Judging And Being Judged

Have you ever gone to a quilt show and wondered why some quilts get a ribbon and others, that look so much better, get none? Well now I know. We had an NQA Judge as our guest speaker at our guild tonight. What an eye-opening experience. I always assumed that judges like certain colors or patterns. That couldn't be further from the truth. To drive the point home, the speaker gave us a score sheet and proceeded to show us two quilts. The first quilt was a very small wall hanging. It had 9 appliqued hearts separated by lattice and cornerstones. It had 5 colors in it. The second wall hanging was much bigger. It was a wholecloth piece with a ton of threadwork in beautiful designs. Supposedly these were being judged in the same catagory. Then the judge hands us the score sheet. She proceeds to tell us that we must follow the rules on the score sheet. The first catagory on the score sheet is design. It gives 15 pts for interplay of color. The first quilt has 5 colors, the second quilt 1 color (you do the math). Next it allows 5 pts for borders. There were only borders in the first piece, the second piece was a wholecloth. Then it moves to the workmanship catagory. Fifteen points are possible if the piecing is precise. Again, quilt #2 has no piecing. The last catagory is finishing. It asks if borders are straight, no ripples. Number 2 has no borders. It also lists binding and I think you know where this is going. Wall hanging #2 looked so good, and yet it bombed on 2/3 of the rules. And yes, there were other catagories where it did score some points, but not nearly enough to make a comeback. I guess the point I am trying to make is that I had no trouble judging the Judge, but she was totally working within the rules. Wall hanging #1 was the winner. She did make the correct decision, even though wall hanging #2 was much grander. She told us that not all quilt shows use the same score sheet and that she is bound by whatever rules the sponsor wants. That doesn't mean that they get to pick the winning quilts, that just means that she has to stay within the guidelines that they set forth. Interesting huh?