By Erin Hawkins
Olympic Peninsula News Group
Sequim and Port Angeles quilters will have their work featured at QuiltCon 2017, an international modern quilt show that will make its East Coast debut in late February in Savannah, Ga.
Marla Varner of Sequim and Port Angeles Middle School teacher Kathy Greer each will have two quilts displayed at the show.
Greer, a member of the Bainbridge Island Modern Quilt Guild, won the Minimalist Design Category with her Bubble Gum quilt last year at QuiltCon.
“Creating every quilt is meaningful and having one accepted into QuiltCon is always an exciting surprise,” Greer said.
Varner, also a member of the Bainbridge Island Modern Quilt Guild, said she is delighted to show her quilts in Savannah this year.
“It’s my second time exhibiting quilts at QuiltCon, and I am honored to have been selected alongside some of the world’s top modern quilters. I am thrilled to have this opportunity to share my work and to contribute to the exhibition.”
Sequim High School graduate Anna Boenish will give three lectures at the show.
QuiltCon is held each year by the Modern Quilt Guild, a nonprofit organization that supports and encourages the growth and development of modern quilting.
The show will run Feb. 23-26, coming to Savannah for the first time. This year’s event will feature the best in modern quilting design and workmanship.
Varner and Greer’s quilts were among the 350 selected from a pool of more than 1,500 entries for this year’s show. Work was chosen by a jury of modern quilters.
Varner has been quilting for more than 20 years and is a member of the Bainbridge Island Modern Quilt Guild. Her modern quilts often are created using her own hand-dyed fabrics and her signature hand-quilting.
This year, Varner will exhibit her two modern quilts: “Trestle Nestle,” 56 inches by 51 inches, and “Jubilant,” 28 inches by 30 inches.
She won a Quilting Excellence Award at QuiltCon 2015 in Austin, Texas, for her quilt “Coral Reef” and after was able to start her own small business called Penny Lane Quilts. She maintains a quilt blog at https://pennylanequilts.com.
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Erin Hawkins is a reporter with the Olympic Peninsula News Group, which is composed of Sound Publishing newspapers Peninsula Daily News, Sequim Gazette and Forks Forum. Reach her at ehawkins@sequimgazette.com.
One of Marla Varner’s modern quilts that will exhibit at QuiltCon 2017 is called “Trestle Nestle.” (Marla Varner)
