If there is a local show I enter a quilt. I don't enter to win but to be part of it. I don't mind criticism of my quilts at all. Hey I have a quilt in the show where is your quilt? At home folded away in the closet? Some of my quilts may give another the thought if she can enter that mess of a quilt then I can enter mine too! Don't wear your quilting on your sleeve and it won't get knocked off.

I usually enter into the county fair, but this year I just didn't get anything ready in time. Besides the good advice already given, and I do think construction is usually the key "look for", our county uses a judge from another county and while she does pick very nice quilts, the grand prize winners are always very traditional quilts. She told me once (at another setting so don't think she was realizing how this would impact fair entrants) that she hated anything modern--unfortunately that shows in her judging.

Thanks everyone for your comment, I am not real good at the FMQ part but I tried..right

Our fair has certain size restrictions. I made a quilt that turned out perfect right down to the mitered corners and was so proud, and then I read the "rules" to find out the size restrictions had changed for display purposes. My quilt was 2 inches short and would no longer qualify!! Heartbroken to say the least.

I have entered quilts in our county fair and one thing I do not care for is it doesn't matter if a quilt is quilted on a long arm or on a domestic machine, they are judged together not as separate categories. I feel there is a difference especially if a quilt is done on a computerized quilting machine where the quilter is not moving the machine but picks a pattern then the machine does it automatically. I have nothing at all against doing it this way but just think it should be a separate category.

To expand on this, I think there should be a separate category if a pro long armer did the quilting for the person who pieced the quilt.

Watson

I used to enter quilts in our fair, but the way they display them just gets worse every year. Even nice quilts look shabby when not displayed well. So I stopped participating. Years back they hung the prettiest ones from the ceilings. I guess that was too much work.

Our State Fair just ended on Saturday. I entered 8 items: 4 quilts, 1 machine embroidered jacket, 2 needle felted items and a Hardanger picture. The items mentioned on the critiques concerned construction accuracy, color choice, binding corners square and stitched and quilting design choice and execution. There are 45 different quilting categories and you can only enter 1 item in each category. So entering in the correct category is important. Entering is rewarding and getting a ribbon makes it even better. But sometimes they may have only a few items in a category to compete with. Because I know the people in charge of the needlework section, I am frequently asked to go home and bring in more items so they have more to display. I did come home with 4 blues, 1 red and 1 white. My winnings almost covered what I spent at the fair!

Congratulations on your blue, red & white ribbons - I would like to encourage you to post pictures of your winners so we can all admire them :)

Christine

They are supposed to look at things like quality of construction: binding, square corners, even stitching. They are not supposed to consider personal taste: favorite colors, styles.