QAQ (quilts=art=quilts) is one of the top shows in the country for contemporary art quilting. It is an international quilting art show, located at the beautiful Schweinfurtz Art center in Auburn NY. It has a very competitve and prestigious reputation.

How I had the guts to enter my quilt Bouquet, I don't even recall but I did and got in.  So far,  I hadn't considered myself one of those quilters. Thank you to jurors Victoria Findlay Wolfe and Fuzzy  Mall for opening this door and letting me in. It has been an amazing experience.

I left on the morning of Halloween with an early flight to Rochester, NY. I was before 10 am in NY, rented a car and had some time to myself. The Fall colors in the Finger Lakes region were wonderful and I decided to drive around and hit a couple of quilt shops on my way.  I love this kind of exploring and I enjoyed the many cabbage farm fields that I didn't see when I was in the area during a Summer. Big surprise, I found fabric and was a little before 4 pm at the Schweinfurtz Art center in Auburn, NY.

It is probably one of the highest honors I could get for my work. Walking around here made  me realize  this even more. It is the top of the quilting art world with 73 works. Caryl Bryer Fallert-Gentry, Jane Sassaman, Irene Roderick. Quilters with a capital Q. Many had quilts accepted at major art shows before. I was a newbie (which I like because I am retired after all and all this is icing on my rather large cake).

This is an art quilt show. That means some of these works would probably not be at quilt shows. The quilt police doesn't like to see batting or big deviations from the standard quilt. Some of these will also be at QuiltCon, Houston, Quilt National etc. There is a lot of "modern" quilting, a lot of abstract quilting, just a few pictorial pieces. I think I have seen only one quilt with a  traditional block, but there is applique, collage, hand quilting and a lot of interesting piecing especially with curves and lines. Quilters represent the society. Many quilts show anger with the world, anxiety, protest and frustration. There are also many illusional quilts and quilts that represent a bond between humans and/or nature. 

The  scale of the works stood out to me. Many quilters work with really large pieces of fabric.  Sections  of 20-30" or even bigger are quite common.  These large sections are not for negative  space or background, but make an integrated part of the design. Big chunks, long shapes and not so many fabrics. For someone like me who likes detail and little pieces,  that was interesting to see. I am definitely not fitting in that categorie with my hundreds of little pieces. Aside from solids, many quilters apply different surface techniques to their fabrics,  which are often handdyed or recycled.  I am one of the few who is using commercial printed fabrics as they come. I love the fabric industry and my work reflects the years of working with many companies.  I have no desire at all to paint or  dye my own fabrics. At least not yet. I can find plenty of commercial fabric that excites me, but I realize  I see much more fabric than most. We all bring our past into our works. Trained as a lawyer I like details,  differences, choices as much as Annie Hudnut  who was a pianist and ballerina, likes her curves. There were several other lawyer-artists and we all agreed that that edication has formed our perspectives.

Some works were much bigger in real life than I expected from instagram posts , some were much smalller than I expected. Jennifer Candon's  two quilts were bigger. Stephanie Shore's quilts (I have been a fan for years) were much smaller.  Strange how that can be.  

The artist reception opened this show, that will run until Jan 3, 2027. Yes, it was special to see my own work in this beautiful venue, but the works of other quilters made it even more special. The presentation as an exhibit, as a total,  of top quilting in 2026  blew me away. The works, but also my fellow quilters! To chat with so many of them, coming from every corner of the country was making me feel very blessed. There were international quilters in the exhibition, but I  did not see any of them at the opening. 

We had a lovely dinner together and  I sat between Annie Hudnut (to me one of the top modern quilters) and Leslie Tucker Jenison, whose lines of fabric for Robert Kaufman  I have bought for years in my shop days. She was one of the first to make "art" fabric. I still carry her fabric in builders  and fat quater bundles on my collagefabric.com site because of her great color transitions. At the table also sat Vickie Wheatley who was at about the same time as I was on The Quiltshow with Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims. Well established art quilter, Lenny van Eijk, with whom I share Dutch roots, was also at our table. The table was rounded by the lovely support of 3 partners/spouses.   As you can imagine,  we had enough to chat about and I  will treasure our conversations.

We listened to a presentation  of juror Fuzzy Mall, who won Best of show last year at QAQ. There are artists and  there are ARTISTS and it was so fascinating to hear him describe his artist career and his way of working.  People can blow me away with their creative thoughts!  Someone like Fuzzy studied art in college and always had the intent to become an artist. His life choices breathe art which is so different from my personal journey in life. I don't think I would have the conviction in me in my college days to pursue art. I still don't have that conviction/ambition. No longer do I  have to pursue anything, but amazing things can happen when you do what you love.

 I felt almost overpowered by all the things I heard and saw. When back in my own studio, will I be 100% the same person?  It feels like the show is a big inspiration to make more works. What I did notice is that the best works are works from people who are authentic.  Finding your own voice  in this creative journey is what makes you stand out. When we copy others, there is a loss of uniqueness. Almost all the quilters here at QAQ 2026 have their own style and  I can recognize some quilters from  a distance by seeing their work.  Actually I think others are copying them! A consistent and unique style becomes a voice in art and that is so amazing. Of course, some works appeal more to me than others, but that is me. The artist is showing herself/himself and is very good at this! And that makes me apprexiate also those works who don't appeal to me at a first hello. Each work here deserves to be looked at much more closer.

That  happened on Sunday.  On Sunday there was a "tour with the director". This was an opportunity for every artist to talk about his/her quilt, technique, inspiration.  These talks were taped and after some editing they will be posted on social media and YouTube. This was another favorite part of the weekend. I learned so much from all these artists!   Their own talk was so much better than the  artist statement which was hanging next to every quilt. Each and every quilt became more meaningful/ better because I could understand it better with the talk of the maker. I also loved hearing the emotions in their voices. What an amazing experience!

There is one thing that I didn't like as much: I could see that my quilt had had a hard time during shipping. I know it didn't looked wrinkled at home, when I shipped it and also not at the last show where it hung. Shipping requires rolling, folding and no quilt gets better with that.  I wish I could  have pressed or steamed it before it was hung. We talked about this problem as some others felt the same. Other batting? Tighter plastic? The learning curve continues. 

I better save my name tag, because it is probably going to be my one and only time. I took a late flight back to VA. Now I am shifting gears as husband Jan and I are driving our RV to Houston where my classes begin next week!