Perfection / Production
Several years back, a friend designed and stitched a piece
of crewelwork taken from a Japanese wood block print. In varied shades of blues
and whites, the Pearl Dragon strode over the crashing seas.
It was simply magnificent. For one thing, it was a fabulous
design. It was also large – about 11x14. It was built using some twenty-five or
thirty unique stitch patterns, each appropriate to its use. Some I recognized.
Some were extremely complex. It took about 18 months of constant work to design
and stitch.
Because my friend was a novice at crewelwork, and didn’t
want to submit it right away to a national contest, the Pearl Dragon entered the
Western New York State Fair. It was expected by all who saw it to take the blue
ribbon for the category and, quite possibly, Best in Show.
My friend was present for the judging and felt crushed when
the ribbon hung on the Pearl Dragon was the green one, an Honorable Mention. A
judge was approached and, in a nice way, my friend asked how it happened that
the Pearl Dragon merited Honorable Mention while an intricate but traditional
piece took the blue?
“Let me show you,” the judge responded. “We have over thirty
entries and they are all excellent. The first cut eliminates the kits and the
copycats. The second eliminates those that show poor design or workmanship. Here,
that left us four or five that made the cut. The blue ribbon went to a piece
that showed good and thoughtful design, exceptional workmanship, and a high degree
of difficulty.”
“Didn’t the Pearl Dragon meet those criteria?” my friend
asked.
“Here,” the judge responded. Removing the Pearl Dragon from
its frame, the judge turned it over to expose the back. The back was
perfection, as beautiful as the front. All knots had been carefully hidden. “See
this?” the judge asked, pointing to one stitch among the several thousand
making up the Pearl Dragon. The wool was twisted in an odd way, showing the
single dropped and uncorrected stitch.
“We have to decide somehow.”
.....
This story comes to mind because I am working diligently on my
Storm at Sea quilt. It will never be seen in any contest. I see all its flaws.
I know every design compromise, every crooked seam, every flaw. There are even
flaws I don’t know about – wrong choices, wrong techniques, color shifts where
I ran out of material and the dye lots wouldn’t match up.
No wonder girls and young women had to take a long
apprenticeship under Mother’s tutelage so they could sew properly. Isn’t it
amazing we novice quilters get anything done? The pressure to produce meets the
pressure to meet a high standard. Is there any perfection in quilting? How is
quilters’ work judged? Here is the best I could do based on several web sites. I was going to mark my own shortcomings, but...why bother?
4 judging elements:
Presentation. Technique. Workmanship.
Design.
Presentation:
Is the quilt “Show
Ready”. Not just sleeves for hanging and good pressing. Pet hair, lint, stains,
and odors count. Be sure to bury all threads and none are left dangling.
For the most part, like quilts are judged against each other in their respective categories. It is
important to read the rules carefully and enter your quilt in the correct
category.
Technique:
Pay attention to the basics of construction and do the absolute best that
you can. What-ever technique you chose it should the best workmanship that
you can achieve. Again no dangling threads, appliqué should be well stitched
with invisible stitches. Pieced blocks should have points not cut off or into
the seam allowance.
Workmanship:
o Overall look of the quilt and the impact it
has on viewers is very important.
o General
construction – piecing, applique, even borders
o
Does it
hang straight? Are the edges straight and plumb?
o
Does the
quilt lie flat?
o
Do the
borders wave?
o
Seam
allowance precision is examined.
o
Are
points cut off or lost into seam allowance?
o
Embellishments
adhered correctly and secure?
o
Quilting
details, regardless of what type of quilting (Hand, domestic or long-arm.) More
and more shows are judging the quilting against the same type of quilts – hand
against hand, domestic against domestic and long arm against long arm. The
judges realize different skill sets are required for the different types of
quilting.
ü
Is it
consistent type of quilting used?
ü Does the stitch in the ditch come out of the
ditch?
ü
Are the
stitches even, standard in size and shape?
ü
Was the
quilting by an individual, a group or professional long arm quilter. (Credit
must show whoever did the quilting.)
o
Hand
quilting
ü
Are stitches
even size on front and back of quilt?
ü
Are starts and stops invisible?
ü
Are quilt
marking lines invisible?
o
Machine
Quilting (domestic or long armed)
ü
Stitches
of even length?
ü
No
tension problems – bobbin thread should not show on top and top thread should
not show on back.
ü
Starts
and stops not visible.
ü
Are
there thread dots on back of quilt.
ü
Expertise
of the back tracks.
ü
Thread
nests are especially frowned upon.
o
Binding
is especially important.
ü
Are the
threads hanging?
ü
Are
there missed stitches or gaps in the stitching?
ü
Are
there any parts where the binding is empty or weak?
ü
Are the
corners sewn closed on top and bottom?
ü
Is the
size of the binding uniform?
ü
Is there
any pulling to the back to cover the stitches attaching the binding?
ü
Invisible
stitches attach the binding to the quilt, covered by the binding.
ü
No
batting should be poking through.
Design:
o
Visual
impact of the design – the quilt must be visible across the room! It needs to
be eye-catching
o
Originality
and creativity
o
Color
and value
o
Balance
and integration of design of quilt components including borders:
ü
Scale
ü
Relationship
ü
Arrangement
o
Level of
difficulty
o
Special
techniques (if applicable)
o
Quilting
design appropriate to quilt top, density of quilting consistent
o
Art Quilts
are judged on their merits.
o
There
are more shows being established just for the art quilts. The impact of the
design, the artistic expression, composition and all the rules of art are most
important for these quilts. That said, technique is still considered to be
important part of the judging of these quilts.
YIKES!
