Catching Up with Peter Byrne, QuiltCon 2020 Best in Show Winner

We caught up with Peter Byrne, the QuiltCon 2020 Best in Show winner with his quilt, Starring You.

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

Peter: In 2017, I really didn’t know very much about quilt making, so I joined The Toronto Modern Quilt Guild and became a full-time student of the craft. 

As I was getting to know some of the members, I kept hearing about how amazing QuiltCon was; everyone had a common goal of having a quilt juried into the show.

When I joined The Toronto Modern Quilt Guild, at the beginning of 2017, I had never quilted a quilt and two and a half years later I made Starring You. 

For months, I had practised every aspect of making Starring You, so when I set forth to make it, I was confident with my quilting skills.

In total, it took four months to make Starring You from start to finish. It was the first quilt I intentionally made to go into a juried show. When it was juried into QuiltCon 2020, I was very proud. When it won Best in Show, my world changed.

MQG: Why did you select this color palette?

Peter: I had been working with black, grey, and white and really loved the simplicity. 

Making a black and white quilt really spoke to me. A simple design with strong contrast. Using only black and white, my goal was to make a quilt that looked like a drawing or sketch. Finishing Starring You with the heavy black lines achieved the look I set out to make.

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

Peter: I was very new to quilting when I designed and made Starring You. I practiced for months and used the quilting skills I had just learned and developed. Before starting, I had a clear vision of the design and motifs I would be using and practised every step before working on Starring You.

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

Peter: The most challenging part of making Starring You was doing the heavy black lines that highlighted and divided the various quilting motifs.

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

Peter: This was a fantasy coming true. Starring You was the first quilt I had intentionally made to go into juried shows and QuiltCon was the first show I had entered. Think about that for a moment. The first time I entered a quilt into a show, I won Best in Show. By the way, I also won Best Machine Quilting Frameless for my quilt titled Cityscape at the same show in 2020! I was at home, the phone rang and I answered. On the line was the program coordinator from QuiltCon, asking me if I would be available to come to the award ceremony. I already knew I was winning two awards. It was at this time, I suspected I was winning Best in Show. I was at the award ceremony, sitting in the front row. I had just won Best Machine Quilting Frameless for my quilt titled Cityscape. We were down to the last award and the MC started to describe the winning quilt, I knew right away I had just won Best in Show. I can honestly say, quilting dreams do come true!

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

Peter: When I joined The Toronto Modern Quilt Guild, I quickly developed two goals. One was to make show quilts and the other was to teach quilting. I was told I had a different perspective to offer. Since winning Best in Show at QuiltCon 2020, I have had well over a hundred Trunk Shows and Workshops in my schedule. I had retired a few years earlier and was looking for something new and exciting to do. I had no idea it would be quilting. I went all in, in 2020 and sold all of my power tools and purchased new sewing machines and have never looked back.

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

Peter: Starring You is presently in a show called “The Best of Quilting in Canada” being held at the New England Quilt Museum in Lowell, MA. The show is running from January 17-May 9, 2023.