Here's some NEW hoops for you to jump through

(Or do we need yet MORE exclusionary rules?)

A couple of weeks back, my friend Maddie Kertay of The Bad-Ass Quilters Society posted a snippet from a quilt show's new criteria for entries - one of requiring that for a quilt to be eligible for an award, the quilt had to be quilted by the submitting artist - a solo tour de force.

Me with a ribbon I won for this quilt *

For readers outside of the quiltisphere, let me do a quick breakdown of who might be the players in the making of a quilt for a competition:

• The Maker/Artist/Sewist: this is the person that comes up with the idea to be executed, and makes the quilt top or flimsy (it’s not a quilt until it’s been quilted)

• The Quilter: this may be the Maker above, or this may be someone hired to quilt, or engaged to collaborate on the piece via the quilting design - and they are named as such.

• GROUP quilts: the current consensus is that these are quilt tops made by two or more people beyond a single Maker and single Quilter.

In the last couple of decades, with the rise of long-arm quilting machines being sold outside of commercial enterprises, and an equally dramatic rise in the skills of long-arm artists for hire, this acknowledgement of the quilting as a separate entity has become a necessity. I agree with it and see it as keeping up with the times.

Currently, most quilt shows allow for a second person (usually a Quilter) in a single entry, but should the quilt win a prize, the accolades (ribbon, prize money) go to the primary Maker. While the Quilter (if different) is acknowledged, there is no separate accolade for them (a point of growing friction - more on that below).

The show that prompted Maddie’s post is that of The Pacific Northwest Quilt & Fiber Arts Museum (PNQFAM), upcoming in October 2024. Their Call for Entries includes this statement, a different twist on prize eligibility:

NOTICE: The quilting component is a core element of the artist’s design and skill.

In order to be eligible for an award (excluding Peoples Choice), quilt category entries must be quilted (hand or machine) by the artist or, if a group entry, by at least one of the artists.

Beginning in 2024, entries that the artist has paid to have professionally quilted may still go through the judging process to receive feedback, but are not eligible to receive awards.

So what they're saying is that unless the quilt was designed, sewn, and quilted by ONE person it won't be eligible for competitive category prizes.

Let me call forth a little history for you.

In 1989, when I was a newbie quilter, Caryl Bryer Fallert (now Fallert-Gentry) won the top prize at the American Quilter's Society show with Corona #2: Solar Eclipse, the first machine-quilted quilt to win at that level. I found it progressive and inspiring, but there was an eruption in the quiltisphere, with many people stating that it wasn't a real quilt because it had not been hand-quilted (just like their grandmother would have done¹).

Many pearls were clutched at the effrontery of it all, and many people advocated for a clawing back of rules to the barely-electric dark ages of our grandmothers. But progress persisted, the competitive quilting categories split into hand-quilted and machine-quilted to accommodate said progress, and here we are, 30-odd years later, in full acceptance of machine quilting not only as an art form, but the technique in the majority.

Some shows even split machine quilting further into that done with a domestic machine (hand-guided), and that done with a long-arm machine (can be hand-guided or programmed).

I see the PNQFAM entry constraints as more pushing the art form backwards.

Maddie's post contained some great discussion points:

• This rule excludes and penalizes people who cannot physically wrangle the quilting in any version. OOF. We really don't need any further roadblocks to greater diversity and inclusion in quilting.

• One could go even further with a "solo" rule, demanding that the quilt’s cloth was also harvested, spun, woven, and dyed by the maker -  making the point that there is no end to how far you *could* push something like this, well past reason and into ridiculous.

• Much work in the fine art world is made by unacknowledged studio assistants. So much to unpack here around if quilts are art or craft and therefore which rules apply. I'll tackle this further in another missive, but for now, I'll say my position is that, in quilting, we have always acknowledged ALL the contributors and I think we should continue to do so.

• The design of the top ranks higher than the quilting. I strongly disagree. Quilting at competition level is an integral part of the overall design, consciously done for a greater artistic vision than either just the top or the quilting alone could accomplish.

• From a commenter, who was part of the PNQFAM committee that designed the new rules: this was created as a pathway to acknowledge a work that was entirely made by one person. I like the idea of that, but not that it comes at the expense of a collaborative work.

So rather than narrow the competitive categories, could we not INCLUDE more people and honor more work if we EXPAND them?

• Let's have an additional category for work solely by one maker.

• Let's have additional prizes that acknowledge the quilting on a quilt as a completely separate, competition-worthy category - and let's do it for hand quilting AND domestic machine quilting, AND long-arm machine quilting.

• Let’s better define the roles of people involved: Some advocate that anything with 2 or more people involved is a group quilt. However I prefer the distinction of a quilt that was made by 2 people (a Maker and a Quilter) as a separate thing from a group quilt (made by several Makers and a Quilter) because group quilts have such a different intent and character to them.

• Let’s honor ALL the people: I think that the prizes bestowed on any quilts belong to all that made them, so let's have separate ribbons and $$² for each person involved. Increasing transparency about who contributed gives us the chance to better acknowledge and reward the people beyond the primary Maker.

No, I'm not advocating for a participation trophy for all, but for a way to inclusively encompass the wide-ranging, diverse, and magnificent artistry of today's competitive quilting.

What say you? I’d love your thoughts.

*This quilt was designed by me, quilted by my friend Nancy Stovall to my specifications (a compensated agreement, not a collaborative one), further hand-embroidered and finished by me. It was accepted as a non-group quilt, with Nancy acknowledged, into a hand-work category at QuiltCon 2019, and honored with one ribbon and one check, to me.

1. My grandmother would have been off and running on an electric machine given half the chance! And to all who want the contemporary progress of the craft worlds to go backwards… does that mean you want to give up your cell phone and the keys to your hybrid too?

2. There is some discussion as to the difference between hiring a Quilter to do your bidding, and collaborating with them - and to where compensation lays in such an arrangement, both when the quilting is done, and if it wins a prize. I think those parameters should be negotiated between the Maker and Quilter - but I still think the Quilter should get a ribbon.