Fabrics for Your QuiltCon 2026 Challenges (Windham Artisan Cotton & Community Outreach Challenges)

Spring time brings blossoms and warmer weather, but it also brings QuiltCon news! Over the last two weeks, the Modern Quilt Guild (the MQG), has been announcing the challenges for QuiltCon 2026. The event will take place in Raleigh, NC on February 19-22, 2026 at the Raleigh Convention Centre featuring keynote speaker Hillary Goodwin (you can view her work here). 

Some of the most interesting exhibits at the show are the challenge exhibits - that is, quilts that were made in response to specific criteria set by event sponsors or the MQG itself, so we're helping you by providing handy quilt kits and easy-to-use fabric links to get you started. Read on to find out more!

QuiltCon 2026 Windham Artisan Cotton Challenge

Windham Fabrics has led a challenge for several years featuring their Artisan Cottons, a beautiful collection of shot cottons. In Windham's words, "Artisan Cotton is a stunning cross-weave fabric, available in rich jewel tones and versatile neutrals. With 38 new additions, you now have 90 vibrant colors to choose from--perfect for bringing your creative vision to life!"

We have loved seeing the entries for this challenge at past QuiltCons, and we think 2026 will present another innovative gallery of modern makes. Hillary Goodwin chose the following six fabrics from the Artisan Cotton collection for the challenge:

• 55 Taupe/Lt. Gray
• 100 Dark Coral/White
• 29 Yellow/Copper
• 10 Green/Blue
• 23 Blue/White
• 27 Black/Copper

You can read all the rules and guidelines for entering the challenge here. Submissions open September 1, 2025, and close October 31, 2025.

Windham Artisan Cotton Challenge Kits at Fabric Spark

We're thrilled to be offering quilt kits for the challenge this year. You can pre-order half yard bundles here. 

If you order multiple bundles, we will cut continuous yardage of each colour. For example, if you order two half yard bundles, we will send you a full yard of each colour. 

We are anticipating that the bundles will ship by the end of June 2025. 

Community Outreach Colour Palettes in Andover Century Solids

Each year the MQG sets a theme and palette for the community outreach challenge.  This year the theme is a medallion-styled quilt and there are two palette's available to choose from:

Enter this challenge as an MQG Guild or as a collective of individual MQG members. All the rules and guidelines are available here. The entry system will be open October 15 at 12:00 a.m. EDT to December 15, 2025, or until 80 submissions are reached, whichever comes first. 

Community Outreach Challenge Kits at Fabric Spark

We've done some of the leg work for you and have put together a quick shopping list of comparable colours for both palettes in Andover Century Solids. 

You can find our best matches for Palette #1 here and Palette #2 here (we are actively replenishing anything that is 'sold out'.).

Connect with Other Fabric Spark Individual MQG Members

If you're an individual MQG member who would like to take the lead on a community outreach quilt for this challenge, let us know and we can help connect you to other Fabric Spark customers who are individual MQG members. (Please note, we're happy to facilitate the networking, but will not be leading the project.) Email us at create@fabricsparkteam.com to say you're interested.