Originally Posted by
mramsden
I have a friend that is an artist and a quilter. One year she made a stunning art quilt and decided to enter it in our local fair. She didn't want to win a prize; she was just proud of it and wanted it to be displayed. It was judged and the feedback she got were things like "the stitches are too far apart on the back of binding, your points don't meet correctly here, etc." Not one word about the color or design or anything. She read the comments, took her quilt down and took it home. She will never put one on display again and the world will miss the beauty of them. I was furious when I saw the comments. Was it perfect - no. Was it beautiful - definitely. I sort of felt like those people would complain that there are cracks in the paint on the Mona Lisa.
For several years, I helped the judge at the local fair by laying out the quilt so she could examine it, then folding it up when judging was complete. The rule at that fair was that there should be at least two positive comments for every negative one. There's always something positive to be said, and the person making the most mistakes is the one who most needs to hear what she has done right, before hearing what can be improved.