Tuesday, October 19, 2010

What you learn from a quilt show

We've talked, on various email lists, about entering quilt shows. Some people say they don't want to be judged, that they make quilts for fun, others have had bad experiences entering shows. But if you are entering a show with a judge who knows what she's doing, you can learn something, even if it's only to confirm what you already know you should work on.

I'd entered quilts at another type of show before and got only a very brief judging sheet, but for our show, we got a little more in-depth feedback.

I entered 24 quilts in the High Cotton Quilt Show, three older ones for display only. So I got a stack of judging sheets back for the other 21. The evaluations were well done, satisfactory, needs improvement and N/A if it didn't apply. Each quilt got marks for general appearance, then quilt top construction, quilting and finishing, under workmanship, and fabric usage, color/value contrast and quilting design under design.

Looking through the stack, I had pretty consistently high marks in the design side, with mostly plus or satisfactory on workmanship – except finishing where I had the most needs improvement marks.

No real surprises there, I've always felt design is my strong point, and many of these quilts were made a couple of years ago when I hadn't learned as much about borders and bindings.

Entering quilt shows may not be for everyone, but I found it fun and enjoyed the compliments from the people attending.

I just discovered that the local paper has posted its Studio Statesboro with a nice piece on the show.

Enjoy! More later.