kwhite

I didn't know anyone had replied to this. Somehow I missed it all. Thank you. I entered my first quilt into a show back in the eraly 90's. I won Honorable Mention. This upset me terrible because the place winners had IMO really bad errors that mine didn't. Morover there was no reason on the judges card. I still have no idea why my quilt didn't do better.

Another thing I noticed and don't like is the "best" quilts are shipped from show to show all around and are judged and take top prises in show after show. I disagree with this. If you enter a show and win a prize you should not be able to enter it into any other shows. Leave some prizes for the rest of us. Just my opinion. What do you think?

tkhooper

why not just make two categories. One for national and one for local. If you want yours to travel enter the "national category" if you want to just be judged in one show enter the "local category".

tkhooper

I remember one contest when I was a kid. One of the requirements was that it be original.

I got an honorable mention and the first place went to a snoppy theme.

My family was hot, really hot.

Rachelcb80

I don't know how quilt showing works, but in the horse show world you have classes for amateurs and open classes. It varies from one breed registery to another but for the most part, if you make money from training horses or have won a certain amount of blue ribbons you cannot enter in the amateur classes. This keeps the playing field somewhat fair but you still get what we call "professional amateurs". Those who have all the money in the world to send their horse off to a big name trainer and keep it there all year and only get on to ride in the amateur class. Kinda hard for us backyard horse owners to compete against that. :) Anyways, seems like they would have something like that for quilt shows. Once a quilt has won a certain amount of ribbons, it would no longer be eligible for a certain class level. But I guess if a person has made something so fabulous that it wins everywhere it goes, they deserve to show it as much as they want to. *shrug* Horse showing has taught me that nothing can ever be totally fair to everyone involved. Having fun is what matters. :)

tkhooper

Agreed, I love showing my quilt off to friends that will be nice, but I would never, ever put one in a judged show. I'm not that good and I don't ever intend to be that good. I do these because I love them. And that is enough for me booboo's and all.

Farm Quilter

As a quilter who does only free-motion, I find it rather daunting to have my work judged/compared to computerized quilting. I hope that soon there is a separate division for computerized quilting, as it has it's own learning curve and requirements. I'll not be computerizing my quilting machine as I prefer the more personal touch that free-motion quilting gives a quilt, bobbles and all.

ann clare

Not a quilt judge, but I would say size matters. If you go over the size say for a dolls quilt you will be eliminated. You are normally given between size x and y. Square up. If it says hand quilt only you cannot do machine. If it says machine only likewise. Most allow mixed ie. both hand and machine. Good quality fabric 100% cotton/flannel if quilt is for a competition. If the pattern is simple you could not expect the same rating as for a difficult design. Color/ contrast is important. Even stitching. Quilting design to compliment the quilt. Binding flat and label clear