One of my favorite things about QuiltCon, the annual juried quilt show and conference sponsored by the Modern Quilt Guild, is chatting with quilters in person and getting to see what people are making.
This year Jason and I vended at the show with a Whole Circle Studio booth filled with quilts (both big and mini), patterns, kits, and a tiny miniature version of my quilt studio.
The best part of the experience wasn’t the booth itself, it was the quilters who stopped by to share what they’re working on.
This was my eighth time attending QuiltCon, and over the years I’ve experienced the show in lots of different ways. I’ve volunteered, taken classes, attended lectures, given demos, and taught classes. This year was my second time vending, which gives the whole experience a completely different perspective.
After spending several days talking with quilters, seeing projects made from our patterns, and hosting the quilting community in our booth, a few highlights really stand out.
Let’s take a look behind the scenes into QuiltCon 2026!
How much QuiltCon stuff can fit in one pickup truck?
The show really begins long before the doors open. It starts months earlier, planning what the booth will look like, how much inventory we should order and prep, what we need to build (or alter) for the booth, and of course all of the logistics. Before a show like this, my living room, dining room, and other nooks and crannies of the house become “set up” space for booth fixtures so I can visualize and finalize the booth. Then all of those spaces become the “holding space” for everything that needs to be brought to the show. Here are just a few photos of what got loaded into the truck:
The day before we headed down to Raleigh was packing day for the truck with everything we needed for our booth: quilts, displays, flooring, inventory, tools, signage, and the lots small details that make a space feel welcoming.
Building our QuiltCon booth in a Day
Arriving at the Raleigh Convention Center, the first task was was getting everything out of the truck, that was parked on the loading dock, and to our booth. We had 30 minutes to unload the truck, which meant moving quickly and making a lot of trips with hand trucks full of boxes and booth pieces.
Our space started out as nothing more than pipe and drape and a concrete floor.
If you watch the time-lapse video I took, you’ll see the transformation start with the flooring and slowly build from there: quilts going up, displays getting arranged, and boxes of patterns and kits finally finding their place. Over the course of the day, that empty booth space slowly turned into our little corner of the show.
And a big shout-out to our friend and fellow modern quilter Rebecca M., who helped Jason and me with the setup. By the end of the day we were tired, but very happy, to be standing in front of a finished booth.
A Tour Inside the Booth
Once everything was unpacked and in place, our booth slowly started to feel like a little quilt gallery inside QuiltCon.
The booth walls were covered with quilts made from Whole Circle Studio patterns, and we also had quilt ladders (built by Jason) displaying even more quilts.
Throughout the show I loved watching people pause, step closer, and start tracing the shapes with their eyes as they tried to figure out how the blocks were constructed. Spoiler alert: every quilt hanging on the walls and quilt ladders was made entirely with foundation paper piecing.
That moment of curiosity, when someone looks closely and starts mentally taking the quilt apart block by block, is one of my favorite things to watch.
Our Miniature Quilt Studio (Version 2.0)
Jason and I also brought version 2.0 of our miniature quilt studio display.
If you’ve been following along for a while, you might remember the original miniature studio we created. It’s a detailed 1:12 scale version of my quilt studio, complete with tiny quilts, tools, fabrics, and furniture.
For this year’s booth we updated the display with a few new details and brought it along as part of the booth experience. It turned out to be a booth feature delightful to lots of attendees.
People would walk by, suddenly stop, and lean in close to see all the little details. There were miniature Whole Circle Studio quilts hanging on the walls and lots of miniature details. All the things that make a quilt studio feel like a creative space, just much, much smaller.
We also placed 1:12 scale miniatures throughout the booth. Tiny beds, couches, and tables were styled with miniature quilts, little representations of the designs you can make with Whole Circle Studio patterns.
I wish we could bring every full-sized quilt to the show, but our 10′ x 20′ booth only had so much space. Bringing the miniatures was a fun alternative and they sparked a lot of conversations with visitors.
The Heart of QuiltCon: The Quilters
The real highlight of QuiltCon wasn’t the booth or the products. It was the quilters who stopped by!
Throughout the show, friends of Whole Circle Studio stopped by to say hello and share what they’ve been making with our patterns. It was also wonderful meeting new quilters for the first time and introducing them to our resources, patterns, and projects.
Some quilters brought finished quilts to show in person.
Some pulled out their phones to share photos of projects in progress.
Others talked about fabric choices they were experimenting with or blocks they were working through.
Those moments are incredibly special to me.
Patterns always start as ideas in my studio: sketches on paper, fabric pulls on the design wall, and lots of time spent figuring out how shapes will come together. But the patterns truly come to life when other quilters start making them their own. Seeing the colors people choose, the fabric combinations they experiment with, and the stories behind the quilts they’re making is one of the most rewarding parts of being a designer. It’s something that never gets old.
Chasing a blizzard home
When the show wrapped up, Jason and I packed everything back into the truck and started the long drive home the next morning. We knew we were driving just behind a major winter storm. The plan was to drive as far north as we could until it was no longer safe. It took a while before the trees and the road turned white. We were able to make it home in one very long day (and night). My father-in-law had dug our driveway out enough for us to pull in at 9pm and we were greeted to 18″ of snow.
Thanks for checking out our QuiltCon booth!
If you stopped by our booth at QuiltCon, THANK YOU! It meant so much to meet so many of you in person and hear about what you’re working on.
And if you weren’t able to make it this year, you can still explore many of the patterns, kits, and projects we brought to the show in the Whole Circle Studio online shop. I’ve restocked several favorites from the booth, along with a few new kits that made their debut in Raleigh.
QuiltCon always reminds me how creative and generous the quilting community is.
Next week I’ll also be sharing some of my favorite quilts from the show. I didn’t get a chance to see the entire show since I was in our booth the entire QuiltCon, but early Sunday morning, before the show floor opened, I was able to take a quick stroll and take photos of the quilts that immediately stopped me in my tracks.
It was a great quilt show and I can’t wait to share the highlights. Stay tuned for more next week!
