Evergreen Quilt Show

This past week I had the great privilege of judging a quilt show in Green Bay, WI. These ladies put on a wonderful show, with some extra touches I hope you’ll find fun and interesting. Like the “quilter” who stands at the entrance to the show (a great reminder that quilt shows should be positive, encouraging and fun!)

My partner in the judging was Alison Rainboth. Alison is a certified judge and appraiser ~ and a delight to work with.

We arrived at the venue at 10:30 Thursday morning, and the quilts were already hung. This is a different way to judge compared to most of the shows I’ve worked on. It’s a great way to really see each quilt. Everything was well organized and our scribes were very helpful. One of the special things this group does is to hold a “Judges Tour” before the show opens the next morning. Everyone who enters a quilt is invited to come in before the crowds, and Allison and I have the wonderful opportunity to walk through the show with everyone and share our thoughts about the quilts.

The quilt behind me in the photo was the Best of Show winner. Every aspect of Lorraine’s quilt was done well and she was one of my scribes. She didn’t let on that this was her quilt while it was being judged – amazing. Congrats Lorraine!

All of the organizers of the show were wonderful. Lindi Kuritz is the talented quilter who has invited me to judge this show this year, as well as many times in the past. It’s always wonderful to spend time with her, and I was happy to see that one of her quilts won a ribbon in a category I judged. “In My Mind” is a lovely rendering of a fantasy destination of hers. I’m glad I got a photo, but sad I missed having her in it.

I hadn’t previously met the quilter who was the show chairperson, and I’m so happy to now call Birgit my friend. Two of my favorite quilts in the show were made by her and hanging near each other.

The following piece by Birgit is definitely not one of your grandmother’s quilts. She challenged herself to do a small piece of stitching each day for a year. She arranged her strips of beautiful needlework by month, and each area was more interesting than the last. I had to pull myself away from gawking at the details, or I wouldn’t have finished the judging of the show on time ~ LOL! It was an easy pick for the show’s Creativity ribbon (she confided in me that a group of hand stitchers in the guild made the ribbons, and this was one she made 😁).

The next piece is entitled “You’ve Got a Friend”. This is a whole cloth piece Birgit sketched and stitched of her sister Margit as a child. She is now with her Lord. Birgit’s talent for evoking emotions through her work is outstanding.

I was pleased to get to know a number of the members who entered quilts in the show, and discovered that the quilter who won my Judge’s Choice ribbon is someone I’d met before. I’ll be teaching a brand new class in Paducah this week entitled Silhouettes and Shadows, so when I saw Joan Pierner’s quilt: “Bird Watching” I knew I’d found my ribbon winner. What a delight to be able to talk with her about it, and to have her remind me that she knows my cousin Cindy. It’s a small world.

Then a “white glove lady” said hi and began to tell me about one of her quilts. She said she doesn’t usually enter because she knows the problem areas in her quilts (don’t we all?), but this year she decided to just do it ~ and Joann’s sampler quilt was so deserving of a ribbon.

The variety of the quilts in the show was fascinating. Here’s just a little whirlwind tour of a few of my favorites (as usual, I loved them all – but there’s only so much space on this page). And I need to start with an apology to some of the makers. Usually I’m able to take photos in which I can read the name of the quilt and maker on the sign. For some reason I couldn’t do that on a number of the following quilts. I still wanted to share them with you, and I hope quilters reading this who know the maker and/or quilt name will share it in a comment to this post. Thanks in advance for your help with the missing information 😔.

There were 2 modern Christmas quilts that caught my eye ~ this one entitled Ho Ho Ho Ho by Kathi Jensen, in which the “O”s were quilted in:

And Starry Night. What an interesting version of a nativity quilt!

Then there was “Tea Cups”, the winner of the Best Hand Quilting ribbon (so sweet, don’t miss the “saucers” quilted in the border)!

This “Twinkly Star” runner by Wanda Bauer was made from leftover blocks. I love the assymetry!

The award for best custom longarm quilting went to Ombré Flower Garden. The use of ombré fabrics always catches my eye.

There was only one entry in the Clothing category, but “Half Squares Gone Mad” was made from a vintage quilt, and so deserving of the blue ribbon!

There were two quilts entered in the show that had a similar style, but a unique difference. This beautiful quilt has an appliqué center with pieced blocks surrounding it.

This equally lovely piece looks like the same general layout of appliqué surrounded by piecing, but upon closer examination the center is not appliquéd, but rather it’s a printed panel!

There are so many clever ways to do things in the quilt world today.

And the last of the contest quilts I want to share was from the guild’s 2024 challenge. The theme was the board game Clue. Each participant drew a room, a suspect, and a weapon, and had to make a quilt in which the viewer got to guess “who dun it”. The Fiberistas did a similar challenge a few years ago and it was great fun (click here to read about it). Oh how I wish you could see them all! I can show you the blue ribbon winner here (perhaps I can talk the guild into allowing me to post them all in a future post 😊):

Besides the competition quilts, the Evergreen show had a number of special exhibits and my favorite was a challenge by Women Who Run With Scissors (don’t you just love that name?) entitled “Curves and Grids”.

Down by the Shore was also lovely, but I’ve forgotten the name of the group responsible for this challenge (sorry – someone please add it in the comments if you know it).

In the entrance there were quilts for sale along with a silent auction:

A huge rummage area with great bargains:

And as you entered the show there was a charming exhibit of quilts made by the guild’s featured quilter this year, Nancy Wakefield. What a nice idea to honor a member each year.

It was a wonderful show and I was so happy to be a part of it!