QuiltnNan

It seems to be a popular topic here lately. Today, our guild had a program with Linda J Hunter, an AQS appraiser and quilt judge. She's an original member of her guild from more than 40 years ago. She gave us so many hints on how to make your quilt show-worthy! I asked permission to share her hand out and she said that was OK... so the pdf is attached here. I was surprised at some things: binding with commercial binding is not necessarily a no-no as long as it is attached so it is full of quilt; using a non-cotton backing is not a deal-breaker, again, as long as it 'coordinates' with the front;and more that I can't remember right now. She is reluctant to keep a ribbon if she paid to have the quilting done and the quilting is the reason the quilt won. She really knows her stuff and is so happy to share her knowledge.

Tothill

Thank you for sharing this.

Watson

Thanks!

Watson

QuiltnNan

Another interesting thing I remembered when just waking up... Linda goes to lots of quilt auctions, especially with Amish quilts. Some of the quilts, like double wedding ring, are pieced and some are 'cheaters'. All are hand quilted. And they sell for the same price!

liking quilting

Nice to read that list. I have yet to put one of my quilts in a show that is "judged." Our local quilt show is going on this weekend, and I have two quilts in the show. However, these are all shared and appreciated without "competition." Their only request is that a quilt have not been shown in another quilt show before this one. Great participation, they offer short demonstrations, and this year they had some great new vendors (I purchased a hand knitted winter hat, and a "perfect 1/4" type guide that I can use on any sewing machine.

Maybe in the future I'll try to participate in a quilt show where judges look over every detail (shudders with the thought)!

SusieQOH

Wow, that's surprising about the Amish quilts!
There is an Amish community about 80 miles from where I live and they sell quilts. To be honest, the hand quilting leaves a lot to be desired. Even my sister commented and she's not a quilter.

Thanks for the article (not that I'm going to be entering anything yet haha)

Tartan

Always good to have pointers on making a quilt good enough for judges. Just remember when entering a judged show, if you don’t win a ribbon, put it in another show! Judges are people too and they are not perfect.

Iceblossom

About 15 years ago I was asked to fill in at the last minute to help judge a county fair when there was an emergency with the original judge. I had a sheet very similar to that checklist but with point scores, we filled out one for each entry and had space for comments. I was selected because I was from out of the area so didn't know any of the entrants and there had been some drama in previous years over that sort of thing. Plus I was available at last minute

The quilt that won was not my personal favorite, but the workmanship was exquisite. The only fault either of us judges had was we would have probably chosen different colors -- but the colors chosen made complete sense artistically and were the vision of the maker, obviously not a kit selection, so you can't really fault it.

nativetexan

cheaters selling for the same price. i'm surprised. one early quilt i did was a cheater fabric. loved it, added to it of course and quilted it. looked great to me!

sJens

Our daughter purchased an Amish quilt and the seams came apart the 1st time she washed it. I think we always hear how great their quilts are but not the problems. they do beautiful work though.