Judging

Trained by the Northern California Quilt Council and the Association of Pacific Northwest Quilters

The point of having your work judged in a Quilt Show is to give you the opportunity to improve by allowing a qualified professional to compare the level of your technical and design skills with those of others in your field. This only works when you feel that the judge evaluating your work understands what you have made. Too often, in my own experience as an art quilter, untrained judges use standards more appropriate for traditional quilting on art quilts, seeming to miss the entire point of a piece of work. With the influx of commercial longarm stitching in quilt shows, it becomes more difficult to award merit to those amateur quilters who may deserve encouragement when their work is competing with that of a professional quilter.

Due to my unique background, both as an instructor at a collegiate level fashion design and sewing program, and as a professional longarm quilter, I can offer invaluable opinions, based on experience, as to the difficulty level of the stitching or techniques being evaluated, for either quilts or wearable art. Because I make both traditional and art quilts, I can provide valuable and encouraging comments for all types of quilts being evaluated. I believe in the transformative power of stretching yourself to meet your personal goals of excellence. In a perfect quilting world, entering shows helps us all become better quilters.

Comments on judging the “Land, Sea, and Sky Quilt Show”, from the Victoria Quilters Guild newsletter, May 2004:

“I was very impressed with the care and attention the judges, Sonja Janzen from Kelowna and Rose Momsen from Point Roberts, gave to each and every quilt. From the very first one to the last one, those of you who submitted your quilts can be assured that kind and patient consideration was given to each. It was a fascinating experience.” Sherry Armstrong, Judging Aide, Victoria, BC, Canada