Finally, we aren’t talking about quilts as a group. We get to talk about individual quilts. The first quilt of the first category to be judged is held up. Finally we can talk about all those good quilt-y topics, like piecing and applique and quilting and bindings. Heaven surely knows, CJs love those bindings!
But all that stuff is the details. We are not ready for details yet. When I judge a quilt, I start by taking a few moments to do what I think of as reading the quilt. Yup, reading. This is done with the quilt being held as close to vertical as the judging aides can manage, given space, size and height constraints. If at alI possible, and if the room lighting allows it, I also ask the aides to take a few steps forward or backward to get the quilt directly under the best lighting possible. There is a sweet spot under most lighting where all of a sudden the quilting design pops out and you can clearly see it in relation to the entire top of the quilt. You’ll be able to see it later in more detail when the quilt is flat, but seeing the whole quilting design, spread across the whole top, is a view that should not be missed. After all, the entrant spent his or her time making quilting design decisions for the entire top. The least I can do is look at and appreciate it. The rest of what I’m going to talk about has to happen pretty quickly. You will be reading about it a lot longer than it can actually take. The average time a judge has with a quilt, from first look to the decision to hold or release, is about 3 minutes. A lot has to happen in those 3 minutes and there are often circumstances that shorten that time. Keep in mind that, while the quilt is vertical, the judge is probably not right up close to it. I’m not just seeing it vertical, I’m seeing it at a little bit of a distance. Judging, as previously mentioned, tends to be detail oriented. I’m too far away to see details, so what is going on during this important vertical view? I know this sounds goofy, but I try to spend a moment standing in the quilt's presence. Actually, more like standing in the presence of the entrant’s efforts. The quilt isn’t just a thing, it is someone’s work. Someone has gone to a lot of trouble to put this quilt in front of me, and I’m going to look at it and try to put aside what I saw right before it, and the fact that there is probably someone in the judging room holding a stop watch, ready to call the 3 minute mark (You think I’m kidding???) and that there may be a lot of quilts still to go. I am going to try to let that quilt, that quilter, talk to me. I want to get to know it, without evaluation, at least for a few seconds. It’s a visual thing, so I call it reading. What I am going to find when I look at the details of the quilt will generally either support or detract from what I see in my face-to-face with the quilt. Sometimes my initial impression has to be amended by the details, sometimes it’s reinforced. Either is fine. But as long as I don’t treat my impression like it was written in stone, I find it a helpful first step. In real time it’s probably taken about 10 seconds. A very short time, but important. So, with the warm and fuzzy part finished, what else can be seen vertically? Now is the time to scan for major construction inaccuracies that would make the quilt hang poorly or not lay flat or cause any distortion. This is the first opportunity you have to determine the general condition of the quilt, although many other aspects of its condition may only be visible up close. And of course, you can see the big kahunas: Color and Design. Quilt Judging History break: When I first started attending judging days at my home guild, in the early ‘90s, a commonly heard color comment was something along the lines of “Lovely autumnal palette.” A design comment, if there was one, was something like “Pleasing arrangement of blocks.” Those days are long gone. In the past few decades, the quilt market has taken off, providing us with more of everything related to quilting. The internet brings us anything we’re curious about, regarding quilting or any other visual art. We were getting to a point where our nice little quilt judging niche was getting a little shallow. It started to dawn on us that autumnal and pleasing weren’t getting the job done. Other artists, working in other materials, commonly talked about all kinds of concepts when discussing their work: line, shape, movement, color value, visual weight, proportion, texture and on and on. On the whole, simple words like pleasing and autumnal weren't mentioned on the list of ideas being tossed around. If we wanted to hold our own in the expanded world, we, quilters and judges alike, had to step up. Next: Color and Design 101: the first of many. Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ NQA Certified Judge Qualified to Evaluate MasterPiece Quilts
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As a judge, you have 2 jobs. One is to carefully evaluate each quilt individually and, in many cases, give some form of feedback to the entrant. This evaluation informs your 2nd job, which is to find the ribbon winners in a room full of quilts. How do you jump into this task? A good tool to use to begin the job is fanning the quilts. As described in the last post, the nature of the show and the categories are important. Especially the categories. The first round of ribbon judging happens within the context of the category the quilt is entered in. During this phase of judging, the quilt only has to outrank the other quilts in its own category. It is not, at this time, up against every other quilt entered in the show. That can come later, if it is up for Best of Show or a special award (Ex: Best Use of Color.) For now its world is smaller and more manageable. There is a whole discussion’s worth of considerations if the quilt is not in the correct category, but that’s for another post. For now, let’s assume the quilts are all in the right categories. Categories can be well defined, or not. They can have many quilts, or few. The quilts in them can be very competitive, or not. The judge can get a first read on these issues through the process of fanning, if the show is being judged flat rather than hung. (If the show is hung, you may be able to take a quick dash through the category before starting in on the individual quilts.) To set up for fanning, the quilts within a category are stacked on the judging table, right side up, often with one corner aligned.
The top quilt is folded up, bottom edge to top edge, so that the bottom of the back of the quilt is visible. The next quilt in the stack is also folded back, over the first one, so that its bottom back is visible also. This continues until the bottom half of the front of the last bottom quilt is visible; this bottom quilt is left flat. Now the actual fanning begins. While the judge watches, aides unroll each successive quilt and smooth it back down to rebuild the stack. This is done relatively quickly. No individual evaluation takes place at this point. The judge just gets an overall impression of the category as a whole as to it’d size, variety, apparent quality etc. Fanning creates only an impression, but it gives the judge an idea of where to set the bar for the category, especially when deciding whether to hold or release a quilt after its individual evaluation. Keep in mind that in the elimination system, which is a very common judging method, the quilts are competing against other quilts, not against perfection. Therefore, what is good enough to earn a ribbon in one category, may not be good enough in another category, as the roster of quilts is different in each. Judging Mysteries Explained #1: This is one reason why, when the viewer is walking a show, they might see a blue ribbon hanging on a so-so quilt, next to a much more impressive looking quilt that has no ribbon at all. What is wrong with that judge?? In all likelihood, the judge was neither crazy nor blind. The quilts may have been entered in different categories. (Check for this on the hang tags or other signage.) One of those categories may have had a larger number of more competitive quilts in it, making it harder for good quilts in the category to win a ribbon. Hence the great looking quilt with no ribbon. The so-so blue ribbon quilt may be in a category containing far fewer/less competitive quilts, giving it better odds of ribboning. This often happens between categories for more or less popular techniques. For example, most shows have more pieced bed-sized quilts than applique bed-sized quilts. There may be fewer entrants who do applique and when they do, it's a smaller project. Numerically, a pieced quilt is up against more quilts than an applique quilt. Depending on the quality of the overall category, this may translate to an apparent difference in the how hard each category was judged. Back to fanning…. What the judge sees during fanning is not written in stone. Quilts that look good during fanning may, on closer inspection, turn out to have many workmanship issues. Quilts that have little wow factor at first glance, may have a great deal of technical merit. A wise judge takes what they see during fanning for what it is, a fast preview, and won’t hold any quilt to that first impression. Which is a good thing. Next: Getting to Know You Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ NQA Certified Judge Qualified to Evaluate MasterPiece Quilts You’re hired to judge a show. That’s exactly what most judges want. Bring on the quilts!
Not so fast. Before you lay eyes on the first quilt, there is a bigger picture that you need to tune in to. You need to have a frame of reference within which to view the show as a whole, both mechanically and philosophically. I’m not talking about the nitty-gritty of housekeeping things like lunch breaks and turning in expenses, although those are also good to know. I’m talking about the planning and purpose that happens before the first registration form comes in. Some of this you can find out before judging day, but not all. Some of it you will find out as you’re judging. Some of these questions can be asked of your employer, but some can only be asked and answered in your own head. Many of these thing should have little to no impact on how you judge, but can be useful to keep in the back of your mind none the less. Things to consider: Who is sponsoring the show? A local guild? A for-profit organization? A group with a particular philosophy? It helps to appreciate your employer’s point of view. Why are they putting it on? A local guild may want to showcase their members’ skills, and make some money for the guild from the admittance fee, raffle baskets/quilt etc. Some organizations and their employees pay their bills from the money generated by the show. It’s a business. Maximizing attendance by featuring quilts with a big wow factor may be their priority. A show may be mounted to highlight a specific aspect of quilting, (Ex: modern design, machine quilting, art quilts) or a topic of interest (Ex: domestic violence, spirituality, an event) and they may be looking for evaluations that include reference to their topic of interest. Sometimes special topics are represented by a challenge. It is not uncommon to have challenge quilts judged outside of the rest of the categories. You may be asked to focus your evaluation somewhat differently. Who are the entrants? Local guild members? Quilters drawn from a region? National? International? Kids? Depending of who is entering their quilts, you might expect different levels of competition, which may require that you scale your response up or down. In general, using the elimination system of judging, quilts are judged against one another, not against perfection. Your evaluation and comments should address the needs and level of the entrants. What are the categories and their definitions? These most often reflect the interest and focus of the sponsoring group. Most guild have a wide range of categories that will provide a place for any kind of quilt their members want to enter. Some groups have a strong special interest sub-group that is reflected in their categories. Generally, I see very few crazy quilts, but I once judged a local guild show that had three very-well-filled categories of various types of crazy quilts. You never know what you’re going to see on the table in front of you. (Candidates, take Question 31 seriously.) Who are you judging with, if anyone? If you are judging with someone else, are they also a certified judge? If not, are they a certified something else? (Ex: I’ve worked with terrific appraisers.) Are they a knowledgeable teacher/quilter? Are they a quilter at all? If you are working with people who have no frame of reference in common with you, you may need to modulate your approach to make the experience satisfying for all concerned, rather than a win for you that leaves a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. How many quilts will you be judging? A judging day that includes 90 quilts is considerably different from one that includes 145 quilts, especially if you are judging alone. The last quilt judged deserves the same level of consideration as the first. You may need to pace, and edit, yourself accordingly. Most of the above points do not require a huge adjustment in how you carry out your evaluation of the quilts in a show. Some would argue that you should never change your approach and methods; that your evaluations should always reflect the standards of good quiltmaking. (There’s the ‘S’ word again.) I do appreciate that opinion and don’t think we should become the judging equivalent of flavor-of-the-month. However, being cognizant of these points helps me to judge smarter and make the show’s experience of hiring a certified judge a rewarding one. Ultimately I hope the group will want to hire a certified judge again for their next show, which I believe would be good for all concerned. Next: Can We Look at Quilts Yet? Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ NQA Certified Judge Qualified to Evaluate MasterPiece Quilts |
AuthorStacy Koehler became an NQA Certified Judge in 2005. She is a current member of the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges and has served as the new organization's Secretary. She loves quilts and quilters and believes that a well-judged quilt can be a positive influence in its maker's individual development and contribute to the continued growth of the art of quiltmaking. Archives
July 2018
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