Quilt Judging and Context of Quilt Trends

the notion of judged and juried quilt shows because it obviously sets up a binary between the judges and the quiltmakers. This binary in turns seems to spawn subsequent binaries around what criteria the quilts are being judged against.

The Yahoo Quilt Guy group has recently discussed the question of judges and judged quilt shows with varying comments from both quiltmakers and judges that are members of the group.

Without trying to summarize the discussion up to this point, here are my added thoughts. The quilt show is by default a venue that exists because of a given set of contextual criteria- location, scope, focus, connection to existing group, etc. This group or venue will by default have a set of norms that will drive the preferred criteria for its quiltmakers. Judges must then appreciate the intricacies of this context when they are judging quilts within the bounds of the particular venue.

That said, the overall preferences of the quilt community for a particular style or technique at a given moment in time certainly drives what the quilt group, venue, show or judge is libel to consider when they look at a selection of quilts. This delineated thread of influence and individual creativity seems to be the ultimate criteria for what would be considered successful within the larger community context and then also to a more specific degree within the local or specific community context.

The hegemony of the structure could be seen to be active in that judges must work with a preconditioned set of criteria that assumes a degree of similarity and difference that would be at least recognizable within the group norms. It is perhaps possible to see this phenomenon at work within the responses to the judged quilt show system that stress individuality of the pieces or their use.

Expanding the criteria to include these elements of the individual is perhaps impossible and unlikely do to the subjective criteria that they invite. It appears that the objectification of the quilt object leads to the necessity for judges to use established quiltmaking criteria as the basis for selecting the best quilts in a show.

Although there are alternative and 'open' venues for quilt display, what are other possibilities?

Central Mass Quilt Guy April Meeting

13 guys showed up to the April meeting - this is the greatest number yet. Many thanks to Holice Turnbow for organizing the group and for the outreach that allows new members to hear about the group and to attend.

Paul Leger, the queen's quilting ambassador from the north (Canada), was the special guest (front row, second from left). Meetings every second Wednesday of the month at the Charlton Sewing Center in Charlton, MA.

These guys make some really amazing quilts!

Lincoln, quilts, the Beatles, and social media

it happened that the last day of the IQSC symposium was also the David Lynch Foundation fundraising concert in NYC. www.dlf.tv

the fact the Paul and Ringo came out in support and played together made it historic one level - let's hope the fundraising and the Change Begins Within effort is just as historic.

I was waiting out my layover at midway in Chicago when the show started- got home to the house after it was all over.

Lincoln and the conference was just great- the new quilt center is beautiful and will make optimal use of the collection - a significant addition to the programs that they offer and an excellent archive for the objects.

The every-two years quilt studies symposium this year featured presentations on 'the global quilt: cultural context.' http://www.quiltstudy.org/education_research/symposium.html

I was honored to be on the slate with a presentation on quilts and social media and particularly the Quilt Guy Group: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/QuiltGuy/

Ron Wilson, quiltmaker from Omaha, and Quilt Guy member (and featured prominently in my presentation) came down to Lincoln on Friday night. Thanks Ron! Always good to meet another guy from the group.

Of course, Judy Bales, www.judybales.com was in the same session presenting on fractals in African American quilts, and this made presenting all the more fun. I will list more event happenings here.

Bibliography for the presentation coming soon.