One of my "Bucket Lists" is to get good enough to enter a show, but I have no idea of how to enter. Where do I start?

Our local show is probably 80 to 90 percent traditional pieced quilts. There are some applique and a few art quilts. For the art type its usually wall pieces and not full quilts.

One way to "get good enough" is to enter shows - the judges' comments will give you pointers on where to improve as well as an indication of what you are doing right.

I started by showing my quilts in our local quilt show (it wasn't judged, just viewer's choice), then took the leap to entering a judged show. I felt the comments fairly reflected my strengths and weaknesses.

One piece of advice I was given by a longtime quilter was not to enter shows because you want to win. She was right - it's the road to heartbreak! Enter because you like to see your quilt hanging there, because you want the judges' feedback, because you want to support your local show - there are a million reasons why. Then if you get a ribbon it's icing on the cake!

Be patient, quilters. This too will pass. All creative work has its' cycle. Look at the clothing and crafts today. Many of them, I did thirty or forty years ago.

I have not been able to go to any quilt shows for a couple of years now, but I look the winners up on the internet. I found it to be very discouraging as it seems like most of them are art quilts, thread quilts, a million pieces quilt, etc. Those are way beyond my talents.

The Art quilts are beautiful, but to me dont seem like a quilt. They seem like just what they are - ART. I much prefer traditonal. THe kind that go on the bed to keep you warm. My real favorites are scrappy ones. And that is what I make mostly. I rarely ever use just two fabrics in a quilt. the red and white one bargello/log cabin has at about 30 fabrics in it. the french braid one has about 20. Those two are controlled scrappy - in that only a two colors were used in each.

I love looking at the art quilts at the AQS Quilt shows, it amazes me the imagination and ingenuity some people have, I wish I had that kind of creativity but for now I just make traditional patterns and dream.

I am on board and voting for the traditional pieced quilt. I attended a quilt show late fall 2010, and there were so many "pieces of art" that were nothing more that ironed-on and stitched appliques! This is not quilting, if you ask me. Lovely? Yes. Inspirational? Yes . . . but not "quilting!" Occasionally I will applique something atop a pieced quilt. In Michigan, the GAAQG (Greater Ann Arbor Quilt Guild) had quite a bruhaha about this subject. It has a membership of over 400, and there was a faction that was ready to leave, because a majority of the classes offered were of the artsy type, and not many showing different traditional quilting techniques.

Again, I agree . . .

I noticed at AQS Lancaster there were many traditional, pieced quilts. Many of these quilts are using contemporary fabrics and batiks which give them a contemporary look.
Traditional means the actual construction, not the overall visual impact of the quilt.
A friend of mine received (2) 1st places for two quilts in the PA Extravaganza Show,one was hand pieced, hand quilted quilt in all plaids and the other was folk art applique on an orange plaid background -traditional pieced, hand quilted and hand appliqued.
So, people are still making these quilts and winning awards.
They make these great sewing machines to do everything but slice bread - they might as well use them.

I took classes at the AQS Museum. If it is 3 layers and the stitches are through the layers holding them together, it is quilted, has nothing to do with the subject matter.