Australian Modern Quilt Show and more

Hello and good morning to you Smites!

As promised I'm going to have a little chat about some quilts at the Australian Modern Quilt Show, and how you should never ​ever NOT enter your quilt because you feel like it won't win a prize. With the entries for the Sydney Quilt Show opening soon, this is a really important topic and I want you all to listen closely - and then enter your quilts in a show, because it MATTERS!

I saw some amazing and vibrant quilts at the Australian Modern Quilt show a couple of weekends ago. Everything from improv pieced to traditionally pieced, machine quilted to hand quilted, appliquéd and tied and curve pieced. It was a great display and a very enjoyable show.

I judged the Sydney Quilt Show last year, together with Judy Hooworth and Rhonda Pearce, who are both amazing quilters of very different sorts - Judy known for her polished art quilts and Rhonda for her very beautiful traditional ones. We made a great team in my opinion - we agreed on most decisions and were very interested in each other opinions and willing to listen if we did disagree on something. It was a wonderful two days, and it gave me a lot of perspective as I was wandering around looking at the quilts at the AMQS! A lot of the quilts there had hung in the SQS (not all by any means, nut many), and some of the quilts we gave major prizes to in the Modern sections of the show didn't win anything at all at the AMQS, which I found very very interesting.

Obviously a modern quilt show is looking for different things than an in air quotes "traditional" quilt show. At a modern show, equal weight (and sometimes lesser depending on the judges) is placed on design and the overall look of the quilt as to the construction and technique used to make it, meaning that a quilt with less technical elements or expertise can win a prize, where judges at a more traditional show might exclude a quilt from a top prize if, for example, the top is absolutely beautiful but the quilting is not, or everything is beautifully done but the binding is uneven and the corners messy. It doesn't mean that quilt WON'T win a prize, its just taken more into consideration.

That also means that different things are looked at when a quilt is judged at a modern quilt show - wether the judges consider that quilt to have the attributes they want for the category they quilt has been entered into. It also depends very much on what has been entered! Best in Show at AMQS was not entered in SQS, last year so theres no way of knowing how it would have done - however perhaps Pip is thinking about entering it this year, in which case I will be fascinated to see what the SQS judges make of it!

Hot Flush by Pip Porter

The way we judge at SQS is that the categories are all laid out, and we judge that category. Anything that wins a prize for that category is then in the running for special prizes (Best Use of Colour etc), and the first prizes in each category are in the running for Best in Show.

One of my favourite quilts at SQS was The Reef 80's Style, by Ann Richardson. We awarded it First in Modern Improvisational, and First Modern Design Professional. I nearly chose it for my Judge's Choice prize too.

It was very much in my favourites mix as we looked at the Best in Show group at SQS judging, as was Red by Kathleen Troup. Red won First Best Modern Design Amateur, and Second Modern Improvisational.

At the AMQS, Red was awarded Second Improvisational, but The Reef 80's Style missed out all together.

This year for the first time, AMQS awarded a President's Award and a Amateur Encouragement Award, for quilts that weren't given prizes by the judges. And I'm so glad they did, because the Presidents Award winner was one of my favourite quilts in the whole show!! If I were judging, I would have gone in to bat for this one.

Deconstructed Opera House by Susan Sheath

Interesting isn't it!

Now be VERY CLEAR, none of this is a criticism in any way AT ALL. I'm merely trying to illustrate that being juried in to a show (Quiltcon for example!) or winning a prize, is so very very much a matter of who the judges are for that show and for that year, and what the other quilts are for that category in that show. It doesn't mean your quilt won't win something elsewhere, and it doesn't mean your quilts aren't good enough for that show. I never ever beat myself up if I put a quilt in a show and it doesn't win anything, because I loved it enough to enter it and the judges were just looking for something else in that moment.

Then there's the President's Awards, Judges Choice awards and Amateur Encouragement awards. Peeps, they're there for a reason! Not everyone has been quilting for 20 years and is a professional and makes quilts that win all over the place. Some people made a pretty quilt for their mum's 60th, and those are EVERY BIT as beautiful and important as the mega show stopper OMG look at that quilts. Every. Single. Bit.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that don't ever enter your quilting thinking that it will or won't win a prize. Don't make your quilts TO WIN A PRIZE. Make your quilts because you love making them and they give you joy, and you lost yourself in them, or they were for your kids or your sister. Make them because when you finished you were so proud of yourself. And then enter them in a show, because without entries THERE IS NO SHOW AT ALL. No matter what "level" your quiltmaking is, seeing your quilting hanging in the show you enter it in will inspire someone else to hang their quilt next time, and thats about the best prize there is out there.

Here's some other pics of my favourites from the AMQS -

The colour, hand quilting and piecing all gorgeous. No wonder she got Viewers Choice as well as her other prize!

Fragmented by Tamara Stunnell

I mean HELLO I love this happy rainbow protea and I wish I owned it.

Protea 2 by Grace Di Muzio

This is my JAAAMMMM, I love an improv triangle! I teach a really fun improv triangle class that is one of my favourites to teach.

Sawtooth No 3 Betelguese by Simone Symonds

And here's my quilt. It's called Don't Miss Out. You may remember glimpses of me piecing this over the last year or so. I haven't posted it publicly online yet because its a finalist in a couple of other shows (see? Didn't win anything at ASQS but it's gotten into some other things that are a little tricky to be juried into!). This is actually a prime example of quilts that are not about prizes though.

Iconic quilter Freddy Moran was a hugely important person in my quilting career, and I was also lucky to become her friend while teaching at Sisters over the years. I knew that she was very ill, and she I heard she had died I was very sad that I didn't get one last chat at Sisters with her. I went downstairs to my studio, and I took all the red fabrics off my shelf and refolded them all neatly, thinking about Freddy and her quilts and her cheeky personality. (A famous quote of hers is that red is a neutral). After a while I just started sewing, and this is the quilt that resulted. The quote is from Kathryn Hepburn.

It's a little bit me, and a little bit her, and it reminds me of our time together when I look at it. So if it never wins anything, it's a quilt that means an enormous amount to me and no judge can change that, no matter who they are.

So PUT YOUR QUILT IN A SHOW people!! And most especially, put it in the Sydney Quilt Show because we want to break out entry record this year. I'll post again when the entries are open, to remind you.

In the mean time, make a block for the Giucy Giuce challenge at the show this year! Heres all the info, and the link enter. You don't have to be a QuiltNSW member, anyone can make one! And Giucy is going to judge it himself, and award the prize at the show. You can enter from overseas, you just need to email me president@quiltnsw.com because the postage will be a bit more for us to send you the challenge fabric.

QNSW001_GG-Flyer_02.pdf

Download PDF • 2.68MB

That's it peeps! I'd love to know what you think about all that.... quilt show prizes is a can of worms sometimes!

Sarah x​