during the weekend.

 QuiltCon 2019

One prominent theme from this year’s selection of quits was social justice - quilts that make a statement commenting on our current social and political climate including issues of Transgender rights, racism, and class issues. These quilts had a huge impact and were evident in almost every category of quilts on display. In this blog post, I wanted to highlight some of my favorites. 

Youth Quilts
The Youth quilt category is made up of quilts created by artists under the age of 18, though they can have help from a non-youth quilter. Almost every quilt in the youth category had some sort of social commentary in it, mostly relating to race and racism. They were incredible. My hope for the future of this planet has been lifted up in seeing the messages these youth have portrayed through their quilts. Quite a number of these quilts were facilitated through the Social Justice Sewing Academy based out of California. You can see more about their mission and programs here. These quilts all include their accompanying artist statement so you can hear the perspective of the quilters. 

“Rest in Power, Trayvon” by Sara Trail

Adult Quilts
There were a ton of quilts in other, non-youth categories that carried a powerful message with them as well. Again, I've chosen to let the quilter's message be made in their own words with their artist statements included. These quilts and their artist's statements speak for themselves.

Stay tuned for more quilts from QuiltCon 2019 on Friday!

Leave a comment

Recent posts