lol... then I guess that leaves me out of entering anything I do by myself!!

LOL - you and me both.


just stay away from stippling! the rules on whats a stipple and whats a meander are so close that if you're not perfect you've hung yourself.

anything over .25 is a meander and a stipple is 0.125-0.25 - and trust me they do measure between the stitch lines to determine the distance.

Too many rules for me! I just want to make pretty things. :D

well you make some of the prettiest quilts on the forum. you should enter local shows and you could even enter guild shows.

our local guild lets non-members enter the show.

That is high praise indeed and I thank you. There are wonderfully creative and executed works here.

I've never joined a guild or even been around other quilters much. I so appreciate all the people here, to see their work and read their words.

At two shows I recently attended there were quilts with ribbons (in one case Best of Show) that had the notation "professionally quilted". I don't understand. If I make a quilt and then send it out to be quilted by someone else, I didn't make the whole thing and it's not fair to someone who did it all herself (himself). None of the quilts to which I'm referring indicated who the "professional quilter" was.

If you can have it "professional quilted", why not "professionally pieced" or "professionally appliqued" and still say that you did it and enter it in a show? :wink: Isn't there a distinction between professional and ameteur? I thought I saw that on a show description, or a winning description, somewhere. I don't think it's fair to have a professionally quilted one competing with someone that did all the work themselves.

Here here!

K x

usually there is a form to be filled out,at least there is for ours,and there are several options to fill out as to who made it ,who quilted it etc,if there is a form and you are not sure I would hope there is someone you can ask

Shows and specifications are just as varied as there are people. To pick one and say that it represents all is hilarious. I have compared show and fair brochures and have participated at times. You need to check the individual specifications. I showed in a very small town fair and even they had classes like hand quilted, machine quilted, pieced by one and quilted by another, made by two or more, etc. They had a general statement that no work could be that of a professional. Then other fairs have classes that specifically state professionally quilted. It is not unusual to have a Best of Show and that would mean top of the class, highest marks of all entrants. Quilts get a report card with marks divided per area. I had a quilt go to a provincial (I'm Canadian) competition after being best of Show but also meeting all the criteria for that competition which was another set of of specifications. You could have been Best of Show and yet another quilt might have gone on to competition. This was all spelled out in the fair brochure.

So to anyone thinking of entering a fair you need to get a copy of their classes and then decide where you quilt goes. Dealing on a small level is a whole different ball park than thinking Paducah. Because the placings are based on many criteria your weakness might be outshone by your strengths. Mine were in that competition. My quilt shone in the design/originality/color area and did quite well in the piecing part but floundered on the actual hand quilting. That the hand quilting was not up to snuff came as no surprise.