Dallas Quilt Show Re-cap

Okay. Have you ever felt like George Jetson, screaming "Jane! Stop this crazy thing!"? Man, oh, man, do I ever relate. The last 2 weeks have been a blur. But, I'm getting ready for a little bit of R&R. Russ is being sent to Phoenix this weekend by his company to represent them at a gathering of stadium boxholders of the Texas Rangers. (That was kind of a run-on sentence...I hope you got the gist of it!) Anyway, we're going to be wined and dined and taken to a Rangers spring training game on Saturday. It ought to be fun - at least it will be a change of scenery!

Okay, about the quilt show. Here's a picture of our booth.


I know it looks a little crowded, but we wanted to cram it full of a wide selection of kits. I think it was a great plan, and one we'll probably do again next year.

I didn't get a chance to really walk all of the quilts, but here's a couple that I found intriguing.


This quilt was called "Little Cities" and was on the end of the aisle where our booth was. When we set up our booth on Thursday, all the quilts were being judged, so we didn't know who the winners were at that time. But I loved this one at first sight. I have this thing for blocks that look like nested boxes. Plus the color arragement was stunning.


See all those tiny circles and fish? They were satin-stitch appliqued to perfection. And I don't even really care for satin-stitch applique. But this was cool.


I just liked the exquisite applique on this one. It was gorgeous.


Fun, fun, fun. You couldn't help but smile when viewing this quilt.


This is a Karen Stone pattern. It's one of those kind of things where I know I COULD if I chose to, but right now I think I'll just enjoy the work of others.


Another applique quilt - I think there's something like over 1500 circles on this quilt. The quilt I'm currently working on might have 40 berries on a block. I guess I don't have room to complain after seeing this one!


I think there's 14-15 berries per bunch. Oy vey!

Okay. Now for my rant on the insanity of quilt judging. I have a friend who worked as a judges' scribe during the judging. We got to talking about the quilts that won ribbons and those that didn't and why. Take this quilt for example. It got a 2nd place in the Master's pieced category.

Masterful piecing, exquisite quilting. But apparently the judges seriously argued at length about whether is was ribbon-worthy. Why?

Do you see the left-hand vertical seam between the background and the green triangle? It's kind of hard to see in the photo, but there was a little wobble and it wasn't perfectly straight after quilting. Can you say "splitting hairs"?

This was a version of the "Almost Insane" pattern by Liz Lois. Impeccably pieced, tiny blocks. It hung straight and flat and was a vision to behold. But it didn't win a judged ribbon (the ribbon hanging on it was a past show chair's favorite choice). I asked my friend why.

Apparently, out of hundreds of fabrics, there were a couple that weren't "period". And they discounted all other qualities because of that.

This is why I no longer play the judged quilt show game. Your heart and soul's work is under scrutiny by people who have a particular bias on any particular day. It's a constantly moving target. It can make one crazy. Don't get me wrong. If people chose not to display their quilts, there would be no quilt shows. I'm just saying that I once got into that whole "I want to WIN a ribbon" mentality and it made me insane. I'm all for sharing the joy of your work. But I highly recommend that if you aren't a professional, full-time show quilter, get your head in the right place before you enter, so that you are not disappointed. There may be absolutely nothing wrong with your work - you just didn't meet the unknown subjective criteria of the judges on that particular day. Just my humble opinion, of course.

I will now step down from my soap box and fold some laundry in order to pack. Have a great weekend!