My friend Charlotte wrote “Judges and juries can be pretty different in their ideas too. Juries are often more concerned with what will make a good show and fitting quilts in and then judges get to choose from what the jury has given them.”
Charlotte’s comment made me feel a little better about my Fabric of the Year quilts not getting into QuiltCon. I knew the function of juries, but their job wasn’t on my radar and I was just thinking about *my* quilts not getting in. I wasn’t thinking about the overall look of the show. Thinking about the overall look of the show, I think that the jury did their job. She show was well coordinated and had good visual impact.
The question is: do I make a quilt I think will get into the show or do I continue doing what I am doing? The latter of course. I don’t want to make quilts I don’t like or quilts that use colors and fabrics that don’t appeal to me. That is a recipe for instant UFOs.
I think one idea of a show is to make a quiltmaker think. I am definitely thinking about what I saw. I have definitely been influenced by attending the show. I don’t know if what I saw will show up in some way in my work, but I think influences will.
One thing that won’t probably change is my love of complicated quilts. I have never been moved by minimalist art and translating that movement into quilts has not changed that. I don’t hate that style and will look at those pieces in a museum. I will always look at complexity and visual interest for longer.
Check out some of the QuiltCon 2016 rejects:
Thanks for sharing the the #quiltconreject quilts, it was interesting to see what didn’t make it. I bought Kaufman fabric for one of their challenges and realized I can’t quilt like that. I have so many ideas that I want to explore, I don’t want to be limited by others guidelines or work trying to fit a “mold”. I may possibly enter a quilt for display someday.
What Jackie said, I totally agree with. My quilt guild set out their fabric for this year’s challenge and set out some very specific rules regarding the maximum size of finished product plus required elements. Sigh. I hate my creativity to be restrained like that. I can put my quilts in for the guild’s show, they are always desperate for display quilts but this competition thing is not my cuppa.
I thought a lot about guidelines and parameters as I walked around the QuiltCon show. Initially I thought about how to get in and what I could make to GET IN THE SHOW. Then I realized that I want to make what I like to make. If it wasn’t show “worthy”, then I would still have a quilt that I liked. I do think that my eyes were opened to some intriguing design possibilities. We will see what develops. Thanks for reading and for writing.