Fair entries??
 

Does anyone know what they look for when judging a quilt at a county fair?
Thanks

Oh good luck and I hope you bring home a ribbon. The guidelines from Tartan sound good to me. At my county fair there are the regulars who always enter 10-15 quilts every year and always win. Nobody else stands a chance.

Be sure all pet hair is removed and make sure all your remotes are accounted for before you bring it to the fair. Why?....a couple years ago we opened up a large bed quilt to be judged and right there in the middle was a TV remote! The entrant had just quickly flipped up the corners of the quilt off the bed to get it to the fair and we checked it in and put it in the pile to be judged having never fully unfolded it. Her son was more than happy to hear he was going to get his remote back!

something new at our county fair this year was the notice all entries get ribbons unless they were disqualified for some reason
At our little local fair only one person entered quilts, but there were about six.

For years I put quilts in the local one to help support the whole idea of fairs, communities without fairs now far outnumber those still holding one.
there is zero security which is why I don't put mine in anymore, I can have several hundred hours and dollars into my quilts.

Follow guidelines for entries-you enter in the wrong class-too bad-it won't be changed. Also be aware certain judges pay more attention to specific details. I can tell when a certain judge is being used at our fair. He/she always makes comments and seems to be focused on mitered corners. Other years you get a place and no comments at all. I enter stuff every year, it's fun and helps keep the department going. No entries=that department will be eliminated or reduced.

Hilarious!

Depending on the size of the fair there may be fierce competition - or none. Tartan's and Sandra's suggestions are good. I've helped the fair judge several times, and quality of construction was the main focus. The difficulty of the piecing (or applique) would factor in when evaluating two quilts that were both well made. She occasionally checked to make sure the sides of a quilt were the same length and noted wavy borders, uneven quilting, etc.. If your quilt is quilted by someone else, make sure to give them credit on the intake form.

It depends on the judging. Most smaller fairs have volunteers from another county to judge. Some have never made a quilt before so go by the wow factor for top ribbons. Some have quilt police as judges so one crooked miter and it's over. I wouldn't fret about what the fair judges are looking for or how they judge. And never take their notes if any as personal. Enter and have fun seeing your quilt displayed. It is exciting for me to see one of my quilts hanging up for many to see.

Each fair has their own categories, judging, rules, themes, expectations. Best is to do the best job you can, good workmanship. Make sure the quilt is clean ( no pet hair, quilt marks etc) and is entered into the proper category. You can get most of the information from the ( fair book) which is generally released/ available a couple months before the fair- including the entry process, drop off and pickup requirements

Our Prize book says, "Judges will be looking for uniqueness and creativity." Perhaps your Prize Book will give you the answer. (You can only hope the judge read the Prize Book. :D)

I put mine in because I like to see them displayed and to support the Fair. It seems the area where the quilts and other home arts are displayed gets smaller every year. If I win a ribbon, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Watson

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.