Hinterland

The Vermont Quilt Festival uses this system, only they do have individual comments. They also award special ribbons, for best hand quilting, machine quilting, etc.

Looking at the score sheet, you can see where you can improve. By the way, binding only counts for 5 points.

Janet

LivelyLady

I've entered my quilts in county fairs. At one fair last year I entered a quilt in the applique category and won 3rd and on the back of the paper was written "some button hole stitches were not even, good choice of colors, beautiful hand quilting." Two weeks later I entered the same quilt in another county fair but entered in handquilting and I won the blue ribbon. I really like the small county fairs as they tell me what I need to improve on.....so am now practicing my button hole stitch.

Thumbelina

Hi pumpkinpatchquilter, I was at that quilt show too. I know the quilt you are referring to and I totally agree with you. I couldn't believe that she got no recognition whatsoever. Whether it got judged as pictorial or for the quilting, she should have definitely gotten a ribbon.Sorry for the rant, but I really feel she should have gotten a ribbon. Her work was BEAUTIFUL and her brother is one lucky guy.

Grandma Peg

Use to watch Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson. She was saying one day on her show that she entered a quilt and the judge had several negative things to say about the quilt and then it went on to win at two other shows. It almost seems that the judges have their personal preferences.

jitkaau

I thoroughly agree - and the opinions of the public. Another 'problem' that I have is the person who asks for your opinion and gets cranky when you give it. I would not give it unless asked but don't expect to have an argument, lose a 'friend' or create animosity by honestly giving it. We should not want to live in an echo chamber and only hear our own ideas or what we want to hear all the time, or we don't improve and grow.

jpthequilter

Perhaps, because we are all so different, personal taste does come into the judging, unless there is that ONE outstanding quilt that everybody who sees it says it is a winner!
Even then nobody can say why that is so.

The hardest thing about judging quilts, is the enormous variety among them. Even with categories and divisions
there can be a rainbow of presentations. There are lists of rules. Even looking for the best quilting techniques, and deciding among them can be daunting for the judges.
But a winner must have very very good quilting technique, especially in the pieced quilts category.

It is even harder in the Art Quilts categories.
There, perhaps inovation is the most important criteria.
Technique has multiple meanings, because those quilts can be a combination of quilting techniques which we know, and a large variety of artistic techniques, which we may or may not know, and may be not be familiar with because they are innovative or invented, and even those may not be comparable.
There exists a rainbow range of Art Quilts from those that are only fabric and quilting, to those that are mostly painted.
And then embelishments! ....and abstract vs pictorial!

So, it isn't easy...

And so it is not surprising that not everybody agrees with the judges choice!

Bubblegum0077

I have thought of entering one or two of my quilts in competition but chickened out last minute for fear that mine wasn't good enough. Some competitions state that profesional and beginners are welcomed but I feel that I wouldn't be able to stand up to a pro when they have such experience far above me. I think that it's not leaving me enough room for winning when all I could think of is competing against pros. OK, maybe I am just thinking wrong, but seriously, anyone can win, but the pros are not excluded.

As for the pictoral quilts, I remember reading about the catagories and that the quilt can be re-catagorized by the committee or judges if it wasn't entered in the proper catagory to start with when it was received. So maybe that happened to hers. Unless it wasn't an original and they lean more towards the owner's creativity.

raksmum

I think I am glad I'm not a good enough quilter to enter into these shows. All of this sounds like it takes the fun right out quilting.

jpthequilter

Dear BG double 0 seven,

Do try entering! It was sometime in the last few years that a major winner at Houston, entered her second quilt, if I remember correctly what the label said....

In any case it will be an interesting experience.

About re-categorizing....sometimes as the quilts are received they sort of "become" a category that doesn't exactly fit the rules/original description on the entry form.
OR
The entrant didn't interpret the rules the same as the one who wrote the description, and didn't enter the right category by mistake...
The re-categorizing is a way to get the entry into the right group, and is a way to help the entrant and the judges.

QM

At the 2 shows i enter regularly, the criteria are very clear in most cases. Really wonderful quilts in the wrong category may not get the attention they deserve. Before you judge the judges, look to see if the category is listed. For example, the exquisite quilting might not have been judged at all because the quilter did not do it. Our categories include, "quilted by another".

Judges do make mistakes and have personal preferences. A friend who usually does very simple quilts made a very complex paper-pieced long vest. The judge said it was OK, but did not deserve any prize because it was just a cheater print. That judge made several other errors too. We are not having her back.

BubbleGum, go ahead and enter! Our show has "open judging", so you can hear what the judge has to say about your work. Many shows give you a written critique. Ask.

At one show, the quilt I was sure would be a winner did not even place and the one I almost didn't enter took a blue. The competition really matters. In one show we had over 30 really well made quilts in one category. The final decision was made on the sharpness of the binding corners. I took 2nd and was stunned, considering the other entries.