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!