Quilting has changed a lot over the years.  When I first joined a guild, a machine quilted quilt was often referred to as a ‘glorified mattress pad.’ Say something like that now and a legion of machine quilters will be coming for you with torches and pitchforks.

Machine quilting in general (and probably yours in particular) has evolved way past what your first machine quilted bed quilt looked like. It may have been shoved through the throat of your mother’s old Kenmore, snuggled in between the ping pong table and freezer chest in the basement, or some other less than ideal but functional spot. Ask me how I know……

Perhaps the machines and venues have changed, but what I think matters even more is the way we think about machine quilting. Our thinking has been influenced by everything we have seen, heard and read. Our thinking has been changed by information. Which we then attempted to apply to our quilts. Which pushed our skills forward and changed the quality of our work.

Even if we are still working in the basement with the ping pong table as our quilting buddy (Don’t knock it; there’s a lot of room on the top of that table!) it is unlikely anyone will look at your quilt today, call it a glorified mattress pad (cue the pitchforks…) and dismiss it because it is just machine quilted.

Machine quilting is not the only topic that has evolved. About 15 years ago, there was a judging phrase in common use: Good quilting is good quilting. As a candidate in the judging program, it was very comforting. If I was really thrown for a loop by a quilt I was looking at, that phrase meant I could go back to basics and have a solid footing for evaluating it. No matter what technique was used, it should lay flat. No matter what fabrics were chosen, the values should work.  Hand or machine, stitching should be secure.  The phrase meant all the tried and true standards held and were there to help me make sense of what I was looking at.

But then came a new genre of art quilts with their new materials and strong color and design sensibility. And their visual and emotional impact and their alternate edge finishes and their surface design.  After that, the genie was out of the bottle and all that stuff drifted into even the most traditional of corners of the quilting world.

Next came new tools and machines and of course lots and lots of information and suddenly ‘good quilting is good quilting’ wasn’t quite the touchstone it used to be. It’s still true, but if you’re going to be able to evaluate current quilts, you now need to be knowledgeable in a lot more than secure stitches and square corners.

It seems to me that some of us, who may have developed our skills over many years, sometimes weren’t sure if all that new, unfamiliar stuff was ‘real’ quilting. It was just easier to stick with what we already knew, stay where we were comfortable, with our knowledge of ‘good quilting’ and just let all that unfamiliar stuff slide right past us.

Unfortunately, one way to deal with things you are not familiar with is to marginalize them.

That’s just painted.
That’s just glued on.
That’s just done with the computer.
That’s just a photo.
That’s just machine quilting.    
      
Ah, the word “just”.

Whenever I hear the word ‘just’ in relation to a skill or practice, a tiny red flag pops up. I have noticed that it can sometimes indicate an underestimation of the skill required to do whatever ‘just’ is being applied.

Easy to do. Anyone can ‘just’ something away.
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But for judges, it’s a trap. We owe it to the makers whose quilts we judge to never sling ‘just’ at their work. Which means we have to stay current on things we may not be comfortable with or have a personal interest in. But by becoming Certified, that’s exactly what we signed up for.
 
 
Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate Master Piece Quilts
​

.​One of the shows I judged recently was somewhat frustrated with the outcome of their judging. The source of the frustration was that, for the second show in a row, a quilt made by someone who was not, or only very loosely, associated with the guild, won a blue ribbon in its category and was selected Best of Show. They believed that in both cases the quilt was quilted by a ‘professional’ quilter.

The group was exploring the possibility of closing entry to ‘professionals’ in the future. They asked a judge what she thought she should do.

Just for the record, I am not the judge that was asked, and I don’t know what response she ended up giving them. But like the last post, I imagine that others may struggle with this same topic. So here it is,  in the blog.

​I do understand the frustration of the guild. They did a huge amount of work with the goal of showcasing their members’ skills and someone else walked in with a quilt and walked out with a quilt and the top prize. They were hoping that one of their members’ quilts would hang in the spot reserved for Best of Show. In this case, they suspected that the point turned on the professional/non-professional designation, so this discussion will address that point.

Keep in mind that any word or concept could be substituted for 'professional,' depending on what constitutes the group’s dissatisfaction---traditional in a modern show, modern in a traditional show, computer assisted embroidery or quilting,  art quilts with a controversial image or message…….it could be anything that a group identifies as the line between inclusion and exclusion.

Their frustration is rooted in reality.  I know that in the past couple of months I have judged a number of quilts more than once in guild-level competition. There are a number of reasons why a quiltmaker might enter her quilts in multiple shows or in shows that are not put on by her home guild. Some are easier to empathize with than others, but to the sponsoring guild, the reason may not matter if the outcome is the same: an outsider took a ribbon they would like one of their own to have.

What to do? Anything? Nothing?

My honest answer is in two parts. The first is I don’t know what is right for you. The second is that this determination is 100% the decision of the sponsors of the show, in this case the guild. It is the guild’s show. They write the rules.

However, as a group considers an entry rule change, I would suggest some points to consider.

Get the facts. Look at your winners list. How many of the winners are members of the group you’re targeting? And just as importantly, how many of the quilts that didn’t ribbon were made by the defined group? Maybe it isn’t as widespread an issue as the frustration feels like it is.  Or maybe it’s bigger. Either way, you should be sure of the scope of the problem before you try to fix it.

Wherever the inclusion/exclusion line is drawn, you need to be sure there is an absolutely crystal clear definition of that line. For example: membership in the guild is a clear line. You’ve paid your dues and you’re on the membership list or you’re not. Membership is easily verified by anyone with access to the financial records of the guild or the quiltmaker’s cancelled check or receipt. It’s pretty black and white.

What constitutes being a professional quilter tends to be an organizational mine field. This was always tough but, the internet (You sold a pattern on Craftsy, are you a professional?) and the proliferation of track mounted machines (Track mounted quilting is no longer done only by quilters for hire.) makes this much harder to determine.
 
If you try to write your own definition, think long and hard. Pay very close attention to the wording. Have someone play devil's advocate and try to get around it. And finally, field test it. By this I mean sit down with the registration records from your last show and apply the potential rule change to the registrants.  Would the rule have effectively excluded only the entries you want to exclude, or would it have taken out some quilts you want to keep? In the case of professional quilters, your own members who paid for longarm services.

If it become too difficult to define the line between in and out, anther option is to add another form of recognition, rather than exclude a certain class of quiltmaker. For example, I recently judged a show that awarded a ribbon for Best Solo Needle.  The group felt that so many quilters used longarm services that they wanted to recognize the quiltmaker who did the entire job themselves. They took nothing away from the professionals, they gave something exta to the solo artist.

Consider the potential benefit of keeping the excluded quilts in the mix. Is the show richer for having more competitive quilts in it? No sponsoring group wants to feel taken advantage of, but exclusions usually create a certain amount of ill will. What is good will worth to you? 

Finally, consider that the meaning of the term 'professional' might not be the same as 'good' and might not automatically confer winner status.  Usually, after judging a few categories in any given show, I begin to recognize certain longarm 'signatures.' I see the same strong points again and again. And I see the same problems: A certain machine tension issue can be seen again and again over many quilts. The same particular so-so stop and start strategy is seen again and again. Just because a someone is paid for their services, doesn't mean those services are everything you might hope for. 

There is nothing wrong with a guild structuring their show for their own purposes. Just be very careful that the changes will really do what you want them to do and not create new and different problems.


Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate Masterpiece Quilts
​

​Hi there! It’s been a long time! In my part of the country (Northeast), the quilt show busy season seems to run from mid-September to mid-November. My season’s done for a while, and while I love judging, I’m ready for things to slow down. (Just in time for holiday madness.)

While I was working this year, I had some interesting questions and comments from the shows I judged.  There were some interesting points brought up and I thought I’d share them with you. If one group thought about these things, chances are others have too.

In keeping with our previous discussions about looking at quilts, let’s talk about one of my all-time favorite comments to make: “Something something something invites deeper viewing.”

Why exactly do you want to see this, or something like it, on your comment sheet? Or if you’re judging, why is this a good thing to say about someone’s quilt? I’ll tell you…..

As most of you know, a judge only has a few minutes to spend on each quilt, with a lot of points to evaluate in a short time. Most judges have worked out a system for getting this done; and the judge needs to stick to their system pretty closely to get through the day in a timely fashion. And most of the time it’s doable. 

But sometimes a quilt comes across the table that has so much to look at that the judge is sorely tempted to blow past the per-quilt time limit. It could be anything in the creation of the quilt: fussy cutting, embellishment, inking, photos that tell a story or detail a life, piecing variations, quilting designs or details, color interactions, complex design…anything that makes you want to stop and discover all the little treats that the maker has worked into her quilt for you to find.

The quilt might not be a winner, but it has a kind of magnetism that makes it memorable. When this happens to me, I have to drag myself away and force myself to keep moving. It’s a source of frustration for me, but an accomplishment for the quiltmaker. He or she managed to stop the judge in her tracks. That’s a big deal and I like to tell them about it.

But that’s not all.

The viewing of the quilt only starts in the judging room. The quilt will be hung in a show and can, along with all the other quilts, be viewed by many. The bigger the show, the more other quilts that one little quilt is surrounded by and the more viewers troop past the quilts.

Think about the viewers. Maybe they stood in line to get in, to get something to eat and to use the bathroom. They have traipsed through the vendors…sometimes lots and lots of vendors. They may be tired and on the verge of visual overload. And now they’re going to look at quilts. Maybe lots and lots of quilts. Hopefully their foot wear was well-chosen.

We’ve all been there.  At some point, studying the quilts becomes viewing the quilts, becomes breezing by the quilts.

Except there seems to be a little knot of people around one. “Wow!” “Look at this!”  “Oh my gosh.”

“Something something something invites deeper viewing.”
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Congratulations!
 
Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate Master Piece Quilts
​

In the last post, we tried to become aware of what our eyes did when they looked at a quilt, and I gave you some questions that related to that task.
 
Here’s the quilt again to refresh your memory.

​And here are my observations about my eye’s journey:

• My eye goes first to the largest horizontal applique block in the middle of the quilt. It goes there because the light background fabric draws my eye, and because it is bigger than the other light blocks, I also think, because the horizontal orientation provides stability of that block in the whole conglomeration of blocks.
• Next, my eye does a quick loop through the quilt, following the other light, narrow applique blocks.  The horizontal and vertical orientations facilitate this; they are almost little arrows.
• After that, my eye goes more slowly through the 3 big, stable, square star blocks and returns to the one with the gold background, probably because it's the lightest and simplest and cleanest of the three. 
• Then I hop around, finding the other blocks with gold elements.
• Finally, I focus on the blocks that have softer, subtler color gradations, ending up at the big snails trail block, probably because it's the biggest. I follow the spiral around for a bit.
• The dark green inner border initially stops the motion of my eye, but the broken corner treatment lets my eye escape and keep moving.
• Feeling? To me, the quilt has a controlled energy.  The overall darker fabrics are lightened up by the gold and the applique backgrounds. The applique motifs add lightness to an otherwise very solid collection of blocks. The borders ground and stabilize the whole thing. Flirty and grounded, all at once. Cool.

Have we used any design terms yet?  No, not really, but we've certainly touched on what could easily be turned into an evaluation of some aspects of the design. Allow me to translate into Judge:

• Careful value placement provides a strong visual path through the quilt.
• Light applique blocks provide unity, while mixed vertical and horizontal orientations of the applique blocks add energy, direction and movement to the composition.
• Placement of subtle, gradated colors in muted blocks throughout the quilt is an effective foil for the high contrast pieced blocks with strong, clean lines.
• Delicate applique motifs provide needed detail and whimsy for this strong composition.
• Borders provide an appropriate frame for the blocks while offset corner treatment maintains airiness and charm.

Any of these could be a decent comment on a judging sheet. And all that from just paying attention to where your eye goes and asking yourself why!

In these comments, I’ve hit on contrast, movement, unity, variation in scale, variety and line. These are certainly not the only design elements and principles at work in this quilt, and they are not the only comments that could be formulated from my observations.

They may not even be the best ones…..maybe you’ll come up with those!

At the bottom of this post I've included three additional quilts, in three different styles.  Try answering the same questions for each quilt. This is a technique that is pretty useful, no matter the style. 
 
Feel free to post your ideas in the comments section of this post. I would love to hear what you have to say. Refer to the numbers under each photo. 
 
Next: What’s Important
​
Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate Masterpiece Quilts

​How do we step up to design and color?

Most quilters want to step up. Many feel insecure about their fabric and color choices. They may stick to patterns because someone else has handled all that design stuff for them.

And judges and candidates? You don’t have a choice, you have to step up. Color and design are among the most difficult areas to gain facility with on the road to being a good certified judge. It needs more from us than determining if all the points in a group of star blocks on the quilt are sharp or cut off.

I have done my share of interest surveys within my guild and for events I have organized and I can tell you that color and design are always near the top of the list of things quilters want to learn more about.

So a class or lecture is scheduled. People attend. The presenter steps up and….. the presenter usually pulls out a color wheel or begins to list the elements of design.

And having been the teacher or lecturer plenty of times, I can tell you that within, at best, 2 minutes, the eyes of maybe 75% of the audience have glazed over and their heart and breathing rates have dropped to something normally seen in a state of semi-consciousness. The remaining 25% will have joined them by the 10 minute mark. It takes a highly motivated student to stick with your standard color and design presentation.

Face it: color and design are intimidating topics to learn and verbalize and more intimidating to manipulate confidently in your quilts.

I don’t think it has to be that way. At some point in art history, commonly agreed upon words evolved that gave people a vocabulary with which to discuss color and design.  It was great to have these words because color and design are, at heart, very abstract things and the words provided a tool for conversation.

Color and design themselves did not come into existence when the words finally showed up. They were already there, visible and observable, with their visual and emotional impact, before anyone ever said 'tertiary color' or 'crystallographic symmetry.'

But the design and color words, what most classes and lectures start with, are not the first step.

First you have to learn to look.

Think of it as learning a language. You come to class.  There is a picture of a lamp. You then see or hear the Russian word for lamp. You connect the Russian word to the visual cue of the lamp and your understanding of what a lamp is, and your Russian vocabulary just increased.

This would not be the case if you did not see the lamp, if instead someone just kept repeating the Russian word at you or showing you a flash card of the word lamp written in the Cyrillic alphabet. You would have nothing to connect to the Russian word. Not only would you not learn anything, you would eventually become irritated and mentally check out.

Et voila! Glazed over and semi-conscious. Another educational triumph.

Before you can learn color and design, you have to see the picture of the lamp, so to speak.  You have to learn to notice design and color before any of the words have meaning for you. And here’s the good news: you probably already do. You just have to be aware of it. (I’m pretty sure that people who manage to get benefit from the study of design and color aren’t some kind of born artists, they just know how to look, which gives them a visual framework to hang the concepts on.  Oh, yeah, and they never really stop studying.)
​
So in the interest of not going glassy-eyed and semi-conscious, we are going to begin to evaluate design and color, without any of the design and color words.

Let’s look at a quilt BUT don’t pay attention to the quilt.  Pay attention to what your eyes do while you look at the quilt. We are going to find the path through the quilt.

Before you look at the quilt below, read these questions and use them to help you pay attention to what your eye does when you finally get to look at the quilt. Do not attempt to decide if it's a good design or not, whether or not the colors work, what could be done better etc. etc.  None of that. No evaluation of the quilt. This is about what your eyes do, given the stimulus of the quilt.
​

• Where do your eyes go first? Why there? Is it something about the color, the image? A level of detail? Sharpness, haziness? What draws the eye?
• What do you look at next? And next? Again, why? Is there a trail through the quilt?
• What stops your eye? Does it stop it for good or does some feature toss your eye back to something you've already viewed? Does it just keep bouncing around?
• What kind of feeling do you get from whatever your eyes are doing?

 
 OK, now you can look at the quilt.

Next week I'm going to tell you what my eye does when I look at this, and why I think it does it.  I'm going to formulate some judge's comments based on my obsrvations, and then, and only then, will I  toss around some color and design words.

Next: Learning to See Design 2

Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate Masterpiece Quilts
​​

​Sorry for the late post.  I just got back from Springfield, Illinois where I was lucky enough to be part of the judging team, along with Scott Murkin and Doris Goins, for the 2017 MQX Quilt Festival Midwest.  

In case you don't know, The MQX shows (www.mqxshow.com) are the work of Janet-Lee Santeusanio and Mary Schilke, both of whom are machine quilters, who had the insight that machine quilters needed an opportunity to exhibit their work, get together, teach, learn and generally whoop it up. Twice a year, these two, along with family and long term staff, load a whole lot of stuff into big vehicles, travel long distances, and set up as professional a show as you would find anywhere, from much larger organizations with way more staff. This show attracts not only frame (longarm) quilters but also domestic machine quilters as well as piecers from all over the country and abroad. Over the years, a wider range of classes have been offered, beyond the initial focus on machine quilting, to include topics such as use of social media in a quilting business and surface design techniques.

Oh, and while they were doing all that, they created their own point system to use for the quilt competition’s judging. Just like that….. well, maybe not just like that. They continually refine the system with input from Scott Murkin, a CJ who has been with the shows for 10 plus years and is the permanent head judge for the MQX shows.

Here’s my quick judging system review: There are basically two systems used in quilt show judging: Elimination and Points. The elimination system is the most common. Quilts are entered into categories. Each quilt in a category is evaluated by the judge(s). The quilts in the category are judged against each other, not against an ideal quilt. (This is another reason why a quilt may do very well in one show and not in another; the quilts it is competing against may be different from show to show, depending on what else was entered in that quilt’s category.) After the quilts have been evaluated, the less competitive quilts are released (eliminated) and the more competitive quilts are held for consideration for ribbons. First, second, third and honorable mention are selected from the held quilts.

In a point system, the judge(s) are working from a pre-determined list of judging areas and a quilt may be assigned a range of points based on how well each area is addressed by the quilt maker. The quilts are not judged against each other, but against the ideal quilt. The quilts may or may not be arranged in categories, but categories or not, the quilts with the most points are the ribbon winners.

Both systems have their strengths, weaknesses and adherents. As a judge, I was trained almost exclusively, and a little self-righteously, in the elimination system. I always had a vague feeling that point systems were set up to make the job of judging easier for the scribes, the judges, or for the general administration of the show. I often wondered if the point system was in the best interest of the entrant. So when I bravely assert that the point system developed by MQX to address the needs of a show dedicated to the art of machine quilting is awesome, it’s really saying something.

MQX has developed a system that does exactly what they need and want it to do, which is focus primarily on the overall workmanship of the quilt, with a slant on the quilting. There are 12 judging areas, with  1/3 of those about the usual judging concerns of design, color, construction, borders, finishing, etc. The rest are all about machine quilting (frame or domestic). Two thirds of the judges’ evaluation is focused on machine quilting. This is far more attention in this area than an entrant might get in other national shows. This means that more of the feedback that goes to the entrants of this specialized show addresses their personal or, in many cases, professional area of interest.

The judging team using this system is made up of three certified judges. Scott is on every team and not only knows the system inside out but has had creative input with regard to descriptions and judging criteria. The second judge is one who has previously worked for, and is experienced in, the MQX system. In general, the third judge is a rookie, who will then enter into the pool of potential second judges for future shows. In a time when the trend in show judging is to move toward smaller teams or solo judging, having three judges with the experience explained above, ensures that the points awarded are the product of combined expertise, built on solid experience.
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I honestly cannot think of a better way to do this. But what I think isn’t all that important, because I’m not tasked with tweaking the wording, addressing new trends, and making sure that the show judging remains relevant to the realities of the machine quilting industry. That’s their job, and they do it really, really well.

​Next: Learning to See...Design
 
Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate Masterpiece Quilts
​

​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
​

 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.
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Next: Can We Look at Quilts Yet?
 
Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate MasterPiece Quilts
​

​ Once in a while, I am pulled aside by a quilter who wants to ask about The Judging Standard for a particular point or skill in quiltmaking. (The question is understandable. Information about judging points is only semi-available: hence this blog!)

When I try to answer their question, there is part of me that is a little uncomfortable. Not because of the question. Not because I don’t want to answer..…I absolutely want to make judging transparent and assist quiltmakers to improve their work. 

What makes me, and possibly only me, uncomfortable is the idea of a capital S Standard in judging. Personally, I approach judging as more of a balancing act of a quilt’s strengths and weaknesses, to come to an equilibrium that represents where that quilt stands in relation to the other quilts being judged on that day, in that show. The cut and dry application of Standards seems to not quite do the job for me.

As much as I’m soft on standards, it would be foolish to act like they don’t exist. They do and they absolutely play a role in quilt judging. Their existence is part of the effort to make certified quilt judging objective and fair, not just the judge’s personal opinion. (And yes, I’ll talk about objectivity in another post.)

So, where do these standards come from? Here, in no particular order, are some influences that I’ve come up with. Let me know if you have additional thoughts.

Things that will extend the longevity of the quilt.
I’ve heard many quilters say they are just making a functional quilt to be used now and have no expectation that it will become an heirloom. To which I would answer: you ultimately don’t know where your quilt is going to end up. Sooner than you think, it will pass out of your sphere of influence. Every old quilt ever purchased in a flea market or garage sale has slipped its leash and escaped its maker. Every one of those 600 red and white quilts that hung in the Infinite Variety show has gone far, far beyond its point of origin.

You don’t know the exact road your quilt will end up on.  Give it a fighting chance to make someone happy a long way from the time and place of its making.

Things that are harder to do and showcase the maker’s skill.
As in any other kind of competition, the more difficult the skill is to master, the greater impact it can have on the ribbon standing of the quilt. 

Consistency
Most quilters can do something correctly one time.  Doing it correctly 300 times across the top of the quilt is much more difficult.

Color and design ascendant
While design and choice of palette have always contributed to the overall impact of a quilt, the awareness and discussion of color and design have increased exponentially with the rise of Art and Modern quilting. Both quiltmakers and judges are now being called upon to recognize and manipulate the mechanics of design and color at a much higher level.
 
Extreme attention to detail
The image of the judge as nitpicker is not a particularly positive one however, every judge is, at some point, called upon to be just that. The job of the judge is to determine the winning quilts in a show.  These decisions are often made between multiple highly competitive quilts.  When only the best quilts are still in the competition, the judge is examining minutiae to find something that will place one quilt ahead of another. Personally, I have twice seen Best of Show determined by what is happening in the binding on one side, of one corner, of a quilt.
 
History
In styles that have a fairly fixed historical or social context (ex: crazy quilts), in some uncommon circumstances, the faithful adherence to the tradition may come into play in judging.

Again, I’d love to hear your ideas.
 
So what next? Having now given some thought to judging preparation and where standards come from, I am going to change the format of the posts.

Mixed in with other judging topics, I am going to start looking at particular judging points/standards, close up, to hopefully make quilting and judging theory make more sense. Before and during the certification process, judges learn a lot of quilt lore, which they draw upon to frame their judging comments/feedback to show entrants. This format, and time frame, only evaluates; it does not teach. Maybe this blog can do a little teaching.
 
Next: The Big Picture
 
Stacy Koehler, Secretary, NACQJ
NQA Certified Judge
Qualified to Evaluate MasterPiece Quilts
​