I completed a quilt judging course!

 

NOTE: I also posted a finish this week in another post you’ll find here.

Two weeks ago I attended the two-day Quilt Judge Training School and received my certificate. Yippeee!

I’ve been interested in quilt judging for some time. I have volunteered in the judging room of my guild, the Folsom Quilt and Fiber Guild, on 6 occasions over the years and totally enjoyed the experience. The first time I volunteered, I said that it was like a Master’s degree in quilting in a day! My guild hires 4 excellent judges for our annual show. We have had some well qualified members preside over the judging room and they have created an excellent process. Recently my guild was featured in a program about quilt judging that was sponsored by the Northern California Quilt Council.

About a decade ago there was the West Coast School of Quilt Judging (or some title close to that), but it closed and there was not a replacement until now. The only other quilt judging school I know of is the National Association of Certified Quilt Judges. Its program takes several years; so in the meantime, this is a great option.

Given that background, I was thrilled the the Quilt Judge Training School was offering its first 2-day training seminar. It was offered in Vacaville, CA at the Cloth Carousel, an excellent shop with a wide variety of fabric, notions and tools as well as yarn and knitting/crochet supplies.

These ladies know quilters well and were careful to consider our every need:

The women behind the school are highly respected and experienced judges, well known to the Northern California community and beyond: Julie Curry, Diana Muenzler and Kitty Oliver. They put together an excellent program that involved lots of hands-on work and covered all aspects of quilt judging. They must have brought 100 quilts for us to use in training! It was a very realistic set up to learn in, with lots of real quilts of varying styles and levels of skill.

Our class of 20 was divided into groups of 5 as we worked the various tables – judging, scribing, discussing categories and ribbon placement. Our backgrounds were varied: teachers, those who are already judging, newbies, art quilters, traditional quilters, free motion and long arm quilters; it ran the gamut.

We were given some challenging situations like a piece with very little applique that was put into the applique category. The theoretical guild did not allow the judges to move quilts to different categories. So the quilt had to be judged in applique! This stuff happens; judges need to be prepared to handle these types of issues.

We were taught how to provide concise, encouraging and specific comments that would be easily understood by the maker. The whole point is to encourage by giving kudos for deserving work, but also providing useful comments for improvement. I did not find it hard to not let my own likes get in the way of judging. It did not matter what I thought personally; it was about the skill of the maker.

One take-away for all of us: If you’re going to use a technique, do it well. For instance, machine applied binding. Don’t do (on a judged piece) if you don’t do it well.

My friend Catherine Redford flew in from Chicago to take the course! I did not remember to take a photo, sigh.

Here we all are, with the experienced judges in the front row:

I feel lucky to have been a part of this first class. There are plans for another class, but no specific date at this point. This was an excellent seminar, practical and realistic with hands-on training with lots of quilts. It was stressed over and over that judging should be encouraging and instructional for the quilter. I can’t wait to begin to judge!

I’ll be linking up:
Nina-Marie’s Off the Wall Friday
Finished or Not Friday