Quilt National ’25: The Best of Contemporary Quilts, presented by The Dairy Barn Arts Center, features 84 quilts selected by jurors Luke Haynes, Ellen Blalock, and Martha Sielman. Chosen from 659 entries submitted by 370 artists, the selected works reflect both innovation and a wide range of contemporary quiltmaking techniques.
The featured artists represent 23 countries—including Japan, Australia, Wales, Germany, France, Lithuania, Korea, Switzerland, Canada, the Netherlands, and Italy—and 27 of them are first-time Quilt National exhibitors, highlighing the show’s ongoing commitment to uplifting emerging talent.
The exhibition also includes 13 juror-selected awards and a People’s Choice Award, voted on by visitors throughout the run of the show.
Best of Show
Sponsored by MODA Fabrics + Supplies
SHIN-HEE CHIN
Viriditas (Greenness)
McPherson, Kansas
59” x 72”
Recycled blanket, cotton thread, linen thread, perle cotton, polyester thread
Random weave and stitch (artist’s own technique)
Artist’s Statement: The Latin word Viriditas, derived from fire, air, water, and earth, embodies the concept that “In the food we eat we are to find a healing ability to maintain healthy nourishment and balance.” Hildegard of Bingen, a prominent mystic and philosopher in medieval Europe, often used this Latin term, which encompasses meanings such as greenness, vitality, and abundance. It signifies the life-giving power inherent in greenery. This artwork aims to highlight the profound force of nature, especially the vitality of green life, which inherently possesses beauty. |
Emerging Artist Award
Sponsored by the Pumphrey Family
LAURIE PAQUIN
Composition 3
Lansdowne, Ontario, Canada
91.5” x 90”
Cotton fabric, batting
Artist’s Statement: Improvisational design, machine-pieced, quilted on a long-arm sewing machine This piece is the third in a series that explores line, color, shape, and form. Graphic linework and buoyant forms continue to intrigue me. |
Award of Excellence
Sponsored by Aurifil
WENDY RICHARDSON
Children of War
Brooklyn Park, Minnesota
30” x 31”
Linen Embroidery and hand quilting
Artist’s Statement:The harm to children due to war is particularly egregious. My response to the most recent wars in my lifetime—Ukraine and Gaza—is focused on the abuse of children. They are truly the innocent victims. They deserve to be honored, but how? |
Most Innovative Use of Material
Sponsored by Ardis & Robert James Foundation
JONGKYEONG LEE
Encounter of Lines and Surfaces II
Seongnam, Gyeonggi, South Korea
27” x 43”
Organza
Patchwork using a burning technique with a soldering iron
Artist’s Statement: Recently, I have been immersed in a new technique involving organza, where I use a soldering iron instead of traditional sewing methods to create patchwork. This technique involves layering organza fabric in two to four or more layers to create texture. Due to the nature of organza, the opposite side becomes visible, and both sides of the fabric are finished as reversible. Most impressively, the technique uses seam allowances of less than one millimeter, which often leaves viewers in awe of its intricacy. |
Best International Artist Award
Sponsored by Luana Rubin
ANNE SMITH
Elmore & Duke Reminiscing
Pontypridd, Wales, United Kingdom
61” x 57”
Repurposed clothes and fabrics (cotton, linen, mixed blends), string
Hand-pieced, appliquéd, hand-quilted
Artist’s Statement: Two old friends chatting and reminiscing, camouflaged within their shabby surroundings. Their only wealth is each other’s company. I used old clothes to capture the raw unvarnished textures of their life. |
SAQA Award
Sponsored by Studio Art Quilt Associates
BRENT McGEE
Apollo and Dionysus
Shelton, WA
90” x 43”
Unbleached cotton muslin, wool batting, upholstery foam
Hand-stitched, whole-cloth three-dimensional fabric sculpted, extreme trapunto, exaggerated Boutis
Artist’s Statement: Opposing forces collide in this bacchanal of sculpted muslin. Apollo is the fabric of society, straight city grids, aspirational skyscrapers reaching relentlessly to the heavens. Dionysus is the wild energy of nature, the unrestrained ooze and curve of our inescapable biologies. Hand sculpted and stitched into place, balls, bulges, tubes, and tucks emerge organically from whole-cloth muslin stuffed with wool batting. Trapunto is taken to new heights as the flat, Apollonian quilt surface can no longer contain its Dionysian swelling. |
Handwork Award
HEIDI PARKES
Nimble, Nimble
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
64” x 69”
A vintage bed covering from Japan, my dad’s shirt, silk from my grandmother, retired clothing, cotton thread, cotton batting
Hand-appliquéd, hand-embroidered, hand-quilted
Artist’s Statement: This hand-sewn diary quilt grew with me from August 2023 through February 2024, a time when I was navigating shoulder tendonitis, shifting from a home studio to a public-facing artist’s residency, launching an exciting year-long quiltmaking course, and beginning my first daily prescription. For me, a diary quilt is different from an autobiography. Textile artifacts stand in as symbols, and perspective shifts from aerial map, to tracing, and to outlining a calendar. During a time when I desired to be nimble, like my favorite animal the rabbit, I cast a spell as I stitched.
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Outstanding Machine-Pieced Quilt Award
Sponsored by the Crow Timber Frame Barn, LLC
HEATHER AKERBERG
Dialectic No. 1
Omaha, Nebraska
59” x 70”
Quilting cotton, cotton thread, wool and cotton batting
Curved pieced, inset circles, machine-quilted
Artist’s Statement: The first work in a series, this quilt is inspired by dialectical thinking, a method of reasoning that encourages people to consider that it’s possible for two contradictory ideas to both be true. Life is complex, and this series offers an opportunity to contemplate that complexity instead of yielding to the urge to oversimplify or take sides. Color interaction, transparency, and value reinforce the theme of existing on a spectrum. The light and dark orbs coexist and collide, creating a simultaneous tension and serenity. |
Hilary Fletcher “Persistence Pays” Award
HOLLY COLE
Adrift
Triangle, Virginia
69” x 45”
Upcycled old tarp, cotton organdy, ballet net, fish net, tent screening, paper, emergency blanket backing, fabric paint
Hand-drawn, hand-painted, layered fabric collage, free-motion quilted
Artist’s Statement: In these violent times, cataclysmic events generated from geopolitics, terrorism, or climate disasters can set any of us adrift from all we possess and the ways we have defined our lives. These refugees are unwilling veterans in a war for survival which inspired me to combine up-cycled army and work goods with fragile textures to honor their strength and fragility. |
Juror’s Award Selected by Martha Sielman
Sponsored by Linda Teufel
SUSAN ELSE
Something to Say
Santa Cruz, California
10” x 24”
Collaged and quilted cloth over armature, yarn
Machine-collaged, machine-quilted, machine-stitched, with hand-sewn assembly of 3-D elements
Artist’s Statement: I am a figurative sculptor working in sewn cloth. Over the past several years, I have been struck by the absolute ferocity it takes to remain engaged with the world as one ages, especially while navigating any kind of disability. This series, Still Kicking, celebrates that refusal to become quiet, immobile, and invisible. |
Juror’s Award Selected by Ellen Blalock
TANIA TANTI
Will You Love Me When I’m Blue
Altona Meadows, Victoria, Australia
37.5” x 43.5”
Cotton, fabric paint, thread
Whole-cloth painted, free-motion quilted, free-motion embroidered, hand-stitched
Artist’s Statement: Allow me the space to embrace my vulnerability. |
Juror’s Award Selected by LUKE Haynes
KEETJE ABBENHUIS
Trash in Orbit
Seattle, Washington
78” x 78”
Cotton Machine-pieced, machine-quilted
Artist’s Statement: My work is informed by a family history in ornamental glass, pop culture, and cosmic events. |
Quilt Japan Award
IRENE RODERICK
Clandestine
Austin, Texas
77” x 84”
Cotton fabric, cotton/polyester batting, polyester thread
Machine-pieced, machine-quilted on long-arm
Artist’s Statement: Clandestine is improvisational. This work is entirely intuitive and visceral. When I begin, I do not know what is going to happen but create through trial and error, literally dancing between the wall, the cutting mat, the sewing machine, and the iron. |
