Thursday, March 28, 2013

QuiltCon Results

"Reflections in Grey" photo by Stacy Burkhart Photography
taken at my house.  The quilt is hanging sideways here
because it's too long for the space.
I forgot that I'd promised to share the judges' responses from QuiltCon.  I guess it's time to do that.  They weren't so horrible, in fact, I knew some of the issues with the quilt before sending it and didn't really expect it to win any awards.  I wanted it submit it mostly to see whether I could get one into the show.  The nice part was talking to some of the attendees and getting feedback from them. 

So, what did the judges say?  The comments were not so difficult to read:
"Very ambitious quilt but doesn' feel "modern" to us."
"Thread tension across wole quilt is off which is unfortunate."
"The yellows are a nice touch, surprising and vibrant."
 
"Reflections in Grey" hanging (correctly) at QuiltCon.
Areas for Improvement includes checks in these areas.  The first sections are typed on the form, while the quoted phrases are written in.

 
Design
  • Ineffective use of color  "gray-greens esp."
  • Fabric choices detract from the design  "the prints seem unrelated to one another"
Workmanship
  • Piecing is not accurate 

Goodness knows with whom I am talking.  Rich was able
to get one almost-decent photo of me in front of the quilt.
Quilting 
  • Quilting does not complement the piecing
  • Tension problems are evident
  • Stitch length needs to be more consistent
  • Thread choice is distracting "too dark"
There are two checks in Positive Attributes:
  • Quilt is straight and lies flat
  • Binding is well-executed.

So I'll leave it at this and let you mull it over. Respond if you feel that you can add something, positive or negative, it's okay now. 

Really, I've moved on and while I am a little disappointed that there were many, many more areas for improvement than positive attributes, I'll just accept that I'm not ready for serious competition.  I am, however, going to keep doing what I love--quilting for fun, for show, for family, for no reason at all!
Happy Quilting,
Mary

1 comment:

jenclair said...

Whoa! I'm surprised at some of the negative comments. It is a beautiful quilt!