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By Mary Schilke, Catamount Quilt Studio Isn’t it great to enter a quilt show? It isn’t a small accomplishment to meet a deadline, create a work of beauty and then to throw oneself open to the criticism of judges and fellow quilters. Of course a ribbon is never guaranteed and you may already feel like you have won by having entered; right? Let me tell you my story..... I recently entered a large regional show in New England. I was feeling pretty full of myself thinking, “Of course I’ll win a ribbon.” The judging at this particular show uses a point system meaning that there may be multiple first, second and third ribbons. There were three judges and I just knew that they would look at my quilt and a ribbon would be mine. Boy was I wrong! I was stunned. I had worked hard on this quilt, thought about the colors, made sure every point met and chose the quilting designs with care making sure everything was perfect. One of the judges had scored my quilt very low in one area where the other two judges had not. Sadly, this meant that my quilt missed winning a ribbon by three points. OUCH! One of the joys of entering a quilt show is to lurk nearby and listen to people admire it. I was privy to several lively conversations and close examination of my quilt. These compliments stroked my ego a bit and helped to soften the blow of not winning a ribbon. I spent time looking at all the quilts nearby and compared them to mine. I listened to my dear friend beam over her ribbon (yeah, you know who you are) while I quietly sulked. Fast forward to two weeks later; keep reading -- it gets better. After returning from a week’s vacation in Maine, I was making a feeble attempt to clean up my desk by sorting through the mail. I had created throw away and keeper piles as I waded through a ton of junk mail. There were endless quilt magazine subscription ads, post cards, show announcements, quilt mailings and guild letters which were carelessly going straight into the circular file. As I passed by the junk mail, an envelope from a well known quilt magazine caught my eye. I tore it open and what’s this?? They saw MY quilt in the show! They liked my quilt? Would I mail it to them to photograph? Would I permit them to publish it in their magazine? Yes, yes, yes! Of course and by the way, who cares about the ribbon? I’ve got glossy magazine stock in a popular national quilt magazine! Someone else really liked my quilt! The moral to the story: while we may not always be acknowledged with a ribbon or a glossy page in a magazine, we are all winners when we share our talent and love for quilts by displaying them for all to see and enjoy. Take a chance. # # # # Mary Schilke has been a professional machine quilter for over nine years. She has won many awards and is well known for her art quilts and free form quilting designs. Mary and business partner Janet-Lee Santeusanio are the founders of Machine Quilters Exposition. Mary and her husband Bill reside in Wells River, VT, with their three dogs. They have two grown sons and a grandson. |
