Since I’ve taken myself out of any potential prizes for the Project QUILTING Challenge I figure it’s okay to share my critiques with you before the VOTING ends (tonight at 7 – vote to your left if you haven’t already).  I am going to FULLY disclose what the judges had to say about my piece as their opinions are something I plan to listen to and use to help me in further entries and in my quilting projects in general.  I may have to justify a few things to you as we go through too.  It’s hard for a piece to be judged just by a picture and a story so I have to give props to these judges for taking on the challenge.

Also, per the request of many of last season’s participants the judges are being more critical than ever before.  This is to help us all and not offend or hurt anyone.  One thing about the quilting world is that it is VERY supportive – which is awesome but not always helpful.  Sometimes honesty can feel a bit harsh, but in the long run will help us all to be better quilters.  With that said – here’s what the judges had to say about my piece – the Bookshelf Quilt. 

My Critique: 

Judge 1: At first glance and run through of all the quilts, this piece was so above the rest of the pieces for the originality concept. I just kept going back to it and thinking how do people think of these ideas. AND THEN, I REALIZED IT WAS YOURS!

I questioned whether you used your whole piece of your three original squares and then I see the piece is larger than I expected and you made your three primary books each 3” X 6”. Great trick of the use of the fabric.

Your different backgrounds are also wonderful. They helped define that this was a row of books. I knew that before I read the story.

I can’t think of a single thing to improve this piece. It is great! The only reason I didn’t score this piece the highest was the level of difficulty. There were a couple of other outstanding pieces with a higher difficulty level.

Judge 2: I like your concept, and how you tried out a new technique. It looks especially great on the wall in the last flickr photo. Using different browns for the background definitely added to the overall appeal as well.

Judge 3: Very effective simple design. The multiple browns do add texture. Really nice to add the picture with it hanging in the perfect place. Picture on the table makes it look like there’s a bump in the near end. (Now I’m nitpicking, It’s my job.) Well done.

Judge 4: I love the bookshelf idea. It was a smart choice to use the text fabric for a couple books to convey the concept, but also smart to not overdo it. The different fabrics for the books imply different topics. The vertical quilting is sensible. An idea: more dense quilting in the background would give nice dimension to the books.

***note from me.  I thought about more dense free-motion quilting but my tensions been a bit weird with that foot lately.  Since I had limited time, I decided to play it safe. – Great observation!***