Catching Up with Emilie Trahan, QuiltCon 2021 Best in Show Winner

We caught up with Emilie Trahan, the QuiltCon 2021 Best in Show winner with her quilt, Blooming.

MQG: Can you tell us about the inspiration for your Best in Show quilt?

Emilie: I was inspired initially by curves. By the time the improvisation piecing progressed, it organically grew as a flower and I went the full botanical route. I was pregnant with my first child while designing and piecing the quilt top and it clearly impacted my process. I wanted the composition to feel like a burst of life.

MQG: Why did you select this color palette?

Emilie: Blue and pink are one of my favorite color combinations, and my goal was to explore these colors in a range of values to create depth in the quilt.

MQG: Can you share more about the quilting on this piece?

Emilie: The quilting was done on a domestic machine with free-motion quilting. It proved to be a laborious and long process. Some of the quilting was achieved with a newborn baby on me in a baby carrier.

MQG: What was the most challenging part of making the quilt?

Emilie: The quilting was maybe the most challenging. I was still very inexperienced with quilting, and for some reason I went with a very detailed design. I had also just become a new mom and discovering that free time was now a foreign concept.

MQG: Thinking back, tell us about your initial reaction to finding out that your quilt won Best in Show at QuiltCon.

Emilie: Shock. Complete shock. Still in shock to this day. I was still in the beginning of my quilting journey and was submitting a quilt for the first time to QuiltCon. I remembered when I received an email telling me I had won a prize I was scared to reply, because I was sure it was some sort of phishing scam! So to learn I had won Best in Show was an unreal moment for me.

MQG: Did winning this award change your quilting path at all?

Emilie: It gave me confidence in my own creative voice. Even though I still have to learn a lot from a technical point of view, I can embrace my creativity further.

MQG: Where in the world is your Best in Show quilt today?

Emilie: In my sewing room in Joliette, Québec, Canada.