Judging: Originality vs Perfection

I had my first experience of being a scribe for 2 judges as they determined winners for each category a few days before a large quilt show. Lots of thoughts! I learned a lot watching & listening to the judges scrutinize each beautiful quilt. “The lines on the edge aren’t straight.” What? It looked fantastic to me. I learned new terms like “shadowing” (seeing darker fabric through to the top) and “bite front to back” (hand quilting all the way from the front of the quilt to back layer). In a way it made me want to do better- work with more precision. But on the other hand, the same night I came home and poured over Jude Hill’s Spirit Cloth videos, which I love! She hand sews everything- from piecing to quilting to embroidery. It’s not perfect but I find it amazingly beautiful and unique. Perfect is not necessarily unique. So going forward, I’m going to start celebrating unique and original over perfection. Diversity over sameness. Harmony and uniqueness in variety. And practice, practice, practice… progress will be revealed through the process!

From Spirit Cloth maker Jude Hill at clothwhispering.com