What Do Quilt Judges Look For?

I’ve been asked this question often, and recently I’ve been thinking that it might be helpful to share some of my thoughts on this topic. Then I had the wonderful opportunity to judge the Crazy Quilters Show in Mukwonago last week, and it confirmed that this post’s time had come. I really enjoy judging this show each year. The guild members are delightful, and the quilts are always wonderful. But I must admit I think judging is the hardest job I do in the quilt world. It takes discipline to set aside a person’s personal likes and dislikes. I also really want to be an encouragement to everyone because, let’s face it, most of us put our hearts and souls into our quilts because we love to quilt!

I’d also like to preface this topic by encouraging all of you to enter competitions because YOU WANT to make a particular quilt and share it with others. I’ve found the ones I’ve made because I want to win a ribbon usually don’t do as well. That being said… here are some judging thoughts:

Most judges have been part of the quilt world long enough to know what makes a good quilt (and many have been certified to do the job 😊). You probably know many of these things too – the trick is for all of us to make them to the best of our ability, and grow in our skills with each one.

Typically the first thing judges look at is the overall appearance/design. In order to get a feel for the entries in a category we usually begin by having the quilts held up by volunteers to be viewed from a distance. This is easy for small quilts. Bed sized quilts are most often layered on tables, as in a bed turning, and the top half of each is held up, showing half of the quilt, then folded over forward, so the next can be held up. I have judged shows where all of the quilts are hung first and then they are judged hanging. Both ways have their pluses and minuses. In either case, I like to start with this overall viewing because it helps me get a feel for what’s in the category – sort of a preview of the competition. This also allows us to have a distance view for the overall “design” portion of the judging form, as we can see how the color, value and pattern all work together in each quilt. So what are we looking for?

Are the color and value of the fabrics well balanced?

Is there good visual impact? What’s the “wow” factor?

Are the main seam lines straight (at least the ones that are meant to be straight)?

Do all the components work well together?

Is the quilt so busy it’s difficult to see the pattern? or is this the look the maker was going for?

For this question we also need to keep in mind the intended use of the piece. If a wallhanging is very busy with “no place for the eye to rest”, it may get a “needs improvement” comment. But often a busy bed quilt works on the bed, even if it would be quite busy hanging on the wall. The bedskirt, carpet, etc often balance the busyness. This was something I’ve learned over the years (thanks Karen!)

I think you can see from this list that many of the questions are answered before the maker even begins if they are using a kit, or matching the fabrics precisely to the photo from a pattern or book. I find this part especially difficult when judging because I can’t be familiar with every pattern and kit available and, if you think about it, telling a quilter her value choices were great when a kit was used isn’t really a compliment to him/her 😊.

Next we look at the quilt “up close and personal” to assess the workmanship. This is often where we generate the “Needs Improvement” comments. We all strive to do our best and I think most of us, no matter how good we get, still have room for improvement (myself included). The basics come first:

Do seam intersections meet well?

Do pieced triangles have all their points, or were some “blunted” by seams or the binding?

Are appliquéd pieces stitched neatly and securely? Are curves smooth?

Does the quilt lay flat, with no “bubbles” in the middle or “wobbles” along the edge?

Are the corners square?

Are quilting stitches consistent in length (hand or machine)?

Is the tension good when machine quilted?

Please remember too that when there are a lot of quilts in a category, the judge looks even more closely at each of these things.

And then there’s bindings! Years ago it seems I put a “Needs Improvement” comment about the bindings on 75% of the quilts entered, but that has improved greatly over the years. I think many teachers, like myself, have made it a goal to teach good binding technique. But some less than perfect bindings still show up. It seems some quilters get tired of a project by the binding step and just slap something on so they can get on to their new and exciting next project. It really is worth the time to finish the quilt well!

I’ve found many of the judges comments I’ve received on my quilts to be helpful, but most of the time I already know what they’re going to say. We typically are aware of our own shortcomings 😁.

I’ve also found it a bit more difficult to judge in recent years because so many quilts are entered by the maker of the top, but quilted by someone else. So the question is – should the comments be more about the work the maker did in the design, piecing and appliqué, or should it be about the quilting if not done by the original maker? Ugh. Did I mention judging is not easy???

Lastly, I have been asked to judge challenges and contests too. These are not quilt shows and by nature are judged a bit differently. Typically these have a theme, and successfully accomplishing the theme should carry a great deal of weight compared to the other judging aspects. In most of these cases I’ve been asked to give the most weight to how well the theme and rules were carried out. Next, or equal to it, comes workmanship. The show committee gets to decide which aspects are the most important.

Since this post didn’t have many photos, I decided to have fun with this aspect of judging and share some very old challenge quilts from my past. This one is from 1992. It was a challenge at the Sun Prairie Quilt Show in which we were supposed to use the flag fabric (in the top banner and bottom ships) in a quilt that paid tribute to the 500th anniversary of Christopher Columbus’ discovery of America. I decided to make a Miniature Patriotic Sampler, and was awarded a second place ribbon.

A few years later that same show’s challenge was to use a fabric printed with sewing machines in a small wall quilt. I came up with a quilter’s town I called “Pieceful”. The printed machines are used to make the buildings on main street, and also in the border corners. I really had fun with this one: the border is made up of “bolts” of fabric with sewing motifs, the telephone poles along the road are needles with metallic thread running between them, and the grass was inspired by Olfa cutting mats. I don’t remember it winning anything ~ but I had great fun making it.

In the late 90’s my quilt guild challenged us to make a quilt based on a nursery rhyme. I had saved some of the cute pockets from my daughter’s jeans. Perhaps I could fill them with posies (and other things) as in Ring Around the Rosie.

I’ve always loved challenges.

So now – to get back to the topic at hand – what’s the takeaway? A very wise quilt judge once told me it doesn’t depend as much on the degree of difficulty of a pattern or a technique – what matters is how well the maker accomplished what they set out to do. If a quilt is simple, but done to perfection, and another is very complex, but with points that don’t match, or quilting with bad tension, the one that did the different parts well may be deserving of the ribbon. But, when a person takes on a difficult pattern and nails it – that’s a ribbon winner!

At this point I’ve run out of room to share some specific thoughts and photos about the Crazy Quilters Show. Please stay tuned for next week’s post!