I entered three of my art quilts in a local small town show. There were 200 quilts and I did not expect to win, but the judge's comments were very critical of my binding. Very little was even said about the quilts themselves. I know it is a small town and maybe more traditional but it has really hurt my self confidence in my quilting. Anyone else had this experience.

I've never entered anything before but if all they could find to complain about was your binding then I'd say you did a great job with the quilting or they surely would have complained about that too! Don't let them make you feel bad. BTW, how about showing us pictures???

Suzy

no, i've never entered anything. part of the entering process is accepting the judges comments as feedback. work on the binding and your quilts will do better the next time. and it is true about the locale as you mentioned. maybe find a different venue and try again.

Well if that is one of your quilts that is your avitar then they probably wanted to run you off because your ARE SO TALENTED!
I don't know about quilt shows but I was going to show a dog once years ago, I didn't fit in because I did not travel in their circle so I kind was bummed out.
However hang in there!
Blessings!

Don't let it upset you. You said yourself that it's a small town. Maybe small town politics had some say in who won. Happens here ALL the time.
Mimi Dietrich has a great book on bindings called "Happy Endings". It really helped me improve.

I have just started to quilt, so can't say it has happened to me.
I have no plans to enter any quilting contests, due to the fact I would feel very badly too if someone criticized my work. (give me suggestions to make it better? sure, but don't criticize it)

My son and I both had a similar experience at our local county fair a number of years ago. His art work (which had been considered of high enough quality to be put on display at the art institute) did not even get an honorable mention. And a cross-stitch piece I had designed as well as stitched was put in with all the miscellaneous stitchery and also got only a participant ribbon. Needless to say we decided to not enter anything after that.

You mentioned that what you entered were art quilts. It may be that the judges didn't quite know how to 'take' them. That seemed to be the problem with my son's art work...it wasn't a vase of flowers or an old barn with a windmill.

I'm always nervous when entering a show because I know the possibility of the critical words that might come my way. Going in I just put my big girl britches on and take the comments as "constructive" and try to learn as much as possible from the experience. For me, its just part of the process of being "judged", it comes with the territory. Thats just how it is for me and how I've learned to deal with it.

I have heard from several sources that for some reason judges always look at binding. They look at the stitching, how even the width is, how the miters are done, if the miters are stitched and if the batting fills the entire binding with no voids. I was told that often the piecing, quilting and appliqué on a quilt are all outstanding, but the binding is what separates the winners from the others. I would take the info as constructive criticism and go from there. If you do a search on this board about quilt judging, they all mention binding as being very important.

I have never entered one but hte local guild talks all the time about the judges marking off points if their binding does not have batting in it. Sounds like the judges loved your quilts but maybe wanted batting in the binding. We all like recognition for those we deem experts. I'm not but I still thin k you probably did an amazing job.