what are your thoughts on...
 

famous quilter's posting pix of their works in progress on the internet via blogs/Facebook and then entering them in local shows, where of course their piece wins, because it is highly recognizable as being their work!

Whatever happened to the anonymity of the entries maker for the sake of fair judging?

I saw this happen at the OKcity show in Jan and was appalled. A well known, semi-famous lady had 3 pieces entered. ONE of them was a piece she had entered in the same show back in 2009 and had won with it! Everyone knows her work just by looking at it, but she travels the state showing them off, so they are nothing NEW when she enters in them a local show. Of course she wins, everybody wants to score points with the famous people...was hers better than the rest, NO they were not!

I think when a person chooses to share their pieces of work in progress via the internet, then they should avoid entering them in local shows.

Same with the local fairs...if you have won best of show at Paducah do you really need to enter your work at the local fair?

Have any of you seen this in your shows?

All the time.....It is difficult as a judge to be impartial when we see these quilts and they do get very careful evaluation by me as well as those with whom I judge. The story is told that one quilter who won at a big show where the quilt had to be given up if the prize money was taken, refused the money because the maker could earn more traveling the quilt. Now this is heresay but I saw the quilt in a later show and it didn't win best of show - another great quit did. Another difficult situation is when we see a quilt that has been in magazines where a kit was available.
How do we judge design when we suspect the design was not the quilt maker's. I once saw a quilt that had been entered in a group category and I recognized the quilt and internally questioned the origin of the quilt. When the signage was added I saw it had been made by the designer and those who had helped her make it. It was the quilt on her pattern book. These are indeed difficult decisions. Quilting is becoming "courisier and courisier".......(did I spell it right). I judged a show a few years ago where in one category there were 8 quilts all made by very well known quilter/designers and when we walked down the row we three judges named the maker. How can you judge such a situation as that. Having said all this.....no one should be discouraged from entering their quilts. It can be a learning experience for the quilt maker. Read the rules and be sure and enter in the correct category and do the best workmanship you can
Back to the quilt that had been previously entered.....The show committee should write their rules to avoid this. That is the reason some say that the quilt should not have been entered in other shows or made in a certain time period.

Let me ask this question which came up recently in discussion. If a quilt has been made and quilted by one person but binding had been put on by a second, should it be considered a group quilt?

Now, while I have the floor so to speak. A few years ago I judged a show that had a large number of very ordinary quilts entered. They were simple designs. Not the "wow" quilts..... and they won ribbons. So, simple is still recognized. Off my box now.

Holice I love when you JUMP in..hehehe
thank you for your words of wisdom.
I am "learning" to be a quilt judge for our County fairs, but would love to carry that further.

it is very difficult to judge non-biased when the persons works are so easily recognizable or are published via the internet! Thus stricter rules are being hashed out for this years show entries.

I have great issues with a person who designs, and pieces a quilt, PAYS the quilter to quilt it and then has to give credit to the quilter!!!....If a person pays for the service to me that is a bought item like the thread, batting etc. Especially if the quilt is NOT being judged on the quilting, but on the design/piecing. SO I would say if a person PAID for the binding to be on, then it was like paying for the thread, and NO I would not consider that a "group" quilt!
If you go that far, then if the person used a jelly roll that was PRE-cut by someone else, and a store bought binding, would it then also be a Group quilt?

When does it stop?

Oh my word! I never knew so many things went into a quilt judging. I am glad I just do it for fun and use. Teresa

If you're judging on design and piecing, then should it not be just a quilt top and not yet quilted? You're judging the workmanship of a quilt, then I think the LA quilter should be included, as it's his/her workmanship that is the quilting, not that of the person that pieced the top.

JMO, but paying for a skill like quilting is NOT the same as paying for an inert object like thread or binding. We all know that lousy quilting can ruin the looks of a quilt, just as fabulous quilting can make the quilt a work of art....

I think what shows people enter their quilts in is their business. Above all else a judge is supposed to judge the quilt on its merits in the category it's entered into without consideration for who the quilt maker is or if they've seen the quilt somewhere else.

Oh Charlee, I agree with you! A longarmer deserves to be both paid and recognized. However, if a longarmer is paid, then I don't think she should receive part of any prize money that the quilt wins, unless this was previously agreed. I don't enter quilts in judged shows, so I don't have a lot of wisdom on the subject, but I have served as helper to the judge at the local fair (helping lay out the quilts for the judge's inspection with my mouth firmly closed to keep my opinions to myself). I know that even at the local venue, the judge (from another town) was able to pick out quilts made by the same person, although I don't think she necessarily knew or cared at all who that person was. It seems to me that the judges should have enough integrity and experience to judge a quilt on its own merits, even though they know whose quilt it is. I don't have any problem seeing the same quilt in multiple shows, and I guess it's up to the venue to specify how new the quilt should be and what the categories are. I've heard from many quilters that the quilt's date is the time the last stitch was put in it, so if they want to enter a quilt in a show that limits the years it was made, they just have to take another stitch to make it new. I don't subscribe to that theory. Once the quilt is bound, it's done, and adding something else does not change its completion date.

I do have to say that I am SO PROUD that one of the members of my small local guild had a quilt accepted into Paducah this year, and that same quilt hung in our local non-judged shows. I can't go to Paducah, but I'm happy I got to see a quilt that is going.

There is certain basic information I would like to see with all quilts at a show - year made, designer and pattern name if there was one, piecer's name, quilter's name and status (professional or not), equipment used in quilting (by hand, DSM, freehand longarm, computerized longarm). Although I don't really care who put on the binding, I would like to think that the names of all who worked on the quilt in any capacity are included with the entry. But I never thought about someone else cutting the fabrics, as with jelly rolls. I really don't think that's an issue, any more than whether the person used scissors, rotary cutter, or other method to cut the fabric. But wow, so much to think about.

Also I see the word design alot in here, there are a lot of people who don't design quilts and use patterns and would like to enters show. I think there are far too many rules for this endeavor. I want to enter one of mine, but now I have to think about the designer, the quilter, etc. when I am the one who spent hours piecing, choosing the right colors. I agree, where does it end.

I saw several quilts at the Dallas Quilt Celebration this year that were made from kits. I recognized these from seeing them in Keepsake Quilting catalogs. I guess that's OK, but I felt slightly cheated?

I was organizer for 2 community centennial quilt shows with a little over 100 quilts entered in each. We had unusual catagories: most unique, most colorful, oldest, quilt entered from farthest distance, and of course viewers choice and judges choice. Mine were not to be included in judging so I used my grandchildren and several ladies who know nothing about quilting as well as a couple of experienced quilters as judges. AND everybody got a blue ribbon with Centennial Quilt Show 2010, and the ones for 2012 were purple. The special award ribbons were big and fancy and the quilters who won were thrilled because they were not necessarily the best executed and they thought they would NEVER win a ribbon. The quilters that would normally win, I explained to each of them this was a for fun show and we didn't want them to feel they were being overlooked, it just was a fun way for people to experience "winning". The judges choice was won by an exceptional, hand quilted quilt that would win in almost any show.